Ellora Israni
Software Engineer at Facebook NYC, Founder of she++
Ellora Israni is a software engineer at Facebook NYC. She has spent time at Facebook London, Palantir Technologies, and Stanford University, where she earned a B.S. in Computer Science.
Ellora is also a co-founder at she++, a social enterprise empowering women to make their mark on the technology industry. She built she++ from Stanford’s 1st conference on women in technology to an international movement including a high school fellowship, an annual Bay Area summit, and an award-winning documentary. She also serves on the Board of the Anita Borg Institute. Ellora has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, and WIRED Magazine, among others, for her work.
Originally from the Bay Area, Ellora has lived in NYC, London, Berlin, and India. She will always be a fan of good coffee (she was once a barista at Philz Coffee) and the San Francisco 49ers.
What got you into Computer Science?
People generally find this difficult to believe, but despite the fact that I grew up in the Bay Area with a dad who was a software engineer, I never considered studying Computer Science. I just didn’t see anyone who looked like me doing it, so the thought never crossed my mind. In fact, I showed up at Stanford a Psychology major. I only took a CS class to fulfill the engineering general education requirement, but I ended up loving it enough to switch majors at the beginning of my sophomore year.
Someone once told me that whatever I wanted to do—business, fashion, tech—I was going to be better at it if I approached it with the analytical mindset that CS teaches you.
I think the ‘aha’ moment for me was the realization that CS is as much about computers as chemistry is about beakers: they’re just a tool.
Computer Science is really about taking the problems you are passionate about solving—whether they are in engineering or education or healthcare or whatever else—and solving them using computers.
Describe a time you’ve felt sexism or discrimination in the workplace or classroom. How did you handle it?
The worst experience comes from working at a small tech startup, where one of the engineers on my team flat-out refused to talk to women. So if I ever needed anything from him—which I did, regularly, as we were a small team—I’d have to ask the guy right next to him who would ask him directly and then the intermediary guy would relay the answer back to me. If I ever addressed him directly, he’d just ignore me.
It sounds like some sort of joke from a sitcom, but it’s true. And everyone, up to the CEO, tolerated it because they felt his technical contributions entitled him to behave in whatever way he chose.
Obviously this is an extreme example, but I’ve also seen the day-to-day slights that make life more difficult, a thousand tiny paper cuts.
I’ve walked into office hours and been asked if I was in the wrong building. I’ve had my ideas ignored in meetings until a male colleague reiterated them. It seems harmless, but when you’re already suffering from imposter syndrome and stereotype threat and a hundred other things, it takes a toll on your confidence.
This puts women in a position of constantly having to advocate for themselves, to police others’ behavior, and to fight to be treated with the same baseline respect that the men give each other by default. They say that female engineers have two full time jobs: being an engineer and being a woman, and we only get paid for about 77% of the former.
Even a year ago I used to laugh this stuff off, because I believed the prevalent rhetoric about tech being a meritocracy, so I didn’t want to seem like I was whining about things that didn’t matter. It wasn’t until I gained confidence in my technical abilities that I also felt confident enough to be vocal about these issues, and that’s when I learned I wasn’t alone.
What makes being a woman in tech worth it?
I have some very ambitious, maybe even naive, ideas about how I want to impact the world, and I think of CS as a tool that’s helping me achieve that.
Yes, Computer Science involves programming languages and jargon, but that’s only a small part of the battle. I think what you really gain is (a) technical literacy, which is more and more important in our digital world and (b) a unique mindset about how to break down problems and solve them. As I’ve learned all this I’ve felt more equipped to do whatever it is I choose in the long run.
As for being a woman specifically, I think we’re going to look back at this time and see it as a turning point. Three years ago when I started she++, no one was talking about the challenges facing women in tech; now, if you’re not talking about it, you’re behind. I can’t pretend things are perfect today, but I think the simple fact that we’re talking about it means we’re headed in the right direction.
What advice do you have for any girls pursuing a future in tech?
- Ask questions. When I started studying CS, I felt like the only person in the room who hadn’t been programming since I was a kid. People would use technical jargon in conversation, and I’d be sitting there wondering, “What on earth is an API?” but I wouldn’t ask because I thought everyone else knew.
It wasn’t until I started TAing and everyone—including those who presented as supremely confident in class—asked the same questions privately in office hours, that I realized I wasn’t alone. You’re not behind to begin with, but don’t fall behind for real because of fear.
2. Seek community. I guarantee there are others who, like you, don’t conform to the stereotypes in technology. Some of those are women, but others are just individuals with different backgrounds and interests.
Getting to know these people will do more for your confidence than you can imagine, because you’ll know you’re not alone. Those who are a few years ahead of you will give you paths to aspire to, and those at your stage will be the friends you lean on as you face similar challenges and decisions.
3. Embrace your individuality. I really don’t like the term “gender-blind” because it implies ignoring the uniqueness that each of us brings to the table. There’s a lot of research showing that diverse teams build better products.
I’m not a good engineer in spite of being a woman; I’m a great engineer because as a woman.
I have a diversity of perspective and experience that allows me to view problems and solutions in a unique light.
