Just saw a recruitment post for a female speaker to join a female panel at a "women in tech" event. And it's by an organisation called "codelikeagirl". 😒

As a female developer, it gives me the upmost cringe to hear about any #women or #girlpower events. Do you really need to validate your ability and support because of your gender? Men don't go to #menInTech events, so why do you need to go #womenInTech events?

On the surface it seems all friendly and gender equality fluff. But if you segregate yourselves into an all exclusive group, isn't that the opposite of what your trying to "achieve"?

Social let's-help-female-programmers warriors piss me off.

The other day a massive email thread at work on how women are misrepresented in tech and how we need to help them and how using words such as "guys" is intimidating and generally patronising shit like "let's advertise jobs on websites like femaleprogrammers.com instead stackoverflow because there's too many white males on stackoverflow."

99% participants in this topic were guys.
One girl sent a message saying she doesn't want to be helped and she wants to know she has been picked for her skill and not filling in diversity numbers.

...would you believe she has been schooled on problems women in tech face by those lads too.

Like "woman, please... we speak diversity here"

So annoying....!!

You what's been pissing me off this week. The press and social media coverage of this Google guy's gender memo.

Almost every outlet has him saying:

"Women are inferior coders because of their biology"

He ABSOLUTELY does not say this anywhere. He only states that basically less women are attracted to the industry. He doesn't comment at all on the quality of the Women who do go into tech.

It astonishes me the utter ignorance of the media and how they can just print these ignorant errors / lies.

I would wager that most if not all of them never even read his memo.

I am really fucked off by this social media keyboard warrior driven world we live in.

Apparently we value freedom of speech and freedom of expression above all else... UNLESS you say something that pisses off the social media justice warriors. In that case you will be publicly crucified and your life / career will be destroyed.

The annoying thing is in this particular case he didn't even say what they are saying he did.

On being a woman in tech...

You lads probably have (and my fellow ladies certainly have) heard of "impostor syndrome" and, if you don't experience it, you possibly wonder what living with it is like.

Here's an example from this weekend.

Be me, about 5 years into my career, graduated from a top college, feeling decent but still unsure of skill.

Company gets a 4 week trial of an online learning website. It includes optional assessments, so that you know where in the video lessons to start. Rankings are novice, proficient, expert.

Hear from our QA that he got ranked "proficient." Which is a pretty broad category, but I become super afraid that I'll also be assessed as "proficient" and it will look like I have the same dev skills as a fucking QA (our management overlords can see our scores).

Boyfriend has me do some deep breathing before starting the test, because it's obvious how stressed I am.

Finally take it and get ranked "expert", in the 97th percentile, even though some technical difficulties made me miss four questions in a row. I decide to use my do over, and get ranked "expert" again, this time in the 99th percentile.

You'd think I'd be like, "Lawl, I can't believe I'd get the same score as our QA!" And there is some of that. But there's also the thoughts of, "that test could have been more thorough," "that score wasn't real because I resaw a question and got the right answer the second time," and "99th percentile isn't that great on a platform where new developers are over represented."

And this is all despite the fact that, if you were to ask someone how confident I am, the answer would probably "confident as hell."

Not saying this to start any fights. Figured it could be some interesting insight into a world that some people don't experience! (not that males aren't allowed to have impostor syndrome!)

I stopped eating on my desk a few months ago and I've been witnessing some free entertainment since. I was having breakfast and two women sat at the table beside me. Mother and daughter. The daughter walked towards the restroom door and started knocking. This all happened in a span of five minutes.

Mother: "Make it fast!"

Daughter: "I know! I'm knocking!"

Mother: "What's taking her so long? Oh my god. It's like she (whoever is in the restroom) lives there! Knock some more!" *proceeds to roast whoever is in the restroom*

Daughter: "I already did!" *knocks again*

Mother: "It's 10AM already, let's go!"

Daughter: "Nooo! Emergerrrd I need to pee ashhdkdkeuoakansvttyjj!"

The daughter was jumping up and down throwing a tantrum like she has no strand of pubic hair on her. She looks like she's in her early 20's and is applying for a job.

Another woman sees the commotion and knocks on the door as well.

