This Twitter Thread Revealed How People Still Find It Difficult To Accept Women In Tech Positions. Why The Stereotypes?
As a woman, I feel that if there is one concept that I am widely and thoroughly familiar with, apart from that of menstruation, it is of being stereotyped and pigeon-holed. Be it either confining us to the kitchen and to make babies, or reducing us to props as they objectify us, there have been several tags over the years that we’ve been given, taking away from our real potential. And one of the recent ones is that of assuming a woman, any woman, working in a big tech corporation will likely be on the more ‘feminine’ side of things and not in a tech role. An issue that was raised by a woman on Twitter, and had many women chiming in with their experiences.
Don’t get us or user @Prachim1210 wrong here, not that there is anything wrong in assuming the role of an HR in a company, especially since it is a reputable position to hold in itself, but the fact that people can often not see a woman to be related to a field in technology, while she is working in a tech company, is what is irksome here.
Expressing similar sentiments was Prachi Manchanda as she wrote, “Random stranger: So where do you work? Me: Microsoft Random stranger: you must be an HR .. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being an HR but the assumption that a woman working at a tech company is not a technologist really pisses me off. FYI, I’m a software engg.”
Random stranger: So where do you work?
Me: Microsoft
Random stranger: you must be an HR.. I don't think there's anything wrong with being an HR but the assumption that a woman working at a tech company is not a technologist really pisses me off.
FYI, I'm a software engg. 👩🏽💻— Prachi Manchanda (@prachim1210) November 28, 2020
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You see, our society is so convinced in looking at women as the less equipped or qualified gender, that the possibility of them being technologists or belong to a field as well regarded as that of an engineer comes as a shock. However, what we find difficult to grasp is, how in the present 21st century, when women are reaching for the stars, it is annoying that society still finds reason to question our capabilities.
Sharing their own experiences, several women commented on the thread, discussing how Prachi has not been alone in encountering such misogynistic stereotypes. One user wrote, “And it usually follows with.. oh you don’t dress like a software engineer,” to which Prachi replied, “I’ve heard this one before. ‘You are too stylish for a software engg’ umm, thanks. I didn’t know one of my job requirements was to show up in company swag and slippers.”.
https://twitter.com/thecaseygram/status/1333136412854521856
Don't mind them; they can't just handle women with superpowers.
— Jin Vincent Necesario (@JinNecesario) November 29, 2020
And it usually follows with.. oh you don’t dress like a software engineer.
🖕— Shruti Kapoor (@shrutikapoor08) November 29, 2020
For that reason, I always try to motivate women/girls/teenagers to discover the cybersec/dev world. Both communities need more women. Stereotypes are killing this world.
— Armando Huesca (@0xhuesca) November 29, 2020
I think it's more than just tech, it's getting out of gender ascribed roles for the society as a whole. We need to normalise individual choices not conforming to how a person looks or is perceived.
— Prachi Manchanda (@prachim1210) November 29, 2020
If someone assumed I was in a certain role… I’d reply with …” wow, you’re pretty good at reading people. What gave it away?” Then wait for them to dive into shallow evidence to their conclusion. hopefully your last word of “lol I’m an engineer” will highlight their fault
— Chris S 🇺🇸🇧🇷 (@df2002) November 29, 2020
Meanwhile, another user wrote, “I don’t know how many more years will it take to break this stereotype,” a thought that we’ve been pondering over for a while now. One user quoted her own example and shared, “I was at a party years ago where > 1/2 were CS PhD students. I said I wasn’t in the PhD program, I worked at {big tech} and this guy goes “Oh, in marketing?” Why do people still take sexist pseudo-random guesses?”
And that right there is what the issue is. People, for some odd misogynistic reason refuse to acknowledge women’s potential in the field of technology or science, and simply assume us for what they deem are more gender-appropriate roles. It is a shame that with the world progressing, there will still be people who will propagate such a patriarchal mindset and not see us in tech roles.
