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uct or professional), not specifically technical women.
So you read about these managers, but then you also
read these regular calls for more women in tech and how
none exist and you look around thinking, "Hello! Right
here! C'mon! WTF?" now, to be fair, sometimes the women
written about are also somewhat technical in that they
have taken CS classes but anyone who is actively technical
knows that a few CS classes are not the same as being in
the trenches and building a product hands-on. This context
is important, because as a technical woman, you are looking
for something to cling to and determine how you fit in
to the larger ecosystem. But because the larger ecosystem
is nearly totally empty when it comes to role models, you
have to look either at men or closer to home at the women
in your immediate vicinity who are probably not technical.
The women who are actually ambitious enough to potentially
make it in tech as technical women look at this
landscape and every signal derails her from that technical
path because the vicious cycle encourages her to chase
only the most viable channels. Chief among them: management.
[2] If you are lucky, you will encounter people (men and women)
who are caring enough to help you in deal with this in
exactly two ways: i) They encourage you to keep going and
ii) they hold you to the same high standard as everyone
else. If you are unlucky, you will encounter people (men
and women) who validate your worst fears and allow you
to give up.
[3] There's another dimension, which is the girls club versus
boys club which is situated on top of this mess. The girls
club is very different than the boys club. entirely different
rules apply and if you've spent any amount of time
optimizing to fit into the boys club, it will not transfer
to the girls club. The girls club is full of managers, not
engineers. Users, not builders. All the tools that allow
you to survive the boys club as a technical woman become
these huge liabilities in the girls club. You are seen as too
rough, too aloof, and too disinterested (because you actually
probably are). In my case, I am also seen as having far