Mother: "Oh my god, is she dead in there? You should have knocked."

Daughter: "I diiiid!"

So there I was munching on my hash browns, waiting for an employee and her manager to come out, wishing this would be a scene in a porn movie, that the door is closed for so long because someone's fucking in there. Then the mother would confront the scandalous pair and then make it a threesome, drag her daughter in, a foursome. Drag another crew, a few others, a breakfast orgy or some shit.

But life disappoints me as always..

The waitress walked towards the door and pushes it, it opened. Nani?! So that was all for nothing?! But there was supposed to be a corpse in there, right? Or a lewd couple! How can this be?!

Mother: *growls* "You didn't push ittttt!"

It was more entertaining than the two tech leads threatening to punch each other in the face during a go live meeting.

Does anyone remember MUDs? Multi-User Dungeons — working on those in LPC was my first experience with real programming. Before that, I'd only made simple websites.

To get permission to program in one MUD, you had to prove that you knew the world, by reaching a certain level in the game. Death had consequences, with a level being lost, as well as risking loss of your items if someone looted you or your corpse was lost. This alone was hard enough to make most players give up. I played (and played wisely) to get there, being the first of my friends. It was hard work and fun.

After months of playing every day, finally, I was a wizard! Well, first, I had to convince someone else to take me as an apprentice, which was it's own challenge, because I was a 13 y/o girl. I ended up having to wait for an older male friend to get to the proper rank and get made a full wizard himself, because anyone else was reluctant (thinking that I'd just screw up or make them look bad), and no one was very happy about it. After some more weeks, I started programming my own content for the MUD, to share with others. It was a great opportunity to learn and express myself, seeing how creative programming could be.

I got called all kinds of names for asking questions and making mistakes, and I questioned why I even wanted to work with these people who hated my guts and didn't want to teach me anything, but I kept going. As I wasn't allowed to take computer classes in school, being able to do projects on my own like this was the only way to learn. I also became more stubborn, patient, and independent, which has always been necessary for this career.

Most importantly, I saw what could be done with programming, and was inspired to keep going with my own projects, no matter how much hate that I got for it. I went on to work on more games and software, often on my own. I always explore new technology, ignore the haters, and forge ahead with my own vision.

lol what? My company offers $5k for referring full time employees... and $10k for referring female technologists.

As a female software engineer, makes me deeply uncomfortable.

There's this weird thing I am noticing since few years and I don't know if it's just me.

I have noticed that companies are becoming outright sexist, hiring women very incapable of doing anything in tech industry, even for the roles of software developers (My friends were asked questions like, 'Do you think you will be able to perform at this job?' Or, 'What have you worked on at previous job?' and similar questions where it really doesn't require much of a brain to come up with something good). And they got hired!

Where as I remember slogging 4-5 interviews including 2 live coding sessions and rigorous technical interviews at multiple places only to know I have been rejected because I couldn't answer some of those really lame technical questions which aren't even needed in daily life. It didn't matter if I had developed multiple apps that are used by some people over the internet. or the academic record where I was in top 5% every year. Or my side projects for that matter.

It sucks to see this kind of sexism against men! It boils my blood, but yeah, women participation in workplace is very low, so you gotta hire them! (-_-) and I feel only people who will struggle are ugly males.

Call me anything you want, but you have to face this to know this is happening. Especially in Indian tech industry.

I want to print this pic out in enormous size and qty, hang them in many classrooms to show my female friends that it's normal to wear cute skirt and cute shoes while wringing cables on your shoulders.

😏

The frequency in which I see women-hating comments in certain tech FB groups is alarmingly high lately. Even posts about ordering food are somehow twisted into really awful discussions (raping women, locking them at home, stoning cheating wives...).
Maybe I'm just a sensitive "female", but I honestly wouldn't want to work with a person who has this mindset.

It's so annoying! One of the developers just started explaining to me some of the recent changes in the infrastructure. I made these changes! I know about them and can explain them better than he did. I tried telling him that I already know but he just wouldn't stop. It felt like he was mansplaining. I don't usually get that at work so it was weird and frustrating.

