Submission #2

We were having a company wide meeting where HR was presenting recent trends in retention that showed that many women were leaving the company, especially at upper levels. At the end during question time someone asked if they could explain why this was happening. As the head of HR, a woman, was starting to answer, the CEO, a man, interrupted her saying "Let me stop you right there, I would like to answer this myself...". Yeah thanks mate, that was all the explanation we needed.

Submission #1

I work in a software company that has recently had a new C-level come in. The guy was in the office the other day for the first time and was sitting on a female colleague's desk. When she came back from a meeting, she said "oh I'm sorry but I think you are sitting on my chair" (which was obvious because her computer and stuff were right there). The guy first excused himself but then had the audacity to say to her and two other women: "how about you girls now make me some coffee haha". I think it was meant as a joke but it was clearly awkward for everybody.

The results are in

I posted a poll on Mastodon (its tech-focused instance, Fosstodon) with the question: “If you work in tech/data, do you feel like you are always listened to and your ideas are welcomed?” It got 156 replies (!) and the distribution was as follows:

To be fair, 74% of respondents were men so I would have hoped to attract more responses from women+.

However, of those who were another gender, 30% said Yes (8% out of the total) while 56% of men said Yes (41% of the total).

I reckon that we need to raise these discussions to improve things. Ultimately, we need to pay attention to team dynamics and better management in order to retain people in data/tech jobs.

Making waves in a sea of assholes

I have been doing some reading and just look at this shit. About half of women (of course there’s no stats on minority genders) quit their jobs in tech by mid-career, and 74% of women in technology jobs experienced gender discrimination at work.

While for example this article talks about “gender bias” as the top reason women leave, they shy away from actually talking about sexism. They avoid addressing the culture created by the majority of workers, i.e. men, as the problem. They suggest increasing opportunities to flexible working and childcare (’cause what, men don’t have kids?), which is nice, and we can have all the role models we want, but if the environment is nasty, we aren’t turning up to work. What’s sadder than finding what you’re passionate about and getting paid to do that, just to be put off by some assholes?

One woman just told me she had had a traumatic experience working in tech in a male-dominated environment (I don’t know the details). However she hesitated sharing her story, as she thought that maybe no other women in the company at the time had had the same experience. And maybe they hadn’t. But she had, and no one supported her, and she was told not to “create drama”.

I wanna say I hear you. I also want to say these are not isolated incidents but absolutely a pattern of sexist/misogynistic behaviour. This is what leads to women leaving their jobs or changing jobs more frequently, which probably makes them less likely to be considered for promotions. This is why I started this blog and why I really hope people come forward and share their stories.

But, I want to also add a note re your safety when sharing a personal experience. Please use a pseudonym, “blur” or change any details that could give away the place of work or any other details that would allow you to be recognised. If you email me, I won’t of course share your email but for extra security, you can make a hushmail account.

Every voice counts.

Share your experiences

It’s pretty easy to learn by typing into Google ‘sexism in tech’ that there’s a massive problem in the industry. Not only are women and non-binary folks underrepresented in the field, it seems that many of us face sexist attitudes and behaviours in the job, like being interrupted in meetings or straight-up being harassed.

I am a white cis woman working as a data scientist in Scotland. I was recently working in a team comprising only of men, myself excluded. When they kept interrupting me in meetings and ignoring my ideas, I complained and mainly got dismissed as ‘my Teams was too quiet’. I also got told no one in the company had ever complained about this.

It feels like not being sexist should be obvious. Like this is 2023, respect people! But that doesn’t seem to be the case as some people need to be told to go on a course to learn how to not be twats. Sometimes these things are subtle but you just have a feeling like something’s off here – your male colleagues are tech bro’ing and leaving you out of the conversation. Or there’s a comment or behaviour that you can’t make a complaint about because HR doesn’t know what the fuck to do. It is part of a bigger picture though. So maybe reading other people’s stories can help us all to feel validated, encourage each other to speak up, eventually creating fairer workplaces, safer, more inclusive environments.

This blog is for other women and minority genders working in the data/coding/tech sphere to submit and share their experience anonymously. I am using that definition in a wide sense; if you work using data, and you have felt like you’ve been treated differently because of your gender, write to me! Doesn’t matter where you are and feel free to describe, expose, as much/little as you like. I won’t edit what you write (I am lazy).

You can submit your story below or email me at: sexismincode@proton.me and I will post your story here.

I am a person to whom confidence has never come naturally and I have to know something inside out before I will say I have a vague grasp on what I’m talking about. But when it comes to being underestimated because of presenting as a woman, I can say after 30+ years and 4 countries, I am a fucking expert. Then imagine being constantly told that this is just my ‘perception’ (and you probably have too). Hmm, I wonder why we don’t want to bring these things up? *face palm* Fortunately, I am motivated by rage, which is how I’ve got most things done in life.

I don’t think my complaints deserve a whole blog – I reckon some folks unfortunately experience a lot worse in their working life. That’s why I want to hear from all of you, across different backgrounds and the gender spectrum!

Disclaimer:
I am aware that the term misogyny might be more accurate, instead of sexism, as meaning hate of femininity, it encompasses transphobia and homophobia. This blog explains this idea well. I don’t want to exclude anyone in this blog. We have the same goal – destroying the patriarchy!