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4 Times I Felt Discriminated Against for Being a Female Developer
And I’ve only worked in this industry for three years
In the context of International Women’s Day, I decided to write about my experiences as a woman working in tech, an industry known for being widely male-dominated. My career is as short as three years old, but during that time I have had the privilege to have different experiences, from corporate to startups, from national to international environments, from onsite to fully remote. This gives me a broad experience to comment on the matter, especially since I’ve already encountered so many problematic situations that must be brought to light and discussed.
1. The time I was a diversity hire, without proper notification about it
The interview process for this role was quick and didn’t include any type of technical assessment. Since it was for an internship position, I didn’t find it inappropriate. However, on my first working day, my internship mentor gave me a suspicious encouragement statement:
“I believe everyone can become a good professional as long as they’re willing to learn.”
This statement caught my attention because I’ve heard it said repeatedly by men when referring to women in the workplace. It is not obvious because it reflects virtue signaling, but it implies that the reason there are few successful women is that they are not willing to make the effort.
For this reason, I promptly asked, “By any chance, was I selected for this internship for being female?” He didn’t participate in my hiring process, but he was my mentor after all. He replied, “Yes, HR had intentions to prioritize candidates that would add diversity to the company.”
I didn’t know what to think. I have a strong opinion about diversity hires: Although I don’t think they are a perfect solution, I consider them an effective measure to break the ceiling glass that excludes minorities from certain roles. But I always thought that if it ever happened to me, it would be a transparent process and I would have the opportunity to accept the conditions deliberately.
