How is it being a female in a male-dominated career?

Hey Alexandra!

This is a valid concern considering women in the workforce haven’t always had equal treatment. We have made great strides. I am privileged to work for a leading technology company that goes out of their way to ensure women are treated just as equally as men. My tips for you:

Start doing your research now on potential employers. How to they stack up in equal pay treatment and benefits? (As an example, do they have benefits for working mothers?)  Do they have a good representation of women in leadership? These are great indicators that your business doesn’t see worth based on gender, so much as skillsets.

Another piece of advice would be to focus on your skillsets and being proactive with strengthening them. Find some mentors in the field and interview them on what their career path was and what skillsets they are strong in to get where they are currently.  

Going in, focus less on your gender and more about showing them what you bring to the table.

You’ve got this! :)

Hello Alexandra,

I work in a technology industry where the majority of the senior leaders are male. Within my organization I have been lucky enough to be part of a program that helps develop female leaders and have received some amazing feedback that I would like to pass on. First, remember that you have a voice and a voice that should be heard. Men will speak up even when they only have a percentage of the answer/information and women tend wait until they are at 100% . If you have value to add add it! Second, no one is given a seat at the table you have earn it and take it. Be your own advocate. Make sure others know your value and worth. This is not being “braggy” or conceited this is being strong and taking the seat that belongs to you. Lastly, (I have heard this in many answers) be true to yourself. As a woman you bring a perspective and skill set that is unique and as you you bring so much more. Own that.

Good luck!

Hi!

You can go through this article:

You rarely see another soul in the ladies room. On too many occasions, you’ve been mistaken for someone’s assistant. Sound familiar? For many young, successful women, “making it” professionally means learning to master male-dominated workplaces where boys’ clubs still somehow pervade.

In college, I lived with seven girls. And so, perhaps it was no surprise that I found the transition to investment banking—where I was the only female analyst in my group’s class—to be rather challenging. But from finance, I jumped into sports, and I have yet to look back.

And along the way, I picked up some practical tips for thriving in the office—even when the gender ratio isn’t in your favor.

1. The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

Chances are, your male colleagues are constantly vocalizing which opportunities and projects they want—and you might be sitting there, working hard, and waiting to get what is rightfully yours.

Sadly, most bosses are too busy to figure out what the most equitable project allocation is, and it often comes down to who yapped last to them about that hot media deal or the new partnership your company is launching. If you aren’t good at grabbing your boss in the hall or during your morning coffee break and bringing up the projects that excite you, then schedule formal time to check in at least once a month and let your boss know what you’d like to work on.

2. Beer is for Bonding

The best career opportunities often come out of interactions outside the office—often over a beer. The guys I’ve worked with would grab beers all the time—and I quickly learned to join them, whether or not I felt like drinking that particular night. And if you’re not invited (yes, this happened to me), create your own happy hour invitation—who can turn down a cold brewski?

3. Avoid Being Too Easily Offended

Guys have this thing at work called the Circle of Trust. You gain entry when they know they can be themselves around you, without being reported to HR. In the banking analyst bullpen, I heard every disgusting story there is to tell—but I stayed cool. And as a result, I eventually became part of the group and was included in the nights of ordering dinner in or going out for beers.

Note: There is a line, and “staying cool” doesn’t mean letting the guys cross it—sexual harassment is never OK.

4. Don’t Be Anyone’s Coffee or Lunch Getter

How many successful men in the workplace do you see picking up their boss’s lunch or coffee? If you’re not someone’s assistant, do not get in the habit of acting like one. Sure, maybe there are special exceptions when your boss is in fire drill mode or decides to treat a group for getting his coffee—but don’t make it a regular thing. And if your male peers aren’t chipping in—then you shouldn’t be doing it, either.

5. Don’t Be the “Yes” Woman

In the industries I’ve worked in, there’s tremendous pressure to work hard and keep an overflowing plate. Lunch and coffee runs aside, it’s all too easy to say yes to every project as you strive to “be a good employee”—but if you never say no, you’ll ultimately just hurt both yourself and your company. It’s important to stand up for the projects you really want to work on (see #1), and then push back at other times when you don’t have capacity. You can bet many of the guys say no—and you should, too.

