I wanted to start sharing some of my experiences of sexism in technology for IWD because I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what we need to do to try and address the gender balance issue in technology.

In these anecdotes, people didn’t set out to be mean or sexist. And sure, they didn’t necessarily say anything sexist to me. But that doesn’t mean that some internalised or unconscious bias didn’t creep into their actions. And the end result is the same – I was left out in the cold, and questioning why.

If we ever want to address the imbalance in tech, it has to be about more than just not actively shouting sexist remarks at your female colleagues. You need to look at all of your behaviours and really, genuinely examine them for unconscious bias. Did you leave that person out of the meeting because they are not as skilled as you? Or because they don’t look like you?

Did you perceive her complaining as somehow worse than his?

And what are you doing to fix it?