The state of the web in 2020:
discussion sites as a medium are dying. chalk that up to censorship.

reddit is an echochamber. twitter is mostly a marketing platform disguised as (anti)social media. instagram is a self promotion/wannabe eceleb site, and youtube is the new hollywood..quickly becoming irrelevant.

facebook is where I (dont) go to (totally not) ignore all the people important to me.

and email is where I go to send letters bordering on hatespeech to my various local and federal "representatives", in between borderline cyberbullying people stupid enough not to automate their spam marketing in 2020. or talking to left/right self-help grifters about the state of society.

in the grim dark future of 2020, the last bastion of intelligent conversation, free speech, and civility, the one shining icon of hope in a dark world..
is the comment section of pornhub videos where a women got stuck under a bed for the 50,000th time. And all I can think is "wow I never knew how easy it was to get trapped under a bed. They should look into fixing this safety hazard."

newsmedia has jumped so many sharks, the fonz now spins in his grave so fast we could hook him up to a generator. meanwhile people hide in their homes for a disease so deadly you have to be tested to know if you even have it.

while ever more car commercials
are released, set to somber but hopeful piano music to the tune of "in this time of social distancing its important to stay close even when we're apart."

Im beginning to think media has become a poison on society, both television and the internet, and like an ersatz cargo cultist worshipping the great-charles- manson-in-the-sky we should all take a page from the unabomber and smash our televisions with hammers before going outside and sawing down the telephone polls.

I jest of course. But there is no denying the inherent appeal of moving from the unsettling uncertainty of complex societies, driven by expertly manipulated fear cycles, to the beatitude-esque simplicty of pastoral protestant style living, sans witch burning and shoe buckles.

And against the reckoning of utopians who are still fresh from the womb as it were, wet behind the ears and smelling of their mother's pussy, I reject the notion that "up" is a synonym for "forward."
Were it the case, every drinking binge, followed by throwing up, would bring us, with each vomitting, one step closer to heaven. Rather the state of affairs is what it is, and what it is, like most of nature, is a cruel master and a harsh teacher. And while we may binge on digital delusions of grandeur and a greater society, rest easy in the nihilistic and sobering thought that we are little more than 200,000 year old cave men wielding magic bricks, and atomic bombs.

..where water flows more readily from metal tubes in our houses than it does from the nile. where food comes to our door at little more than our beck and call.
where we may bath, and sleep, and *shit*, cleanly, comfortably, and safely, wrapped in the (failing) bubble of delusion we all tenaciously grasp collectively, the thing we call "civilization".

an empire of needful things, wanton and fragile.

if we have not gone mad from boredom, I have no doubt we one day will.

it becomes more and more obvious to me every day, had war never existed, it would have been necessary for man to invent it just to have something to do, that didnt include farming, fucking, or building.

And so enters "political idealogy."

How would we ever have enemies if we were allowed to speak our piece instead of being given the means (and reflex dogwhistle training) to silence and destroy one another?

give a man a gun, he'll rob a bank. give a man a bank, he'll rob the world.
give him a media empire or a tech platform, and he'll lie about the theft and convince one half of millions of lemmings to hate all the other lemmings.

ladies on devrant: can you explain how you are feeling oppressed coz of gender in the tech industry?

Because i seem to find more examples of using gender as an opportunity card than anything else.

Every tech industry in the 21st century , that i know of, has been gender neutral since their formation. this gender question is not even asked in any interview. All they want is your skills and never cared weather you are a male, female or a bot. Yet i see more and more women only groups, #womenEmpowerment posts, women only organisations, women only jobs , women only scholarship programs , etc going on , and i need to know why.

I have female friends who are actually dumber than other people but gaining big advantage due to this gender bias.

Its okay and even worth it to have so many support going on if you are finding an oppression, but if women are getting employed and other gaining more opportunities solely because of being women, then you are nothing but a strong cult oppressing other worthy people

Shopping for computers is so fun and relaxing than shopping for makeup.

So here's the scenario...
I walked into a makeup store and I was looking for lipstick. I was wearing my devRant shirt, jeans, and a laptop backpack. A sales lady approached me and just stared. She didn't even ask what I was looking for. The way she looked at me made me feel that I don't belong there. She should've just left me alone than giving a judgemental look. I got intimidated so I looked at her and gave the biggest smile, then fleed. I panicked. I salute those female developers who doesn't have problems shopping for girly stuff!

