Women in Tech Roundtables
The field of information technology isn’t traditionally an ideal career path for women. In the recent years however, multinational corporations are promoting more women to step into the field of information technology and computer science. Initiatives such as Women in Technology International (WITI) and Girls Who Code are created to help women to succeed in the world of information technology.
However, women who have a career path in the male-dominated field believe that they can’t make the same mistake as their male counterpart. The current patriarchy made it difficult for female to voice their opinions, especially when it comes to professional opinions within a male-dominated field. The arrogance of male workers is a huge factor that prevented women from joining the industry. Male workers of the technology field, like what the Google controversy had described, tend to think that their superior in terms of education and knowledge.
During the summer of 2017, a Google engineer published a report that outlined why men are biologically more advanced to tackle issues in information technology. This immediately drew backlashes against Google as the company has promoted the strength of diversity since its foundation. Google reportedly fired that employee but the rage toward the sexual discrimination within the field of information technology goes on.
Women in the tech industry
Another issue surrounding women in tech is their perspective of the industry. Having information technology as a career path isn’t a common choice from a woman. Part of this is because the whiteness and masculinity embedded in geek identity may restrict non-Whites or females from embracing technological affinity or expertise (Eglash, 2002). From the women’s perspective, the field of information technology is filled with nerdy or geeky men, and the idea of coding or debugging are unappealing to some women. The world need to reshape what information technology is all about. The IT industry should be promoted in a way that showcase its benefit to the world around us. Technology is something that changes lives for both men and women.
Girls Who Code, a non-profit organization aimed to increase the number of women in computer science.
Technology is a creative tool that can help an individual to solve a certain problem. Gathering the interest of the women through problem solving is also a great way to invite them to the world of technology. An example of this would-be Whitney Wolfe, who is the founder of a dating app Bumble as well as the co-founder for Tinder. One of the problem that Wolfe experienced was online bullying. She founded Bumble with the aim of tackling bullying in online dating. Bumble was built on a concept of female priority, the application only allowed women to make the first move in an online dating scenario. Wolfe believes that the IT industry has many gaps to fill and women have the ability to think creatively and patch up the gaps.
I believe that having women in the field of information technology is a great way to bolster creativity across the industry. The solutions provided by men and women are different and it is crucial to listen to the opinions from the opposite-sex. The year is 2018, let us hope that more women are willing to choose information technology as a pursuable career.