I'm Still Not One of the Guys

As #WeCoded is a month-long this year, I'll post a couple of blog posts during this month. This post is the second of these posts.

In 2021, I wrote a blog post called )

I've Had to Fight to Get Here - a Personal Perspective

You might wonder why this is so important to me. Why just not let it go?

It's personal. I'm someone from underrepresented genders in tech and who has faced a lot of biased opinions because of my gender. I've seen how big of a role it can play.

I've also tried to be one of the guys. I always felt out of place and that I didn't belong. And now you might mention something about men being different from each other - yes, that's true. But when it comes to "being one of the guys", it usually means just a really small subset of things.

So, I know I've been at a disadvantage throughout my career because of my gender and biases towards it. I've gone through a lot and don't want to hide who I am. I want to be recognized for the gender identity I have. And I'm not one of the guys.

If It's Exclusive for Someone, There are Other Words to Use

If someone comes to you and has the courage to say that the word you're using makes them feel excluded, why not just use another word? Good options are "folks," "all," "everyone," or "team," to name a few.

And I'm not saying that if there is, for example, a group of women (or other genders) who don't have any issues with the word "guys", you can't use it to describe them. The point is about people who feel excluded by using that word.

One last thing I want to mention is microaggressions. They're small actions that communicate some sort of bias towards a minority group. They're often unintentional (but sometimes intentional), like asking someone where they're actually from or calling only male employees to the meeting. If you're interested in reading more, I wrote a blog post