For the record, my sister encouraged me to wear a little makeup so that I don't look stressed. That made me decide to go to that makeup store. I'd rather order online now.

It's so hard to not be girly by nature.

I start my first real dev position tomorrow 6 months out of college where I graduated without a CS degree because my school didn't have a major only a minor.

Cue the imposter syndrome.

My company got another contract to support a research institute. My current contract has shitty leadership that won't back us against our boss (different company, same contract) without proof. The fact that 3 of the 4 of us dread going to work isn't enough?

Anyways. Talking to the other site about transferring. Need to gtfo to a less toxic environment where I won't be made to work fucked up hours with a boss who doesn't like women in tech, and thinks he's something special because he's vegan (but had real leather jackets and bike seats, but that's an entirely different story) and does yoga and plays the guitar.

Meanwhile, he resents his kids and seems to regret getting married. All because he used his military education benefits to pay for their school.

just got an email that they have a good opportunity for a -female- graduate of computer science where they don't require any programming or other skills. wtf
Do they want females just to up their fem statistics?

safe to say I did not reply, i am not unskilled and I don't want a job like that!

So I've been applying to jobs. I, purposely, have been putting down that I am female (since they all harp on diversity, I'd like to see if they even bother reaching out to me. Also anything to get my resume past the bots).

Spoiler alert - getting similar ratios to male counterparts, 100+ applications sent, maybe 4 phone interviews. No offers yet. Still made to do code challenges.

Well, I just found out where all that diversity hiring went to. Buddy of mine who works at a mid tier company said that they have a special program that onboards women into tech.

Specifically, women who have literally zero background in computers.

Teachers, social workers, etc. They get a week or so of some coding bootcamp and then get full time positions over more skilled applicants.

This infuriates me. I literally would be in a better situation to be hired had I not have had any technical background, taken this particular bootcamp and finally net the elusive entry level position I need.

And guess what? That move has antagonized the existing male employees who see that they have zero interest and zero competency instead of having an integrated workplace.

10/10 for incredible bullshit.

The NYC Lesbians Who Tech Summit starts today and I think I am in heaven. Hundreds of queer women and allies from software developers to executives in one space nerding out and empowering each other- ahhh!

Also, it has some of the best talk titles I've ever skimmed in a tech conference pamphlet. A sample:

"The Gift of Being a Lesbian Who Techs: Igniting Your Power to Lead"

"Space, Science & Religion: Why This Muslim Space Nerd Wants to Travel to Mars"

"How Tech is Revolutionizing the Billion Dollar Cannabis Industry, and Why Women are
Dominating"

"Ruthlessly Running in the Direction of Your Fears"

"No Gods, No Managers: How Anarchist Ideals Can Help Make Your Office & Open Source Project Better"

I love our community❤️ So amazing that it has come far enough for something like this to exist.

Im gunna get a lot of flak for this but just hear me out:

People keep asking me what it's like working in a male dominated industry. They have conferences for women in tech empowerment and I get forced to go to them because I'm the only female in the office.

The thing is. I don't feel oppressed. I get that we "need" more women in tech but from my experience and from talking to various women at my old university, the reason women are avoiding the tech industry isn't because it's male dominated and they feel out of place. It's because a) it doesn't interest them or b) they never thought of it as an option (like myself).

Computer programming should be in grade schools and highschool's just like math and science to help educated not only women but people in general that it's an option. That's what's going to help more women get in the tech industry. Not these bullshit conferences and women's rights in tech movements, and hiring women over men (even if she's worse than him in skill level) just because she's a woman.

Frankly I think it's downright shameful that companies that are male dominated feel the need to hire women over men just because of gender. If I'm applying somewhere and there's a better male candidate, hire him! I'd much rather your company have a good team then a "balanced" team. Great tech teams are what will bring along new and better technologies, not balanced ones.

Keep in mind I'm talking about Western Civilization here, I get that a lot of countries are still struggling with the balance of women's rights at all but this is Canada.

