The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
There aren’t a lot of female software engineers out there, but being one is not all that bad! I love being a software engineer, for many reasons that are not gender-specific: the excitement of new releases that impact real users, working with an awesome team, being an active part of the thriving Palo Alto startup community… But then there are a lot of reasons that I love being a female software engineer.
Casual attire
While I’m sure lots of male engineers appreciate the casual engineer dress code, I really appreciate it. For men, assorted button-down shirts and slacks will suffice for business-casual attire, but women seem to have some pressure to “update their wardrobe” and “accessorize.” As for me? My college wardrobe transitioned seamlessly into my work wardrobe. Now, standard work apparel is t-shirt and jeans, accessorized with a pair of flip-flops, sneakers, sanuks, or if I am feeling particularly fun, my vibrams. I don’t really enjoy or have time to go shopping, so this works out well.
The Odds
The odds are really freaking good, and only some of the goods are odd. Sure there are a bunch of socially awkward engineers, but because of the sheer scarcity of women in the field, if you are a single female you can have first pick of a lot of really nice available guys. I met my husband Tyler while we were both working for Google in NY, and he has said that he’s glad he met me before he moved out to California. With the scarcity of women in software, I don’t envy any of the single male software engineers in Silicon Valley.
Less Drama
I’ve actually never worked somewhere that has more women than men, but I suspect that working with mostly men keeps the workplace drama-free. Not that all or most women are moody drama queens, but you know, it happens. It just seems to happen less with men.
Being Memorable
While I would of course love to see more women in the industry, a perk of being one of the few is that people remember you. If you go to a tech event or conference and meet 30 male developers and 2 female developers, you will probably remember their names, or at least their faces. You also get the added bonus of seeing people’s confused reactions when they ask you if you’re in marketing, and you tell them that you are a developer.
Being Liked
It’s just nice to have some women in a male-dominated workspace. They generally remember to shower every so often, and if you ever bring brownies to work, you’re suddenly everyone’s favorite person for at least a few minutes (though this is true for males as well). Sure, if you’re a real bitch, no one’s going to like you, but most female engineers are easy to get along with and are well-liked and appreciated in their team. It makes it a little less like, hey look at all this testosterone fueling our coding hackathons in this smelly room.
If you’re a female software engineer, feel free to comment on any benefits you’ve experienced either compared to men in the field, or compared to women in other fields!
Related posts:
- My Experiences as a Female Software Engineer
- The Thrill of a Deadline
- Thoughts about School and Work
- Are All Engineers Better Off Joining Startups?
- How Effective are Technical Interviews?
Comments (36)
Only a single monitor? Poor you!
I agree with all of these except for the drama part. I think women are more dramatic with other women and men are more dramatic with other men. So I think as women in our field we experience less of it directly but we all know the man drama that can ensue when to supper egos clash.
My boyfriend is a real partner who respects and nurtures my coding abilities and we met in university in computer science. We love sharing nerdy discoveries with each other.
cuz I can lol
I am doing what I was born to do and I didn’t even know about it till university. I really hope more young girls can be exposed to this rewarding and lucrative career.
I agree with the odds benefit too. They learn more hygene as they grow older I find
I love how myself I can be with the guys too. Everyone’s a nerd here I can let out a proud nerdy snort and I’ll get a high five for it.
I myself love fashion but if I’m too busy to put on makeup that day I’ll still get compliments. Nothing like male programmers to help you with self esteem or body issues. Maybe not if they’re assholes but MOST programmers are sweet supportive intelligent people who respect their female colleagues, at least away from open source conferences. They’ll stick up for you if the odd asshole comes along but they’ll also expect you to be able to fend for yourself first and I like that
Great article!
Having worked in open source for almost 10 years, I almost forget what it’s like to work in a more gender balanced environment at my previous employers. However, I’ll have to agree with the previous commenter that drama definitely happens in mostly male environments. I also concur that you stand out in people’s memory more as a female software developer.
Another perk: Go to a concert and there’s a huge line up for the women’s washroom. Go to an open source conference. No line up for the women’s washroom at break time
Loving this!
Second the bathroom lines, and another perk is there are always free t-shirts left in your size
That’s a good one–assuming they order women’s sizes!
