Where to go for a girl in IT?

Question

Career in IT

Here's the thing... Employers don't show much interest in a female programmer. The prevailing stereotype that a girl's place is far beyond programming limits the candidate-applicant in possible employment. It is clear that in childhood, boys play with technology, all sorts of mechanisms, and girls play with dolls, daughters, mothers and other snotty nonsense. But why does it all go into "adult" life? Why is the waiter a unisex profession, and there are no stereotypes here? Or, here, a fishing and hunting goods store: the seller is a girl. Let's go to a car service - a girl-mechanic. After all, someone hired them. But why is everything so sad in programming?

Answer 1

There are objective factors. For example, Sergei cited an objective factor - young girls can suddenly go on maternity leave. Therefore, for a long-term project, in which 1-3 developers of girls are reluctantly taken.
And there are many subjective factors. One of them is male chauvinism.
Alas, with the manifestation of male chauvinism faced many times.
Sometimes it was due to the real personal experience of leaders and wrong generalizations. For example, they took a girl - she didn’t pull, the conclusion is - all the girls don’t pull. There was a situation that those tasks that were given to that girl, with that model of project management (that is, without management at all), she did not pull. But then I found myself in a different area of ​​development with a different approach to project management.
I had to insist on my personal responsibility that they take the girl. I knew for sure that the girl is super, she alone is worth half of the existing team (purely male at that time). Convinced, broke the minds of the leadership. Then a few more girls were taken, although not all of them were as successful as the first one. Then, when half of the boys fled, the girl pulled the project to the last. But another time (in another company) such a number did not work - I could not break the position of the leadership.
I didn’t just say that about project management - girls, as a rule, work worse under pressure (this is also in the comment @bk0011m). It is more difficult to force a girl to work in the evening or on weekends. This means that the manager will have to improve the quality of project management. That is, you also have to work.
It is also a problem that women have lower self-esteem. Now I won’t share a proof link, but I came across an article that describes that women applying for programmer positions have, on average, higher qualifications in the technologies required for the vacancy, but there are more men applying for this vacancy. This is not because there are an order of magnitude more men among programmers (although there are indeed more of them, but not by that much). And because a woman, seeing a list of technologies in the job description, will apply for this vacancy only if she is absolutely sure that she is an expert in all these technologies. And a man will apply for this vacancy even if he knows only one thing well, but he heard something about the rest.
All this leads to the fact that there are more men in this industry.
I can't tell you exactly what to do. But I can definitely say that you need to be able to present yourself. For example, contributing to open source projects or, even better, public open source projects on github will definitely help. Articles on habrahabr.
Read: https://risik.info/?p=558 and https://risik.info/?p=555 maybe it will help somehow :)
And of course: femalesoftwareeng.tumblr.com

Answer 2

It's not about programming.
When we were recruiting employees, the boss categorically did not want to take women. As he explained to me, women are more conflicted, and on occasion you won’t move in the eye and you won’t send 3 letters. Even young girls like to go on maternity leave, which also scares many. Then they often ask for time off, childcare, etc. Again, the fame of collectors of gossip and discussion of colleagues has strengthened for women.
I'm not saying that everyone is like that, I'm not saying that there are no such men .. It just happens to women more often.
In any case, do not give up on yourself. Prove yourself, collect a portfolio, show that you are not a gray mass, but a hardworking, ideological employee.

Answer 3

Look, nobody cares about your gender.
Go show your skills and work.
Or look for excuses and don't work. It's purely your business.

Answer 4

I know several female programmers, and quite good ones.
I have never heard from them a word about the fact that they had problems of your kind.
At our current job, 50% of our QA department is female.

Answer 5

And I think that the power is in the truth!
For whom the truth is the stronger!
Here you deceived someone ... you made money ... do you think you have become stronger?
......
So the brother says that he did not ...
To be a "strong" and in-demand programmer (gender is not important), you need to prove it with your code.

Answer 6

In Russia, there is a small problem with this, in particular for small companies.
If you have experience and knowledge, you can try to get a job in normal companies, they usually do not look at gender or age.
You can always find a team to develop certain projects. Working remotely on startups, etc. With a decree, you will simply be replaced.
In fact, if a girl comes to an interview and starts talking in terms and slang, the first thing that is seen in the eyes of the employer is surprise.
If the interview is not failed, then you will be selected among the other candidates.
That's how people are, if we see something new or that doesn't fit into the standard framework, we want to know more about it.
All this took place on his own skin.

Answer 7

You will inevitably encounter sexism. There is probably no country where sexism has been completely eliminated. And in Russia, with its traditional values, sexism has been elevated to the rank of the norm. Just look at how feminism is attacked in society. Unfortunately, many girls themselves support such an attitude, they believe that the life of a housewife is the only thing to strive for.
I advise you not to give up and look for further work. There will probably be less sexism in young hipster companies. In the West - even less.

Answer 8

Don't think!
I am a programmer girl, for 8 years of work I have never experienced any discrimination. At the interview, they sometimes asked why I chose such a "male" profession, but these are isolated cases and usually the answer "just wondering" suited them completely.
Therefore, develop, learn new things and train more. Believe me, the employer absolutely does not care what gender the employee is, if he is a good specialist.

Answer 9

I don’t know, I worked more than once with female programmers, there were no stereotypes about them, I think the main thing here is straight hands, not gender. Although maybe you have a city of sexists)

Answer 10

I have always loved working with girls/women. Just because of the less conflict (me with them)))) The girls challenged my decisions less. Yes, they were not always correct, but in the end the process did not stand still and everything moved. It didn't work that way with men. I'm talking from a team leader's point of view.
I don't support stereotypes. I confirm the question of the decree.

Answer 11

By the way, taking _one_ girl into the team would be a good decision. In general, employers are more focused on the level of salary. Perhaps the first step is to lower the level of your desires.