I also get that there are probably some women who want to join tech but won't because it's too male dominated but frankly that's a shit poor excuse. If you really wanted to join tech then being surrounded by make co-workers wouldn't deter you from living your life the way you want to. If you feel so uncomfortable around men that you won't go into an industry you love because it's male dominated then I'm sorry for you and you should probably see a councillor to get that worked out.

I feel more oppressed by having to put aside my programming and being forced to go to these conferences than I do in the every day workplace. My boss is literally more offended that I don't feel offended about being a woman "minority". He spent a week pestering me about how I would feel about this, that and the other thing if it happened to me.

I'm not saying nobody ever says anything even remotely sexist to me but frankly I could give two shits- I'm here. I'm coding. I'm good at what I do and I'm comfortable enough with myself that I can just blow off the comment (which probably wasn't even meant to offend me) and continue working. But you're going to get that wherever you go, this isn't a flaw of the tech industry. This is a flaw of the world and it goes both ways (men get flak too).

!dev but definitely rant

Here's a fucking thought:
How is holding women over different standards at events and (non-physical) competitions (hackathons especially, somehow) NOT widely considered sexist? I don't even mean towards men - yes, of course.
But also towards women: By preferring their results in some competitions in order to "support them", you implicitly degrade them to be small children in need for praise. You imply that you expect them to perform worse. By "women-first" PR bullshit, you do what you claim to be against. Fuck you.

Why can't we just hold everyone to the same fucking standards? Women can be just as good in tech as men, when interested. I would even make a point that these different standards hold back women from trying to get into any tech-related career.

Sometimes I daydream about just selling out and doing the whole diversity and women who code kind of thing. Apply for the big tech companies and work my way towards becoming one of the faces of their bullshit company. I'm gonna get a long wig, tan myself brown, and wear subtle native shit like a carabao brooch or some Cheongsam-inspired work suit. And when there's a big work event or party, I'm gonna go full on White Rose from Mr Robot, smiling and shaking people's hands like I give a shit. Gonna try to look wholesome and innocent, all I really wanted was a chance to get into tech as a humble being.

I'm gonna practice a strong accent and I would tell humble stories about where I came from, that god sent me here, and about all the struggles I had getting into the field as a woman. I'm gonna step up to the podium and say shit like, "Women can do it too, we can kuh-hode!" Then I'm gonna stir up some shit like, "Why is the terminal black?" Gonna make my voice and hands shake from intense emotion (visible anger, almost crying), "Why is something that we use to do our bidding black? Are we not over the years of slavery in the past? What does a terminal represent? Slavery. You know what else is terminal? Cancer. Slavery and racism are the cancers of our society. We must stop this. Terminals should be in all colors and it shouldn't be black by default."

1. Point out a non-malicious thing and add malice to it. The more racist and sexist, the better.
2. Mention something bad that is not related to it at all.
3. Make them seem related in an attempt to make a point.
4. Fail to make a point.
5. Say "we must stop this".

I'm gonna look straight into people's eyes with a serious face while cry-laugh-cringing internally. "As a brown woman, this makes me sad. I have Kubernetes skills, you know and it hurts me." If I catch some people laughing even though I'm also about to fart from internal laughter, I will point at the whitest male of them all. "You, do you think this is funny? Because this is my life, as well as millions of other people like ME!"

Then I'm gonna curse all of the white men who obviously only got into this field through violence. Yes, Mike, I know you pointed a gun at the HR to get in. What else could it be? All you know is violence because testosterone! You don't really know Kubernetes, I do, I set it up all the time for my thousands of hello world applications and yet here you are, just walking in with your white boy genes and your guns and taking all our jobs away. "What do you have to say for yourself? Shame."

Then of course, some hardcore social media "journalists" are gonna capture this on video and people are gonna ruin whoever man I pointed out's life and say shit like, "This big white man laughed at this little brown chick while she was talking. Sexism and racism in one video. This is why tech is so toxic." I'm gonna allow myself to get caught with a boner (big plastic white bottle) and people are gonna talk about how they didn't use a real woman as the face of their women who code thing. "I admit, I was born in a body that did not align with my desires but just because I have a penis doesn't mean I can't wear a Cheongsam. Also, the fact that you're pointing this out is discrimination and I had enough of that in my life. Shame. This is why tech is so toxic. You accept black terminals but not Cheongsam dicks. Fuck you."

