How to Thrive as a Woman in IT: A Comprehensive Guide for 2022

These articles always seem so tacky to me. Perhaps my observations are rare but in 12 years of being in software engineering I can count on less than one hand the times when "special guides" like this would be necessary and usually it was at a company party.

I have however watched a switch from people not really caring about women at a company to deliberately avoiding except in cases where they can be complete observed. For example, it's not uncommon to only have a 1-1 with a woman in the open, or in direct observation of another person. It never used to be this way, and I feel like guides like this help to create this environment. I wouldn't call it animosity, but given that its even easier to be fired now for even apparent harassment, there's far more people unwilling to even try.

Much like everything else that likely had good intentions, drawing too much attention to differences is often just as negative. It rubs me the wrong way that for some reason our industry believes women need special instruction to "survive". Like, no matter how much so-called "progress" we make women will always be different and special in a way that makes them less capable (in this case, to navigate a culture safely). It seems demeaning.

According to Gartner, only 31% of IT employees are women.