6. Play to Your Strengths (Even When They’re Stereotypes)

The first week of my banking internship, my managing director asked me how the interns were doing and feeling. I’m willing to bet he asked me partly because I was the only woman there, and he assumed I was therefore most likely to know about people’s “feelings.” But you know what? I did. And thus started our mutually beneficial relationship: I gave him a live read of the pulse of the group he was managing, and he gave me the opportunity for senior exposure. Whether it’s listening, emotional aptitude, empathy, socializing or just being the den mother—if you have these strengths, play to them. They’re good qualities to demonstrate as a rising future leader, and, particularly in a workplace where those skills are in short supply, they’re also not a bad way to get noticed.

7. Get a Sponsor

A sponsor is a mentor who will promote you within your organization, who has your back, and who will tell the rest of organization—including the senior leaders—how great you are and how much you deserve recognition (and promotions). And like it or not, it can be nearly impossible to advance as a woman in a male-dominated workplace without a sponsor. Dr. Sylvia Ann Hewlett has written quite a bit about sponsorship, including its importance for women. What does it all mean for you? Start building relationships with your boss and other senior leaders from the beginning, and pay particular attention to cultivate those relationships with the individuals who believe in you and publicly support you—they are going to be your best advocates.

Source: https://www.themuse.com/advice/7-ways-to-excel-in-a-maledominated-workplace

I would say be yourself, and do not let anyone make you feel incompetent. Know your worth! Alot of times women feel they have to be humble and downplay their knowledge....don't be that way! Also, if you have mentors in your industry that you can leverage to have your back...that helps.

Hi there! I'm a software engineer, and I look around my workplace, and see statistics that remind me of this almost every day. Good news is, more women are working in tech than ever before and there are great organizations that will help you connect with your peers. One organization is ChickTech https://chicktech.org/, which has chapters across the US and hosts local and annual conferences. When I've attended ChickTech events, and other women in tech events, I've found it easy to find people who look like me, have similar backgrounds to me, and were struggling with similar problems. It felt good to have people to talk to! And it's taught me the importance of helping others in their careers too. We are so strong when we work together!

Hey Alexandra: It's not always easy being a woman in a male-dominated field, but if you're doing work you enjoy, and are willing to do some research into employers, it's definitely worth it. As a woman who has been working in software development for many years, I've found that I'm happiest in organizations where there are already some women in leadership roles at the company. That's a good sign that the company values and promotes women. I also look for companies that have internal groups that support women, like women-in-tech get togethers. When these groups exist, you have a built-in community you can turn to for support. You can get a good sense of whether a company will be supportive of women when you interview there:

-See if there are women on the committee interviewing you. If there are, you can ask them about their experience at the company. If there aren't, it's a sign that you might be on your own. That's OK as long as you know what you're getting into.

-Ask in the interview about how the company supports women and their careers. Ask both women and men. If only the women can speak to this, that's an indication that the whole company isn't on board yet and you may struggle there.

When you are involved in a career field, you are judged by the contribution that you are making to the accomplishment of the company's goal. As long as you do all that you can do to assist in that direction, you will do fine and will be treated based upon your accomplishments.

However, the most important thing for you to determine for yourself is if this area is the most suitable career field for you. Many people have the most problem with their career when they become involved in an area for which they are not well suited, as it affects their ability to perform and contribute to the company's goals.

Getting to know yourself and how your personality traits relate to people involved in various career opportunities is very important in your decision making process. During my many years in Human Resources and College Recruiting, I ran across too many students who had skipped this very important step and ended up in a job situation which for which they were not well suited. Selecting a career area is like buying a pair of shoes. First you have to be properly fitted for the correct size, and then you need to try on and walk in the various shoe options to determine which is fits the best and is most comfortable for you to wear. Following are some important steps which I developed during my career which have been helpful to many .

I work in a networking domain and the ratio is less as compare to men but if you know your job well no one will question you no matter what.

I worked in hotel management for 10 years, which is a very male dominated field. I found that I gained the most respect by treating the men I worked besides and under with the same force, confidence and social grace that I bring to my relationships with the women in my life. It can be intimidating and sometimes I wanted to "play the role" of woman in the office, That only gave others the chance to treat me differently. If you own who you are and the experience you bring then it shouldn't matter who you're working with. Let your skills and performance speak for itself :)

I totally understand the thought process behind asking this question and hence I am answering accordingly. Yes, STEM has lesser number of women compared to other fields . That's the more the reason to encourage women to join STEM fields. My favourite thing is get to do what I love. I work as Technical Consulting Engineer and I solve Customer's problems everyday , interact with them and help them through different processes. 

