I know there are diverse causes for this problem, but as a woman working in the tech Industry for almost 10 years, I ask myself, are we really supporting and helping other women to grow? And Why is it so common to hear women saying “I’d rather work with men”? (I say it myself). 

I think women still have a lot to do to have better dynamics in teams in order to be able to build up together, to show what we can achieve, and to prove the importance of our role in the industry. From my experience, when there are teams with 50% or more female members, the working environment tends to be a  little more “complicated”, because the chances of having discussions or issues between us seem to be higher than between men, and I feel like a terrible feminist for saying this, but that that is what I have experienced so far. It’s been easier for me to work with male team members.

However, I think we can stop this behavior and we can make some simple changes in the way we operate between women in order to have a better work environment and a better career path.

The first thing we can do is help each other solve technical/process issues or doubts. Instead of pointing out to other women for lack of capabilities or knowledge, we can teach and learn from each other and team up to solve challenges and avoid depending on male approval.

We can also share which are our strengths and show that we are available and open to share that knowledge with everyone. We can create or join existing networks inside and outside the company. There are some famous and great groups in the world that we can use as reference or even join, some of them are Girls Who Code, Women in Tech or  Geek Girls Latam.

Furthermore, it is important to stop taking everything personal and take every feedback as an opportunity to grow. What I have seen in some projects is that sometimes we let some feelings get in the middle and it is hard to forget if someone said something negative or tried to point out a mistake. I think we should listen to each other, show our potential with work and arguments and avoid taking hard feelings on/from other women. Empathy must be a core value in this case, we must remember that for all of us the path in this tech field has been hard and full of sexist obstacles and I think that with more empathy we can understand and communicate better to avoid conflict.   

It should be fun to work with more women and I think we can generate  a change in the industry, we can keep showing the female talent and our contributions, and even make the industry more attractive for other women, when we work as a team and support each other.We can switch from saying