I'm gonna keep ranting about big bad white men while dating one. Of course, people will find this out and point it out. I would flip it and say, "See? This is the problem. You look down on people like me because you're all racist. Just because I'm brown doesn't mean I can't date someone who is white. Sexist. Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I don't have a choice who to date."

I'll keep ranting about all the ridiculous shit, just calling people names every time they speak. Just shame them for no reason then after several years of collecting my diversity money, I'm gonna leak a porn video of me. A compilation of sucking white man dick with voice overs just saying "big bad white men" over and over again. Some really degrading porn kinda shit. "You know what else scales? My ass cluster. Yeah, baby, fill up my containers with your sweet, sweet, love juice."

God bless whoever hires me and make me the face of their company. They will be forever ruined.

I am a woman with multiple years of experience in the coding industry , while in most of my jobs I have been the only woman in the team and I do agree there is a need for more women in the coding industry , however I really do believe workshops like shecodes are an absolute scam , the inclusiveness to bridge the gender divide in tech needs to start from the employers , all resources to learn to code are completely gender neutral and unbiased. I also find it quite hypocritical that shecodes was founded by a man and is taught by a man . Can anyone please shine some different opinions about this or does anyone else believe a similar thing ?

Controversial tech rant begins here:

You know, I'm sure a lot of you guys know that it is pretty uncommon to encounter a woman who is who is into tech (and ranting about said tech). This has always made people question why. I personally feel like that is the case because those that do like tech, and those that don't just find a different interest. I thought that would suffice, but now Google and Microsoft are advertising their diversity programs. I was fine with all that until I was personally affected by it. I intended to apply for scholarships from Microsoft. They turned me away because according to them, they began giving them only to people who were "marginalized". That and their commercials trying to pressure young girls to join the STEM field. Again nothing wrong with women in the tech field, but now that this is turning into favoritism I have to fight harder battles to compete in the tech industry. Not only that, but now I read a study about their employment. Despite the number of people they turned away and the money they spent on these programs, thr companies STILL haven't become any more diverse, and from what it seems, their reaction lately has been to double-down and try harder. I just want an open, honest, and fair tech community. Has anyone else felt the affects of this situation?

I've sadly been using an iPhone for the past few weeks 😔

I'm a hard core android fan but,well if I'm honest with you I got super high and got amnesia woke up with a dead screen on my android phone so got myself an iPhone since I needed to test an app I'm building , comes to think of it that women twice my age I kissed to piss her off might of broken it .. so my friends say ...

Anyway the point being iphones ... not that bad I'm aware people praise their software but it's to rigid for my liking there's features android has I believe that makes it superior

Cameras are better ... build quality is solid. Can't complain really. My android was a one plus 3 great phone also

I might get the s8 I'm waiting to see if they hold up or the new one plus phone if I find the specs ...

The point is as devs we get so stuck in our ways I consider us generally the most open Minded people but not when it comes to tech we are generally hard core fan boys of one company or another

But in truth, there's a lot of great products out there worth our money even if they are apple ... money grabbing bitches.

I say this because my hate for apple whilst it's still there I can at least respect them a little for certain things especially their phones

Anyone else flipping tired of hearing: we need more this, more that, more blacks, more women, more whatever, in tech?

We don’t fucking need more anyone in anything.

We just need sane, talented and hard working people to get the job done well. And do that with courtesy to all person.

Hey there! -first rant-

I need your advice mighty ranters.. I'm an introverted gal studying Computer Science at uni, and i love this field. Wanna be a web or app developer..

I need your help about 2 things:

1. Literally ANY advice, or things you wish you knew, when you were a rookie

2. I'm currently living in solitude, because of hard times in the past and i find making friends much more difficult at uni than in high school. It even starts to affect my productivity in a bad way. I have a hard time trusting people.
So any advice about this? How do you cope with too much solitude? Is there maybe a group for girl programmers? I don't know..

