I've joined a career event today, and all of the companies were tech startups based in Munich, which meant the majority of the attendees were men. That's not surprising. In fact, there's plenty of research and discussion about this [1].
As a woman standing in a circle of men talking about tech, I felt that people didn't pay much attention to me at first, which I can understand, especially since I wasn't saying much. But once I showed them the products I'd built, the conversation changed. They started listening and seemed genuinely impressed.
For example, one guy, who is currently an intern at BMW, suggested that we work on a project together. Another, who works as a technical project manager, asked to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Overall, the atmosphere felt different after that. It reminded me of something I sometimes forget: I'm worth more than the labels or assumptions people may have about me. Sometimes, all it takes is giving people a chance to see what you can actually do [2].
- [1] I also did research on gender in the computer science major for my master's thesis
- [2] I showed my projects to people I met at the Claude event last week (again, they were all men), and they were impressed that I built those myself. One guy who founded a startup wrote me messages later that I would offer me a job in the future.