Having said that , every job has its fair share of prejudices and cons. Be rational and practical.

If you are passionate about learning and working in STEM field , don't let your gender be a roadblock. Decide exactly which vertical you want to join and how you want to progress in your career then focus on that and go about it.

As long as you keep learning and excel at your job , anyone else's prejudice shouldn't be a cause of concern. My colleagues , both male and female always motivate me do my best . Research says that mix gender workforce is more productive than single gender ones.

Also with regards to being talked down , If you ever face such a a scenario at workplace be sure to inform your manager or concerned authorities. Every company has gender diversity cell or HR who addresses such concerns.

Alexandra...First of all congrats in choosing a great field to pursue in your career. Second, think about why you made that choice and the steps you need to take to get your degree and land a job with the right company. Third, think about all the women who were the "first" in their field. They went for it regardless of who was there before since they knew they were passionate about what they wanted to do and determined to make a success of it regardless of their gender. With effort and determination you will be successful.

Gender should not be a roadblock for you in your career,

As long as you set a goal and continuously learning new skills including soft skills, communication etc to achieve your goal. I had worked in one of manufacturing industry and now working in IT Tech industry, and I found many great females leaders & colleagues.

Finding mentors can be a great way for you to help your development

Hi Alexandra,

Great question, and I think it is important to think about institutional challenges women and minorities face in stem. I'm not a woman, but I've had the privilege to work with many amazing women in the engineering and computer science space and hear their stories. I hope this response provides some general value.

I think Ken offers some good advice here, but I want to rebut his claim about finding the right fit through external validation (i.e. aptitude and personality tests, etc). This is precisely the bad advice leads to women and minorities dropping out of STEM or thinking they're not qualified to pursue it. The other advice he gives though is good. Definitely apply for internships, talk to women computer scientist and software engineers in field, and find mentors.

So to Ken's first and second point, don't do this. Aptitude tests are poor signals for your potential success in a given field and often test your ability to take tests and not actually the core concepts. The way you demonstrate you're a good software engineer is to write good good, which comes with practice and experience. Personality traits are a terrible proxy for "fit". The underlying research for personality traits in the workplace is very hokey, institutionally biased, and often serves to disadvantage women and minorities by selecting for traditionally white male traits (see refs below) . Additionally, it's not reflective of the diverse work environments out there. When you're on the job market, you'll learn to find which environments and teams you'll be most successful in. It may be trial and error. For me it was several poor environment fits, until I learned where I could be successful. It's ok when you struggle. You'll learn about yourself in the process.

The best test is learning by doing. Find a technical project (build an app, a website, whatever) you're excited about and do it. Ask for help if you need it, research on your own, and see how far you get. If you fail, totally cool. Are you motivated to pick it up again, or perhaps try a different project. If so, you're in the right space. It is very much about trial and error and finding the problem space that you find interesting (whether its a particular domain vertical, or perhaps a technical stack - front end vs backend or both). But you'll know what you find compelling and interesting by experimenting.

In my experiences working with amazing women in engineering and computer science, I've heard many stories where they felt they didn't belong and or felt couldn't make it. This was due peers, guidance counselors, and conversations with biased professionals in the field telling the them they weren't a good fit or they couldn't hack it. It's unfortunate, but the academic system and traditional IT shops (large companies with male dominated departments) often provide terrible signals as to your capacity for success. They can only measure how well you do at accomplishing tasks and instructions in rigidly defined and artificial circumstances. 

This is a bit of personal thing for me as well. I ended up majoring in English because I thought I wouldn't be able to be successful in CS. CS programs have pedagogically changed since I was in college and are taught much more effectively today. Theory is paired with practice, and foundational knowledge is explicitly taught. And if the program is lacking, there is many online resources to bridge the gap.

And as a heads up, I do machine learning and artificial intelligence research today. I was able teach myself the advanced math, statistics, and programming to be successful. So even if you end up not sticking with CS, if it a field you that you feel is a calling, you'll find a way back in.