All advice are welcomed! (and IT jokes too, to make my day :D )
Thanks a lot !

Ps.: You are great! Awesome community.

If you're going to host a Women in Tech Breakfast, there needs to be more than one samovar of coffee (even if it's being constantly refilled). Clearly the hosts have no experience in distributed computing.

How often do women bring up their own gender in tech interviews? I've never done it, and I've never interviewed anyone, but I'm curious about whether it's ever explicitly mentioned (beyond a, "I'm in a women in tech group" or "I mentor young girls in my free time").

I don't want to start any debates. Just curious about what people on the Other Side of the Table see.

This is a controversial topic and I tell you about this how I perceive it.

There are a lot of women in tech/IT groups with really interesting topics and discussions I'd like to join ... you know ... because I don't want to pay a lot of money to a course or read a book about it and be with the topic myself (or in online forums) ... I want to be in a cool offline community that shares the love about developing.

But I can't. Because they do not allow men. With the reason that women are not respected in tech/IT and therefore men are not allowed to join.

This is just racist and this policy makes no difference between them and those guys who really are just assholes. Even if I tried to discuss this, it was instantly shut down with "this is our rule and we do not discuss this" or "you just don't understand this". That is right. I can't understand it if I never get a reasonable explanation.

I can understand that they want to build a nice community but this is just a stupid limitation and a huge loss to get other perspectives of things.

In my studies and career I had never seen the problem where things escaleted that seperation was needed. If somebody feeled attacked about something, they said it and we stopped doing or changed it. It's not easy but it helps. Communication is key.

What is your opinion about it? Do you see it the way I see or can you help me see this from another perspective?

Company: Hi mordax, your profile shows you have an impressive background -
Me: Oh!
Company: So I'd like to extend an invitation-
Me: Oh!!! (Interview!!)
Company: - to a Women in Tech(™) event hosted by the company.
Me: Oh.

I am from a country where female programmers are not taken seriously, no matter how educated or skilled they are in the field. Though, it happens a lot in my country but I feel this prejudice is kinda global. What's your opinion about this?

So I have been a fly on the "wall" for last couple of months and never signed up, but now here I am!

Rant is about a serious topic - gender gap in tech industry!!
Couple of months ago Stackoverflow announced developer survey results! I was shocked by demographics results! It was disappointing to see biggest gender gap in general tech industry!
I believe tech industry can be the first one to have equal pay for women!

However.... (bad part)
I was going through my twitter feeds and saw this! Many of you have seen this tweet too.

(ohh!fuck I cant attach multiple images here, I should have created Medium post, fuck it!)

"They" continue, quoting from the tweet.
1)"....bias in society is reflected in AI"
2) "However, I do think it is our responsibility as designers/developers/users to be aware of this bias and do our best to correct it."

I want to rant about 2nd one. Some of you may not like it including grammar naziz!
As a developer/programmer I take 2nd one personally! I am currently at denial phase though!
And I have an OCD so gonna make points here!

1) Seriously tell me please, how the fuck you can write gender bias algorithm which can pass a big crazy amount of test suite?

2) Google has done many things for last decade to overcome gender gap related issues. I have met some of the nicest people from Google, and this is really hard for me to believe that google AI or that team has anything to do with the results!

3) Someone suggests use "they" in google translated result, can you fucking imagine how wrong that would be??? If I am developer working on that algo or even in that team and I see this ticket in jira with highest priority where it says, "make all translated results gender neutral using only they" - I would fucking like to die and may be in my next life ask me to do that, when I am a toddler!

4) I am an advocate for equal pay, equal rights and equal opportunities for everyone to "minify" this gender gap in tech, but showing google translate results of a gender natural language to make a point is wrong, it is simply undermining the efforts of something really helpful thing.

5) Moving on to the core point - What can be done to lower down the gender gap? I have seen amazing women who can code/manage far far far better than what I ever could imagine, and they are at really good place and deserve to be there. Are they doing enough to inspire other women to join tech industry?
Collective efforts are very much required. And need to keep in consideration that tech industry is highly competitive roles are also changing rapidly.

