HOW IT FEELS LIKE TO BE A WOMAN IN THE IT WORLD (PART 1)
- December 30, 2019
- by Nur Imroatun Sholihat
Alternative title: How it feels like to be a woman in the
male-dominated field :)
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| source: shutterstock |
Gender imbalance in tech is not taking place behind closed doors. Being a woman in IT terrain equally means you’re a minority. In reality, many things could make us be cut from the same cloth yet there are abundant aspects inevitably dividing us into groups, for instance: age, ethnicity, race, religion, nationality, etc. Hence, the majority-minority issue happens all the time to the point it became mundane and (perhaps) is tedious to be discussed anymore. But still, I want to talk about it since the experience provided me new outlooks and perspectives which are unseen from the outside.
Based on research conducted by Hegewisch and
Williams-Baron (2018), in the United States, only 6.6% of women worked
full-time in male-dominated occupations in 20171. Besides,
nextgeneration.ie stated that (only) less than 7% of tech positions in Europe
are filled by women. While it’s statistically proven that gender diversity
benefits companies (according to researchers at the University of Castilla la
Mancha, Spain, gender diverse R&D teams lead to greater creativity and
better decisions)2, gender disparities in the respective discipline
are palpable.
Many of you have noticed already that I also dive into the IT
world—something closely associated with man. It has been a long time that I
want to write this kind of writing but it took me years to eventually able to be
here. The aforementioned studies’ results about underrepresented gender in tech
are among the reasons that I decided to finally want to address this issue
here. I’d like to share with you my opinion on the issue. Also, I’ll be open about some of the inner feelings and thoughts I have all these times and of
course what I learned from my current field of work:
(But before we move forward, let me tell you these things as the
disclaimers: first, I have no IT background. I had never formally learned
information systems or information technology or whatever it is called as a part of my education journey. Accordingly, my experience might be a bit different from the ones who are
naturally gifted and/or educated and/or talented in IT. Secondly, what I said
here is the results and accumulation of years of experience, not just of my
present team. Also, if it happens that my words come out unrefined or
indelicate, I didn’t mean to offend anyone especially the current peers of
mine).
1. People tend to think that I’m less capable (or honestly that’s the hard truth) than my male counterparts
When you see a group of IT people with a woman within, believe it
or not, you’ll immediately think she’s the least capable. When she shows her ability off, it’s highly likely that she wouldn’t be taken as
seriously as any male in the team. (As a matter of fact, not just in tech, negative gender stereotype happens across industries). The perception of incompetence has been not-so-innocently
attached to a woman since the very first step she takes into the field. It’s
something unavoidable though since the male is always considered better and
smarter in the IT area.
But for my case, that’s not solely people’s perspective. I always
consider myself lacking and less competent than anyone in the room. I am always
aware that I’m not as good as anyone in the group. But, rather than complaining
about the gender bias people had on me, I just accept the fact that I’m not as
capable but still can contribute in my unique way. Rather than getting annoyed
by the assumption implied “because of your gender, you’re less capable”, I
embraced the saying for it’s the truth. By admitting that, I could focus on
doing what I can do for example enriching the team’s perspective simply because
woman usually has a different approach to an issue. Because I am different, I
bring a distinct color to the team and I can say that, instead of being grumpy by
the fact that I’m the minority, I’m thankful. I’m grateful that maybe my
insights are valuable for a team dominated by men. Because I am dissimilar, I
have a contribution that is different from what my peers do. Indeed, diversity
provides a richness of ideas and points of view. So what I want to promote here is not
balancing the male-female portion in a team (although that's also important), but diversity by having a decent amount of woman
representation in the team.
2. The state of having a strong urge to work harder
As aforesaid, generally, people have negative gender stereotypes
to the woman in tech. It could damage a woman’s confidence or else change her
for better. In my case, insecurities are indeed burdening my shoulders from time to
time because of both the perception and the reality of
incompetence. Just imagine that sometimes something easy for other people is an
arduous task for me—how intimidating is that. LoL. Consequently, I have to walk
at a faster pace to be parallel with them. But on a positive note, the hunger to
be as good as my counterparts drives me to work harder. I have this constant
eagerness to prove myself that I stand on the same level with the men (when it
isn’t utmostly necessary since as I said before, a woman can occupy different
roles or contribute differently). Every day I’m battling just to confirm that I
equally deserve a spot in the team. Again, I won’t whine of the stereotype for
it makes me put a lot of effort to be better. Instead, how thankful I am to
have a strong desire to improve myself continuously because of that.
What I learned: don’t be intimidated by the situation. In place of, turn every insecurity
into the reason to improve yourself rapidly. Remember that you deserve to be there—not any
less than a man but please keep doing your best.
3. I am expected to handle all the miscellaneous
feminine thingies
While there is no written rule about who should
be the "office housekeeper", as the only woman in the team, I should
voluntarily do the chores. A woman is automatically having the responsibility
to do all the miscellaneous feminine thingies from becoming the team’s
treasurer, "event organizer", "administrative officer", until something as simple as ordering food for the
team’s meeting.
Moral value: back to our discussion above, just
consider that those responsibilities as our piece of the pie for the group. Because
we’re women, while it’s not required by the regulation or anything, just do
them as long as they are within reasonable limits. I mean, even a tiny
contribution means something for the team. Once again, even a minuscule
contribution could mean a lot for the team.
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(to be continued)
1Ariane Hegewisch and Emma Williams-Baron, Fact Sheet: The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2017 and by
Race and Ethnicity (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2018).
2Cristina Díaz-García, Angela González-Moreno,
Francisco Jose Sáez-Martínez. Gender diversity within R&D teams: Its impact
on radicalness of innovation. Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice,
2013; 15 (2): 149 DOI: 10.5172/impp.2013.15.2.149
Setuju Mbak terutama bagian merasa less competent. Salam kenal ya.
ReplyDeleteHello. Salam kenal juga ya. Terima kasih sudah mampir :)
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