Something has to change

I don't want to hear another word about women in tech. 

I don't want to read another praise to women in tech in LinkedIn. 

I cringe at every biography à la "this is where I started, this is what I became", where women even post photos of themselves as kids to demonstrate that they were good girls, learnt math and the Universe rewarded them plenty for it.

Women were in tech from the beginning. There simply was no marketing about it. The marketing wasn't needed in those countries where women were considered equal to men. And the marketing wasn't desired in those countries where women were traditionally and economically inferior to men.

I am a female engineer and worked in tech for almost 30 years now. I love my job, and I've practiced it with passion and delight for the last 28 years. I worked in more than 50 projects and brought them successful to the market. I led and coached hundreds of developers, product managers and architects (usually men) to do their jobs best way. I did everything one can imagine doing in IT, from development to Enterprise Architecture. I made good money, enjoyed good perks and mostly worked with interesting, talented and decent people. 

Over these 30 years, I had about 20 different managers and two of them (one of these a woman) fired me for being too outspoken and too emotional. From all my work successes and also from my failures I learnt and learnt and learnt, and I am grateful (to the Universe, not to people) for that. In all, even if I didn't make it to be Jeff Bezos (which by all accounts seems to be the ultimate measure of success we can currently imagine in 2022's modern enterprises) I can say that in my own, normal person kind of way, I have and enjoy a successful career.

But when looking back on my professional path, I can only reflect how this has been - and remains, despite all the current marketing - a very difficult path. 

This blog is about WHY being a woman in tech isn't easy but a continuous challenge. The older I get, the more transparent the reasons for the past events and the more violent the threat of the future. But I don't want this blog to be a long list of complaints. Instead of enumerating all the things that make being a woman in tech such a challenge, I will document my working days and give you readers enough insight into what is being said and done and how does that come across. If you ask me, the true reason for not having more women in tech is that younger women are  faster in understanding and more consistent in avoiding adverse environments. They choose to lead happier lives than continuous challenges. 

In other words, if we want more women in tech, if we are really serious about that, I encourage you to reflect and challenge your own ideas after reading about my daily experiences. I am looking forward to all of us doing something truthful and real for women in tech.

Yours, Trudi.