Sometimes it can be difficult to see the brighter side of the tech industry, especially for women. But there are quite a few individuals who are willing to take on the task of highlighting diversity in their field.
On August 1, engineer Isis Wenger wrote a short essay for Medium about her experience as a woman in working in the technology industry.
In Wenger's post, she highlights some of the examples of systemic sexism that happens as a female in the industry, writing, "I’ve had men throw dollar bills at me in a professional office (by an employee who works at that company, during work hours)," and, "I’ve had an engineer on salary at a bootcamp message me to explicitly 'be friends with benefits' while I was in the interview process at the school he worked for."
Wenger is featured in an ad at her current job at OneLogin where she works as a full-stack engineer. Her picture in the ad has garnered some attention both online and off -- and not all of it has been good. Some commenters online have attacked Wenger for being "too sexy" and criticized the ad for just trying to attract women.
Wenger posted a screenshot of the Facebook post in her essay on Medium.
"I’m just a human and I prefer to keep my life simple/reserved, but it blows my mind that my fully-clothed smiling face with unbrushed hair and minimal makeup on a white wall is seemingly more controversial in some communities than this simply because of my gender," Wenger writes in the essay.
Wenger notes that she is just one engineer and is not a representation of all women in her company. Just like her male coworkers, she does now think the way she looks should factor into whether she looks right for the job or not. Instead, she thinks more emphasis should be put on how well she does her job and how much she cares for her team.
"Do you feel passionately about helping spread awareness about tech gender diversity?
Do you not fit the “cookie-cutter mold” of what people believe engineers “should look like?”
If you answered yes to any of these questions I invite you to help spread the word and help us redefine “what an engineer should look like”. #iLookLikeAnEngineer"
In response to her essay, other cis gendered female and LGBTQ engineers have been tweeting their impressive credentials with her hashtag -- shutting down stereotypes and showing how widespread and diverse the population of engineers really can be.
I worked as an engineer at @Intel + @Twitter, now I build features for Windows at @Microsoft #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/ttGUnHseYH— dara (@daraoke) August 4, 2015
#ILookLikeAnEngineer who could use more sleep. No need to run my creds, I'll still be an eng without your validation. pic.twitter.com/KhCBh8LPNL— ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@EricaJoy) August 4, 2015
Self-taught iOS dev, got a dev degree (1st in class), spoke @ WWDC & more, co-founded @tutulab #iLookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/qSeAuo90Lh— Natalia Berdys (@batalia) August 4, 2015
Tech-approved gender roles are pretty stuffy for this #trans #queer #femme. #ILookLikeAnEngineer at all times. pic.twitter.com/CagOsz19H0— Enoch Riese (@boygirlboigrrrl) August 4, 2015
I was one of the earliest engs @Pinterest; I've worked on infra, api, web, ads, homefeed & more #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/vn0aS58JIv— Tracy Chou (@triketora) August 4, 2015
I started on the web at 38. 16 yrs later, I'm Lead UI Dev for SalesforceUX Design Systems. #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/GiQ9agGoSR— Stef. Sullivan Rewis (@stefsull) August 4, 2015
#ILookLikeAnEngineer, despite often being mistaken for a marketer, designer, recruiter, or my fav—a girlfriend. pic.twitter.com/fNzhzSQCOr— glitter witch irl (@TessaHarmon) August 4, 2015
I defended my PhD in math modeling at Stanford 6 weeks postpartum, 1 year after co-founding FG #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/hrPQ5HBp1k— Ann Miura-Ko (@annimaniac) August 4, 2015
Developed an app that securely overwrites & deletes Android metadata. Now I'm a cyber engineer #ilooklikeanengineer pic.twitter.com/immzyEtfyD— buttaluv. (@bunxgawd) August 4, 2015
I'm female, wear pink and I'm pregnant. I'm also a full stack software engineer. #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/3PV9BepNYy— Jolene Hayes (@JCHayes) August 3, 2015
CS degree, 20+yrs full stack. Started w/ Pascal on an IBM PS/1. Prefer back-end dev & simulation #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/ibFx5r1ZUq— Kishau Rogers (@kishau) August 4, 2015
Back then as a CS Student and now giving a talk about Debugging in Swift #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/smZQH1rgcT— Ⓒⓐⓡⓞ (@_Caro_N) August 4, 2015
And a throwback #ILookLikeAnEngineer, from the days when we had to stay at work to run long migrations. pic.twitter.com/fjdjq7DdPK— Rachel Myers (@rachelmyers) August 4, 2015
I am one of six lead developers of the software behind a quarter of the internet and #ILookLikeAnEngineer. pic.twitter.com/sUaiRo9S0r— Helen 侯-Sandí (@helenhousandi) August 4, 2015
I build accessible UIs, have a CS degree, actually dream about bug fixes... & collect food hats. #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/sEaHOReymv— Cordelia (@cordeliadillon) August 4, 2015
#ILookLikeAnEngineer who likes mesh routing, IoT stuff, standardization, and handbags that look like other things pic.twitter.com/DFA79jOhRk— lotterleben (@Lotterleben) August 4, 2015
Just a few of the faces of @MITEngineering... Tweet yours with #ILookLikeanEngineer pic.twitter.com/JCLd6Fn2qU— MIT (@MIT) August 4, 2015
Proud Latina. English major -> Mobile Dev. I love hip-hop music, dog videos, and yasssing. #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/XV424FGekC— Paola Maldonado (@PaolaNotPaolo) August 4, 2015
I'm an iOS Engineer, creator of @WeReadTooApp. #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/CRF3rM2R4M— kaya (@kthomas901) August 4, 2015
I'm from Benin, West Africa. I'm Black. I have short hair, and I smile a LOT. #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/3g0osIQxZ8— Pamela Assogba (@pam_yam) August 4, 2015
#iLookLikeAnEngineer. 40 yr old part-time sw eng, nb trans woman, awake late for filling in aut eval questionnaires pic.twitter.com/6ausAvuYkn— projectenigma (@project1enigma) August 4, 2015
Muslim, Malaysian/Chinese, five foot two, chemical engineering major, Tau Beta Pi member, and #ILookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/HouP2wzNI9— Nadiah Nordin (@miss_azide) August 4, 2015