It's often a terrible cycle of negative reinforcement, where searching for external signals may end up making you feel even more insecure. You'll unfairly compare yourself to others and get bad signals that aren't a true reflection of your potential. The only signal you should trust is your internal motivation and curiousity.

Here's some advice, which I hope maybe helpful:

1. Surround yourself with the right people who are positive, ambitious and supportive. This could be other female STEM students, honest friends you trust, it could be professors, professional mentors and family. But try to build a support system where you can and engage them in the good time and bad times.
2. Experiment a lot and don't wait to code. Computer Science is one of the few fields where there are no real repercussions to live experiments. You're not going to fry your computer writing bad code (unless you're cpu hacking, in which case be careful!). So explore different tools, frameworks, problem spaces and see where they take you. Some things will be interesting and some things will be boring. But they are all useful signals in your development as computer scientist. You'll learn where you struggle and will need to work harder and where you naturally excel. Reflect on which of those problem spaces were most exciting, motivating and fulfilling to you and look for professional opportunities there ( internships, coops, jobs, etc).
3. Learn to trust yourself by making mistake often. This one is really hard, because we are often hardest on ourselves when we stumble and falter and mistakes can be costly. But the more mistakes you make, the more you learn about yourself. The biggest takeaway here is you can't alway control external circumstances but you can control the decisions you make. If you learn to trust yourself and are confident in the choices future you will make, you'll be able to weather adversity as it comes.
4. Take risks and apply for moonshots. I too often see my women friends not apply for jobs and internships because they feel like they don't check all the boxes. At the end of the day, many of these opportunities are crapshoots. The worst case scenario is you get rejected, which is no different from the status quo where you didn't apply. But there's always a chance and the upside is alway worth that risk. And as an aside, if you get selected for that moonshot you think you're unqualified form, you are not unqualified. You were selected because they saw potential in you and believe that you will do what it takes to be successful.

Good luck!

References:

Aptitude Tests are Bad

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/04/19/34-problems-with-standardized-tests/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.84dee1eecbc9

Limitations of Personality Tests:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/25/483108905/personality-tests-are-popular-but-do-they-capture-the-real-you

https://www.humanguide.org/images/Documents/pdf/Personality_Testing_Gladwell_eng.pdf

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/dangers-personality-tests-screen-workers/

https://www.law.upenn.edu/journals/jbl/articles/volume4/issue2/Stabile4U.Pa.J.Lab.&Emp.L.279(2002).pdf

Confidence is key. Being able to prove that just because you are female you, are as good I'd not better than your peers. Work everyday to prove you got that career because you deserve it!

It's a good question.

People may think it's very hard and quite challenging at the very beginning, and indeed it requires courage for females to start in a male dominated career.

The good thing is many leading companies are aware of the importance of diversity(e.g. gender equality), it's an advantage being a female engineer at times. For example, we have "connected women" and "women in Cisco" in my organization which I am very proud of, we have lots of community activities to help female engineers grow.

Hi Alexandra,

There are definitely challenges but I still find working in tech to be a rewarding career. My advice to you would be to not let imposter syndrome get the best of you.  Be prepared to deal with things like being talked over or having your ideas ignored by practicing how to combat those kind of situations and build relationships to help amplify your voice and successes. Research companies which are working to hire a diverse workforce. Look at their board of directors and senior management to see if how the diversity looks in leadership.  Network at local events and talk to people who work at the companies you’re interested in and ask questions about the culture and office environment. Networking can also help you get your foot in the door for an interview. ALWAYS negotiate your compensation. It’s very difficult to make up for a low starting salary without changing jobs to a new company. Research salaries and opportunities at least once a year. It’s always nice to see what else is out there and if you’re getting paid what you’re worth even if you think you’re happy where you are. Set and track measurable goals so you can provide quantitative data when it comes time to request a promotion or a raise.

I would tell you that if you are working somewhere that it would even be a factor then it isn’t the place for you. I have 7 General Managers who work for me and proudly 5 are female. They are amazing employees and gifted leaders. Your effort and engagement is what is important not your gender!

One of the greatest things about being a woman in a male dominated field is that you automatically DO stand out. I have found it be an advantage - people remember me more than my male peers because there are so many of them.

Early in your career, focus on adding value in what ever situation you find yourself in. Be willing to help others - but speak up for yourself and own your work. The more wins you put on the board - the less people will think of you as a woman, the more they will simply come to understand your talent.