Women in Technology – Call for Submissions
I’ve talked to female developers about the problems they encounter at work. I’ve talked to representatives of companies who tell me they want more female developers.
And I got inspired. I want to produce an article that gives voice to women developers’ answers to this question. I want to offer these answers to the companies who are asking.
And I want your help. Women, write me! You can be informal, you can be anonymous, you can be brief, you can be conversational. It can be emails, articles, blog entries, or IM chat sessions with me. I want your thoughts, opinions, experiences, wishes, dreads, rants, dreams, annoyances, and more – whatever you think these software companies should know.
For example, one woman told me she turned down a great job offer because this 100-plus person company had a men’s only bathroom and a co-ed bathroom in the basement – through the janitor’s closet – that she was expected to use. Seems obvious to me, but apparently it wasn’t to them. Another woman talked about being on an all-male team of engineers who regularly bragged about their code. Less outgoing, she felt that she had to compete just to get her point across, and eventually left. Another woman wrote me to say that if we can open these cultural doors, more women will walk through, but these aren’t just women’s issues.
What do you think?
Guidelines are below, as is a shorter version of the call for submissions, suitable for forwarding.
Please help spread the word. And please write!
Thank you,
Sonia Lyris
Guidelines for “Dev Women Voices”
(Or “How do we hire more DevChix?”)
When companies ask me “how can we find, hire and retain women developers?” I want to give them the best and most succinct answers I’ve heard from women developers over the years. I want the women devs themselves to answer the question.
So I’m looking for women in development who have opinions to share to help me do just this.
Please send me your written works of any sort: emails, posts, articles, IM excerpts, notes, limericks (why not) or any other written materials you have that helps answer this. If you prefer an interactive conversation with me as source material, please contact me to arrange an IM chat session.
I intend the final product to be an article based on a collection of female devs’ answers to this question. If the question seems too general, here are some more specific ones:
- What about a company makes you want to do dev work for them?
- What sort of things make you want to stay there? To leave?
- Are there recruiting, hiring, or interviewing practices that discourage you from working for specific companies?
- If you no longer do dev work and left because of company practices or culture, can you identify what made you want to leave?
If you submit:
- Permissions: Please include explicit permission for me to quote your writing in my article.
- Bio: if you want me to have the option of talking about you knowledgeably if I quote you, please include a short bio about you and your dev history.
- Anonymity: If you want to be anonymous, that’s fine, just say so.
- Length and editing: While brevity is both the soul of wit and the cat’s whiskers, say what you need to say, and I’ll edit as needed. I may edit works for clarity and length, but my goal is to keep the work in your voice and faithfully represent what you have to say.
- Submissions: Please send written materials to Dev.Women.Voices@gmail.com.
- Deadline: I’ve extended the deadline past June 2011. Send early, send often.
- Please disseminate: Please forward the short version of this call for submissions above. If you know anyone — another women in dev — whose work you want to see included, please contact them and invite them to get involved (rather than submit their work for them).
Please forward: Call for Submissions
Subject: Dev Women Voices: Request for Opinions, Anecdotes, Etcetera
To developer women: how can companies find, hire and retain women
developers? What do *you* think?
I am seeking your opinions, experiences, advice, musings, rants,
anecdotes or anything else you want to tell the companies who hire
women developers about how they can do this more effectively.
For guidelines, questions or to submit written works, please write to: Dev.Women.Voices@gmail.com
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Sonia Lyris | Dev.Women.Voices@gmail.com | Dev dot women dot voices at gmail dot com