So true!
I have a lot of free T-shirts that end up used as pajamas. Only ever have to buy bottoms
lol
Sometimes its good to be the girl.
Great Article! I agree with everything in the article. The only problem I have with being a software engineer is that where I live(Texas), there are zero women I know who enjoy the same thing. I will find a woman software engineer from time to time, but they lack the passion that I find in a lot of male developers. As much as I like hanging out with my fellow male nerds, I read about all these “women in tech” meetups in the valley, and I wish I could meet more women like me.
It’s good internet exists to connect us
Yes, I agree! Very thankful for that
Hi Saba and other Female Engineering Ladies. You are very welcome to join our “Female Engineering at Google” group on LinkedIN. Perhaps you find new interesting connections there as well as learn some exciting things about Google!
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?viewMembers=&gid=3171831&sik=1315851677580
I actually don’t agree with you but its nice to hear other females opinion.
I really hate the “dress code” because I really love dressing nice. However, I think my swedish co-workers dress really well compared to the engineers I met on business trips in US and Asia. So I guess I shouldn’t complain…
Being Memorable must be the big benefit and the non-exsisting lines to the bathroom….
I know that I’ll probably upset some when I say this, but I have to admit that I enjoy wearing skirts to the office, especially when I know that I’m going to a meeting where a controversial subject will be discussed, and that my skirt may cause some degree of distraction on the part of the rest of the participants. It may not give me a read advantage in the discussion (other than the extra boost of self-confidence), but I still think about it when I’m deciding what to wear each day.
Agreed on all counts!
For me, I love the casual dress code because it means that I can wear some really wacky stuff when I feel like – runway-inspired ensembles, outfits bordering on business formal, retro-inspired stuff, whatever – as long as I’m sufficiently covered, anything goes. And yet, on days I feel crappy, I can roll into work in jeans and sneakers and no one will bat an eyelash.
I wear dresses into work when i want to dress up and when i don’t care, its biggest jeans possible and the biggest hoodie possible, all still acceptable.
Lana is right in saying that your male peers end up being like a gang of big brothers who will stick up for you at any point which is a major plus.
I don’t know if its just me, but I can never get a round of drinks in. Not complaining though but I do find it funny.
The only down side to working with men is that if they are in a foul mood with you, its hard to get the reason out of them.
I agree with most of this article. Amen to dress code and bathrooms!! Also, flexibility with work hours.
Things I disagree with:
Meeting partners: I have yet to meet someone, whom I fancy, in a work environment. I think it depends on which industry you are working in. There are different types of software engineering jobs – pure software (Google, Facebook), software/hardware products (Telecom, Datacom), finance-related software etc.
My background is in Telecom/Datacom and 90+% of the people I work with are already married with kids. Very few young (<30 years old) people in general.
Drama/Politics: There is a huge amount of drama at work between the men and between men/women. Everything ranging from clothing, mood, finance, politics etc. I've never worked in a female-centric environment, but, I would think that the drama aspect is similar.
Being Liked: I think it's easier for younger/less experienced women to be liked, I suppose. With age/experience and rank, the "like" factor can decrease drastically due to other factors, chiefly politics and competition. There will be people who will like you for who you are and how well you do what you do. And others won't. The ratio differs with industry and rank too, I think. Would love to hear more from senior women on this issue.
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We translated it into Chinese.
Chinese link: http://news.cnblogs.com/n/92996/
i agree with your view…there will be a plenty of girls join the IT industry…when they see the blog..
I agree with the point about being memorable. I am offended at the point about drama. Are you higher drama than guys, because you are a woman? I work with a lot of women right now, and it is no more drama than when I worked at Google with primarily guys.
Hmm well I’ve never worked with mainly women before but friends in other industries with more women seem to complain about workplace drama more frequently. Maybe it’s the industry then that attracts less drama-prone types, or maybe I’ve just been lucky…
As a dude in IT, it’s great having women around. As long as there’s at least one, management seems to make that extra effort for a nice working environment, and is less likely to push really tough hours.
Plus since they draw all the attention, it’s easier for us to focus on our work, especially without fear of making mistakes.
