

Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?  - stop

My last three jobs have been all-male work environments, give or take minor contacts with women from time to time.<p>But I'm getting tired of it.<p>Any suggestions on how to find a programming gig where there is at least a possibility of encountering a person of the opposite gender from time to time?
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rick888
Get a programming job at a company that isn't in the software/services
business. I've been the sole developer at a few small e-commerce companies and
my co-workers were a mix of men and women.

Much larger companies also have other departments (sales, etc), which probably
have women.

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falsestprophet
Groupon Chicago is mostly blond sorority girls.

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msutherl
Try companies that specialize in design or interactive media. The design field
is split 50-50 male/female in my experience.

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tfitzgerald
I work at a Big Ten college. Girls. Everywhere.

and it seems that somewhere on campus they are always looking for devs.

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stevenp
Lots of funny comments here, but in all seriousness, I think a lot of social
game studios have more female employees.

It makes sense, considering the article on VentureBeat today that suggests
that women play more social games than men:
[http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/22/do-women-play-more-
games-t...](http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/22/do-women-play-more-games-than-
men)

Perhaps a place like Zynga or Playdom would be a good fit for you?

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HelgeSeetzen
A lot depends on the leadership style of an organisation, no so much its size
or business. Diversity ultimately creates better organisations, but it's
harder to manage every day (that's true for all diversity: gender, culture,
language, orientation, religion, "mindset", etc.). So look for organisations
where "people management" is recognised as a valuable skill set, not just
something that people do after some tenure period at the company. A lot of
tech organisations unfortunately fall into the latter category.

A good first-glance indicator is whether the management titles of the
organisation are given based on tenure (older people and/or long term
employees), domain expertise (e.g. the most experiences developers have
management titles) or leadership skills. Try to find companies with the last
type of promotion system and you are very likely going to have more gender
diversity as well.

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onan_barbarian
Take things into your own hands and get a sex change. Problem solved.

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neckbeard
I hear expertsexchange.com is the place to go.

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iuguy
Yeah but the signup to see the answers is almost as painful as the operation
itself.

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found_dead
It would also be nice to have environments that were completely gender
neutral. Not just for the gender binary.

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cjbprime
Thanks for asking this! I've been wondering the same thing -- I don't want to
spend the rest of my life only working with men, it's ridiculous. If I was
skilled at another profession, I think it would be enough to make me go and do
that instead..

The obvious answer, I suppose, is to get involved with projects that increase
diversity in CS and the tech industry, and also to encourage your HR
department to find places to advertise their programming jobs that will be
seen by women. (Perhaps a women-in-CS group at the local university, or a more
formal group such as LinuxChix.)

There's a negative feedback loop here, though, where women will probably be
less interested in a team/company that's so far totally failed to hire
technical women. :/

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kgc
Would you consider working in India? The M:F ratio in software development is
4:1.

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_delirium
Isn't that about what it is in the U.S. as well? Google claims their ratio is
4:1, and that the Valley overall is around 5:1 (source:
[http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/22/google-s-marissa-mayer-
gi...](http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/22/google-s-marissa-mayer-girls-can-be-
geeks-too.html)).

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fjabre
Use your programming skills to work as a freelancer and then move to a city
like LA or NYC where you'll be surrounded by tons of well educated and
attractive women simply by stepping outside.

If freelancing isn't an option I'd suggest getting a job at a company whose
primary business is in the medical, entertainment, legal, or real estate
industries. You'll probably be doing internal development at said companies
and working with mostly male engineers but at least you'll get a break from
that at lunchtime.

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aDemoUzer
Live in an environment where a lot of different start-ups co-exist. I have
been having a better chances of a meeting a female each day at the kitchen,
every so often. Not that I have a chance in the world with them, but I have my
dreams, man. I have my dreams!

~~~
HelgeSeetzen
The attitude above is the easiest way to ensure that the environment stays
all-male.

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watmough
Go work for a big consulting firm, or spin-off. Usually lots of smart female
devs.

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zalew
Try advertising or PR agencies.

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thomasdavis
I use to do freelance inhouse work at design agencies, heaps of laudy mamas
there.

