I just got back from wrapping up our table at the Girls Inc. "Re::thinc Girls" conference in Ajax. The goal of the conference was to inspire young women who might consider careers in technology.It was a well organized event, if perhaps a bit short, and we had a good size crowd of people.
I see in my business a disparity between the number of male and female applicants for positions. It seems we expect a female population of 20% in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. I can certainly support that from my experience.
I've been thinking about my place in a conference like this for a while now. My journey here has been very different than most women.
Being born male, and growing up when I did, I was encouraged to explore technology. My parents supported my participation in the local computer club, the computer fairs at school, they gave me space to explore and develop this passion. It has defined who I am as a professional today.
For cis girls, they have to overcome various social stigmas and expectations in order to stand up and declare their interest in a STEM field. They have to endure being so tremendously outnumbered in these fields, the misogyny that accompanies that. "Brogrammers" is a newfangled term that makes my blood boil.
So many professional women we see in this field represent a victory over circumstance.
But it's a different story for me. My challenge was a different victory over a different circumstance.
Girls didn't like math. Girls didn't like technology. I did, therefore I couldn't be a girl. Easy, right?
Even today, someone at the conference stated that boys like technology for technology's sake, girls like it for the social aspect. Bollocks!
I don't know how much of an inspiration I could be to a young woman considering a STEM career, given that at some level I have to attribute much of my existence here now to male privilege. As angry as that makes me. As much as I'd like to be that inspiration. As much as I feel like I have an obligation to be.
I had a conversation with an acquaintance earlier this week, it was a powerful moment for me. She was struggling with the idea of presenting that generic professional image to the world in order to take the next step in her career. She was worried about how much of herself to bring to her professional life.
It struck me hard. I saw myself in this struggle, my transition. How much of myself do I bring to the world? The answer to that question for me was once "as little as possible," I hid behind my interest in technology like it was a shield, believing that it would hide my true self.
My answer this week, of course, was that you must bring all of yourself. We are the whole breadth and depth of who we are, not just some professional façade. When we suppress any part of ourselves, we lose authenticity, we don't engage as well as we might have, we are incomplete.
We show our brilliance when we engage our whole selves.
So here I am, a professional woman, an entrepreneur with a history of starting technology businesses, hoping to inspire youth of all genders to consider a career in a STEM field. To bring their whole selves into it, to forget about what the world tells you you can or cannot do, whether it's based on gender, race, age, or whatever.
If only I'd known when I was young that girls could do this.