I’m not sure I’d want to date any of them, though. Not sure if I could give them as much attention as they’re used to. Not sure if anyone could!
P.S. Are people essentially proving your point with all the drama about your “less drama” point?
haha yeah…I didn’t know that would cause so much debate / disagreement. It was meant to be more of a lighthearted post anyways… =)
“You also get the added bonus of seeing people’s confused reactions when they ask you if you’re in marketing, and you tell them that you are a developer.”
I really agree with you as above. I’m enjoying that feeling. I’m proud that I am a developer, not a marketing. I cannot smile to everyone and say good to them even I don’t like them just to keep them as my potential customers.
I’ve been in development over 12 years, since I was 22.. I don’t have a formal education and I always get the surprised look when I tell people I’m a developer. Always find that part entertaining! I agree with Rupa about the competitive-ness end of things too. I have run into alot of men in this field who can be pretty rude and patronizing but I usually just chalk it up to intimidation.. And make sure I know what I’m talking about if I get involved in a tech convo with any of them. Lol.
Overall I really enjoy working jnthis field but lately I’ve been getting bored with it.. Maybe I need a new language or platform? Or maybe I should go to the marketing department?? Not sure yet..
Yes. I agree!!!
I’ve been a developer for many years and have been in quite a few different cultures. For the most part, it has been a rewarding experience. In some places I’ve worked, I felt like I have really been valued. In others, not so much. I felt more like they have you working there only because you are a female and didn’t value you otherwise. But that has to do with certain people’s attitudes and I choose to focus more on the job at hand and the satisfaction of my work.
Being able to dress casual and being more memorable are definitely perks I’ve enjoyed. And some of the guys have gone into “protection mode” in some circumstances. Which is funny because my project manager laughs and says to me “you really don’t need anyone to protect you” when a couple developers felt they needed to “protect me”.
I’ve always liked the response I get when I tell people what I do. I don’t know why it surprises people. At one .NET developers group meeting, I actually was approached and told “the Microsoft Office meeting is tomorrow”. Wow, that was interesting. But it felt good to say, “no, I’m at the right meeting”.
Having a nicer environment is nice too but I’m not sure how much that has to do with working with other females. I worked in a place with a couple other females and they didn’t have a regular cleaning person. There was actually mold growing in the sink because the bathroom wasn’t cleaned for a year. I wonder if this would bother the guys….. But I’m no longer with that place and I do like working in a “clean environment”.
I just truly love being a software developer and working with other developers that are passionate about their work. I wouldn’t see myself doing anything else…
I just finished the first year of my software engineering degree and I am the only girl in the course. At first it was a bit daunting, but now I’m fine with it. Its actually better with just boys, I can be myself more and they all appreciate that I’m the only girl and they respect me for it.
I don’t know id internship and a real job is the same thing but I have done internships and i agree with this article, there are barely any female developers. I really loved the attention where i was interning. even though i was nt their employee, they treated me like one.
i came across this blog when i was browsing about “how to dress for work”. well im a recent graduate, and i just got a job offer. I have no idea how the work environment will be(other than my internship experience). but reading this article really made me visualize a little bit. if you have any advice, its much appreciated. I’m 21 and i’m just cluless on what to wear to work. i wore casuals when i was doing my internship, mainly because i was an intern…
Hi Samantha,
Check out this Quora response! http://www.quora.com/What-should-women-wear-to-work-at-a-Silicon-Valley-startup
Though the focus there is non-eng I believe. For eng, t-shirt and jeans is fine, though if you want to dress up a bit, it wouldn’t be too weird either =)
Ladies- I have truly enjoyed reading this string. I was doing a little google surfing on the topic and landed on this site. Not that you added your comments to get recruited but I couldn’t resist. I am part of the HR team at GE. We would love to get more women in engineering in general but also specifically in Software engineering. We have a couple places in our company where we specifically hire software engineers. I am 12 years in with GE and I have to say I love it. We are even in the process of starting up a software operation out in California as well as our other exisiting sites (Atlanta, Greenville, Charlottesville, etc). If you are looking for a challenging career in Software Engineering where great talent can grow and achieve their goals, we’d love you see you apply. All the best in your careers.
is the red box on the table a cigarette package? lol