Women Contributors on Tech Blogs (and the lack of them)
I was reading the post on the Solutions Are Power blog (Network Solutions) about women in social media and it got me thinking about my experience as a female in tech. Christina Warren makes a good point that girls are perhaps discouraged early on from joining the tech industry. I don’t want to dive too deep into it either, but I have to agree.
And then, today, Aaron Brazell at Technosailor wrote a post about women bloggers which sparked an interesting discussion in his comments.
As for me, I had a technologically rich upbringing (thanks Dad!). So, it was a bit of a surprise when I entered the real world and was instantly challenged by males in tech. (Sorry to call you out like this, but its true.) I think that requiring peers to prove themselves to us is a natural tendency. However, I know the difference between proving myself as a peer and proving myself because of my gender.
But most of the time during my career pursuits, the issue of gender doesn’t cross my mind. I am definitely not going to dive into the psychology of this or any discouragement of women to enter tech. I just wanted to mention that I have both experienced it and not experienced it. To Aaron’s point, I really don’t think its in anyone’s interest to make it a gender battle.
I took a few moments to glance at the names of the contributors on my favorite tech blogs. Mostly male sounding names and definitely not a 50/50 gender split. There is definitely a lack of women contributors out there, especially on the tech blogs, and I really wish I had a good solution to propose. However, if you know of some good female tech blogs, send them my way!