This week's BBC Outriders podcast features yours truly venting about The Subject That Won't Go Away, Women in Technology. I was interviewed at Sunday's Girl Geek conference, and got a chance to voice my opinions once again. For those who can't be bothered to listen, they can probably be summarised as:
- There are genuine problems that face people in our industry, let's talk about those that you have actually faced, not ones that you imagine exist.
- In my opinion, now is a great time for women to make a name for themselves - conference organisers are crying out for you to attend and (if you want) speak, and our industry needs talented people of any type and isn't that fussy about who you are.
- Please, please can we start talking about the good stuff that we see as women in IT? We shouldn't only talk about the issues we face. Yes, we need to highlight problems and address them, but I believe that this message is drowning out all the great things about what we do, and why we love our jobs. We should be encouraging people (not just women) to join us, not putting them off.