6) Many big companies have women at higher positions(CEO, CFO,....) what are their efforts to bring more women in tech industry?
(Some of you may not like this, as this is implying that it isn't only men's job. )

7) Going slightly political here, everyday we see really disappointing news related to women and their rights and health, I strongly believe women don't have to ask for or even have to mention about "equal rights" about anything. Everyone is equal!!!
This is 2017 and still fucked up!

Thats all for today! Heading for breakfast!

I love to program — I discovered that about myself a few years ago. Beforehand, I only KNEW how to program. But then I discovered the power programming gives you to create things, and even help your surroundings. So now, I can surely say, that I love programming. Heck, I am even dating a very talented programmer.

But despite all the pleasure I derive from it, I feel lonely sometimes. True, there are millions of programmers all over the world. I also know I am not the only one who prefers coding over going to the movies, taking a walk, eating or sleeping.

Why do I feel this way?

My loneliness is a gendered loneliness, as there are not many women in my field. For sure, there are women who study computer science in high school or at the university, and some even work as programmers. But they are very, very few!

I often underestimate my abilities and feel intimated for no apparent reason

#random thoughts

Starting my first real dev position Monday. Scared about using a windows computer for dev for the first time but stoked.

My rant is against myself that I didn't switch jobs earlier.

i'm just going to let myself rant here !!!! arghhhhhh why do i have to be one of those people that is pretty smart and good programmer but not under interview pressure when theres other stuck up lazy devs that do amazing in interviews and end up with higher salary while doing a worse job than u(slower)!!! arghhhhhhgggg

Are all the people who use female avatars female in real life?

Where are my fellow ladies at?
How do you battle imposter syndrome in the classroom or workplace?

I'm confused. How'd we go from contributors like Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper and Margret Hamilton, to: WE NEED MORE WOMEN IN TECH, WE NEED MORE WOMEN IN TECH!!!

Now that I am on vacation I realise that there was a period of 3 months this year in which I didn't talk to any female at all except for my mom and sister, just because there are almosy no girls that study software engineering... What the fuck is happening here? Could we please make SE more attractive for women? Its not just that I would like to flirt with women, I think that having women around would improve a great deal of things. For instance, I think that a group dynamic is a lot better if the group contains women.

How do you think we can make software development more appealing to women?

Halt and Catch Fire is having another great season. Lived those days and it is so true. CompuServe, Compaq, Commodore, 5 1/4", Tandy 1000, Byte Mag, Atari, The Well... The tech you see is really 1985ish. Attention to detail is appreciated by long time technologists.

H&CF is about building a tech business and much applies to today's startups. That two brilliant tech women are leading the charge adds to it. All the characters are great Cameron, Gordon, Donna, the devs at Mutiny and Joe channeling Jobs (in my opinion) is spot on.

Any H&CF fans have an opinion?

>be me a tech nerd

>see sexy women

>try to engage in conversation but only make werid gurgling noises

>never live it down

Anyone else at Women Who Code CONNECT today??

First day of first dev job complete. Already in love with my team. But why didn't anyone tell me about Emmet before now???

Some cool new stickers ! #AdaLovelace #HedyLamarr #RobertaWilliams

How many women work with you in Tech at your current job (with a STEM field)?

!rant && !dev
My current organization conducts world wide special recruitment drives for women who have taken a break in their careers and who are willing to start again! And recruitment will be specifically for tech positions.

Isn't that great! I think, this should be followed by each and every organizations out there.

ughh here i am with an opportunity for a job (in london) and got given 3 programming tasks and my mum is surely praying so i wont get it ,i hear screamingin my head 'Nooooo!' when trying to even think about this third task , ive already done 2 ,

i really need to stop telling her about these london jobs she's witching them away , but what can ya do when i applied to more jobs here and some in manc yet i get through in londan 🤷🏼‍♀️

entrepreneurship is kinda what i wanna do especially with women in tech i really really want that but still behind on what the purpose of it would be

Might get on the hormone blockers and see if any Women in Tech programmes will save me from job hunting hell.

Hilarious. I've got an on-site interview tomorrow. My schedule has a list of long meetings with men with titles and... 15 minutes of girl time, with two women who's job title isn't included? I have NO IDEA what to make of this!