WP1: As a Woman in Tech
I have a lot of hobbies. I love to go wardrobe shopping (much to the dismay of my bank account). I enjoy getting my nails done, singing my lungs out to old Taylor Swift lyrics, baking chocolate muffins to satisfy my sweet tooth, and collecting free perfume samples from boutique stores.
I also enjoy coding and building things using software.
I should be able to mention this passion in the first paragraph with the rest of my hobbies, but somehow I can’t do that. It feels like I have compartmentalized two different sides of my personality- everything traditionally feminine about me, and then my chosen career path as a future software engineer. Women are highly underrepresented in technology, accounting for a dismal 16% of all tech employees (Figuière). The patriarchal structure of the tech space leads to a core identity issue for women in tech: many women in the field feel a need to code-switch and project a less feminine version of themselves to fit into a toxic masculine tech culture. In an effort to gain respect from our peers and optimize our chances for success, we often are forced to place valuable aspects of our identity as a woman on the back burner.
The toxic, male-centered culture found in many companies and educational settings is a direct cause of why women feel the need to selectively present their identity. This culture revolves around stereotypical male interests and toxic masculinity while actively excluding others, misogynistic mindsets being one major tool of this exclusion. One S[HR]M article articulates this as a “masculinity contest culture.” The article explains “Men react defensively when they even just receive feedback suggesting they have a “feminine” personality… the need to repeatedly prove manhood can lead men to behave aggressively, take unwarranted risks, work extreme hours, engage in cut-throat competition and sexually harass women (or other men), especially when they feel a masculinity threat.” (Berdahl, Glick, and Cooper 2018). The combination of Machiavellianist attitudes coupled with rampant sexual harassment and aggressive workplace behavior can quickly make a tech workplace entirely unappealing to individuals who do not present in such a stereotypically toxic masculine way.
Although I have been lucky enough not to experience outright harassment in work or educational settings, I have definitely seen examples of the cutthroat, aggressive, and misogynistic behavior that defines toxic masculinity in the tech space. I’ve heard numerous comments about “coding like a girl” or on the contrary, “to man up.” I’ve experienced multiple instances of the quintessential woman-in-tech experience: trying to engage in professional discussions with male peers, only to be talked over or completely ignored. I’ve had the male coding club advisor in high school turn his back entirely to my female friends and I when teaching concepts, not even making an effort to hide his obvious favoritism for the male students of the class.
The problem of women needing to codeswitch to fit into tech culture is often attributed to the sheer lack of women in the tech space. We’ve come a long way in building equity and inclusion in our workplaces- but I still cannot help but feel that technology is a field lagging behind in this aspect. This is an observation I’ve made since I was a kid visiting my dad’s tech office, and even back then it was apparent how there were entire floors without a single female insight. As a kid who was always interested in tinkering around with computers and code, I became acutely aware of how this did not seem like an inclusive space for me. I remember once even thinking, as a 6-year-old, that CS was an exclusive “dad-job,” due to only seeing male representation everywhere.
Many see the issue of underrepresentation as one with a simple solution- creating outreach initiatives to hire women in technology. We hear token phrases about “adding diversity” or “incorporating unique perspectives.” Companies around the country are building affirmative action into their hiring process, or actively seeking female candidates by establishing an on-campus recruiting presence within organizations like the Society of Women Engineers. While I do see how these are immediate approaches to increasing the proportion of women in the workplace and understand the value present in this, I am not keen on retaining these as the only long-term solutions. They fail to address a large problem: the problem of how women still feel pressured to show an incomplete, or inaccurate version of themselves to fit in with the toxic, masculine workplace culture.
As a girl pursuing a career in this field, I can attest that the solution isn’t as simple as just recruiting more women in tech to clubs, classes, or events. Such an approach feels like an incomplete effort at best, and a disingenuous coverup at worst. Behind the diversity hiring curtains, there exists a deeper issue with how women in these spaces are treated. They often need to change part of their identities to fit in with this male-dominated space of technology, which therefore goes against the entire theory behind diversity hiring. To me, it seems that such initiatives, mostly unknowingly, actively outreach to and select diverse individuals only to facilitate their toxic workplaces pressuring them to become clones of everyone else.
My personal experience with toxic male tech culture has pressured me to change my personality, and has taught me that I am most likely to succeed if I am less feminine and conforming to the patriarchal standards present. This often comes down to choices such as ditching a dress for a pantsuit, adopting a more stereotypical male vernacular when speaking and expressing interest in the mainstream hobbies/interests found in male tech culture (especially gaming). By extension, I have found myself in situations where I have actively abandoned or hid aspects of my identity which are more feminine and as such, deemed incompatible with this tech culture. This effort included avoiding conversation about my hobbies such as fashion, or pretending that I listen to male-approved music genres like rap or EDM (when in reality I love mainstream pop music targeted toward women). I have noticed subtle behavioral changes I feel compelled to make to fit in: speaking louder and more assertively, or changing my email style to sound more dominant.
Experiences changing oneself in order to feel accepted in a toxic masculine tech workplace are common to women across this field: in Behrdal, Glick, and Cooper’s analysis into masculinity in the workplace, they note that “women must try to play the game to survive, and the few who succeed may do so by behaving just as badly as the men vying to win. But the game is rigged against women and minorities: Suspected of not ‘having what it takes,’ they must work harder to prove themselves while facing backlash for displaying dominant behaviors like anger and self-promotion” (Behrdal, Glick, and Cooper 2018). This phenomenon outlines a fundamentally lose-lose situation for women- if they are not willing to code-switch to a more dominant, aggressive personality expression to fit in, it is unlikely that they will be successful. If they do code-switch, they will face backlash, and more importantly, they will be suppressing a valuable part of their identity and femininity for temporary means of fitting in.
Women, like everyone, should be able to come in as our authentic selves, wherever we may lay on the spectrum of masculinity to feminity. Neither should we have to actively seek male validation trying to fit into these narrowly defined, patriarchal standards for self-expression in the tech space: something that feels akin to squeezing our diverse and beautiful identities into small, cramped seats at the table- the table being tech educational settings and workplaces, and all the wonderful career opportunities that this dynamic field brings. Companies need to be held accountable for their cultures, and not stop their efforts at an equitable workplace by simply making diverse hires. Instead, they must be responsible for maintaining policies that will prevent sexual harassment, workplace aggression, and toxic masculinity in order to make the tech space truly inclusive.
Times are changing, as 100 years ago no one would have predicted that women are rapidly gaining jobs and leadership roles in the tech industry. As a teenager with a prospective career in this field, I can only hope that within the next 100 years, women can also bring their unabashedly true selves to the table.
Works Cited
Berdahl, Jennifer Peter L. Glick And Marianne Cooper. “How Masculinity Contests Undermine Organizations, and What to Do About It.” SHRM, 6 July 2021, www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/pages/masculinity-contests-undermine-organizations.aspx.
Figuière, Nathalie. “Why Are Women Underrepresented in Tech?” CodinGame for Work, 6 Dec. 2018, www.codingame.com/work/blog/hr-news-trends/women-in-tech-underrepresented.
