Tag you're it! You've been tagged as a fantastic woman in tech to talk about your experience as a woman in this field. Many women report feeling shut out or afraid to pursue careers in STEM subjects, especially computer science, so what's your experience with this if you have any? Also check out zwicking cause she made a similar survey and I would really appreciate it if you could answer her as well :D once you've finished tag 3 other people to answer this as well!
I’ve never had any really bad experience throughout my education so far, for which I’m quite thankful. But, I think for a long of girls, it not just having a bad experience that makes them afraid for pursue computer science. Sometimes, it's just the matter that there aren’t a lot of girls who do end up doing computer science, that makes girls not want to do computer science.For example, in high school when I signed up for computer science just because I couldn’t find another course I wanted to take. I was kind of excited for computer science cause I thought maybe I’d get to make a website. I ended up showing up early to the class, and so I sat down and waited for other students to arrive. Slowly, the room started to fill with more and more boys, and I got more and more uncomfortable. Everyone around me was talking and I was just sitting alone, silent. Would I end up being the only girl in the class?
Then, an another girl walked in and she immediately sat down next to me. I was so relieved because at least I would not be alone.Throughout the whole course, whenever the boys around would talk tech stuff we didn’t understand, we would look at each other and think, “Should we know this?” We became good friends, always helping each other out since the guys didn’t really want to talk to us either.
I remember my friend had an 85 in the course and still thought that she wasn’t “good” at computer science. She was doing better than most the people in the class!
I had a 92 (which I would later learn was one of the highest grades) but the boys still acted as if they knew more. We had to do an assignment in pairs, and I was paired with this guy who - from the moment we started, I knew he thought he was better than me. On the first day, he went home and did the whole assignment at home without my input. He then preceded to spend class time on playing video games. Well, I went over his code, removed redundancies and made it more efficient. When I asked him I should hand in the assignment or he would do it, he said he’d do it. Turns out, instead of submitted my edited code, he submitted his original code. When we got the feedback, it was all things that I had changed in my version! Instead of being angry or explaining what had happened, I took the lower grade and wondered if I should continue to study computer science.
There were countless times I thought I wasn’t good enough. Even in grade 12, when I was sure I wanted to major in cs, I took other science courses to “keep my options open”. The hardest thing I had to learn in grade 12 was how to be the only girl on the robotics team. There was a robotics event where this girl from my school walked up to me and asked, “You’re on the robotics team?” I replied and said I was. She proceeded to tell me how she wanted to be an engineer and join the team as well but she was intimidated by all the boys. I tried to encourage her to join and tell her it was worth it, but alas I never did see her again.
I don’t have a lot of experience in computer science. But the little experience that I do have has shown me that girls are hard on themselves. When they see other girls aren’t doing something, they’re not likely to do it themselves. Heck, I wouldn’t be studying computer science if I did see all those sites and organizations encouraging girls to code. If I hadn’t joined Tumblr and met other girls in cs. That’s why I try to encourage and help every girl that I meet.
Oh, and if you are a girl in cs reading this, I tag you to join this network so you know that you are not alone and that you belong in cs.