Women in Tech

With International Women's Day coming up there's a lot of talk about women in tech. dev.to has a hashtag for it. I felt like I should write something, being a woman and in tech.

I saw something years ago to do with women and at the end of the list was "if you consider yourself a minority then you count". It was supposed to be all-encompassing but I found it limiting because I don't consider myself to be a minority.

Let's jump back a bit.

At university I did physics. Most of the students in physics lectures were men. Most of the lecturers were men. I don't think I knew there was a woman in the department at all until my second year.

The clubs and societies I joined had members that were mostly men. I ended up with most of my friends being men. I never felt like a minority. I was just one person in a group of people.

Where I work it's mostly men doing development. I don't feel like a minority there either. No one treats anyone differently for being a woman. Or being a man. (Or if they are I haven't noticed)

In summary, if you are a minority in tech - whether you consider yourself to be or not - don't worry, it doesn't matter. And if you find it does matter, you've surrounded yourself with the wrong group of people and need to find a different group.