By Katie Arcos, Britny Eubank, James Grandberry, and Hannah Smothers
For coder Tricia McTigrit, her technology career started with virtual cats and dogs.
After discovering that she had a natural ability to code in junior high–“I enjoyed being able to manipulate programs and create things that weren’t there”–McTigrit, who was not allowed to have real pets as a child, began messing around with the programming of the Petz video game series when she was in sixth grade.
“There was a community of us who realized we could used something called a HexEditor, which allows you to open up the program file and manipulate it,” McTigrit said. “What we realized was that we could change values in there. And by changing these values, we could take a chihuahua and we could turn it into a poodle. Or we could take a ball in the program and we could turn it into a bone. And so, it was an online community and people still do it to this day.”
This childhood hobby would eventually become a lifelong practice. McTigrit programmed websites for small businesses throughout high school and college, where she majored in finance after being met with hostility in her computer sciences classes. “I actually had a female professor, when I walked into a Java 101 class, ask me if I was in the right classroom,” McTigrit said.
Following college, McTigrit worked in the oil and gas industry and eventually got into development professionally. Now she’s an associate developer at ShipStation and on the organizing team of Austin’s branch of Women Who Code (WWC).
WWC is a national non-profit organization “dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers,” according to their official website. McTigrit emphasized that it is an organization open to all women who work or are interested in coding, no matter their skill level. “Whether they’re people coming to share knowledge or it’s people coming to learn, it’s really a network that was created for women to exchange knowledge on technical topics,” McTigrit said. “And so we see everything from very experienced developers to very new developers and beginners.” Infographic by Katie Arcos Video by James Grandberry |
Infographic by Katie Arcos |
McTigrit herself has faced the problems being a rare female in the tech industry can cause. “I think the reason it took me longer to actually become a developer and actually make that transition is that I didn’t have the confidence at that point in time [college and immediately after] and I didn’t have the mentors to continue going in that path,” McTigrit said. “I think it took me getting the confidence in business to be able to understand that I could hold my own in an environment or in an industry that was mostly men.” McTigrit also has some thoughts on why it is that the industry lacks females. “In the past, it has not been a very family-friendly industry. And so, usually programmers are expected to work some really crazy hours and, I think, as a female, if you’re planning to start a family or have any type of other life, 90 hours a week doesn’t work for you,” McTigrit said. She also thinks the stereotypes surrounding the tech industry can sometimes affect women who might otherwise want to get involved. |
In order to make the WWC experience worthwhile for everyone, the Austin branch employs a few different tactics. For example, late every month, they have “Tech Talks,” where a company comes to give a technical talk on any topic they choose for 45 minutes to an hour. However, McTigrit said those talks tend to be very technical and intimidating to beginners, so Austin’s WWC also offers “Lightning Talks” on the first Monday of every month.
“Our Lightning Talks are usually very popular because it’s for a range of skill levels. We try to structure it in a way that we have enough for everybody,” McTigrit said. “Because the Lightning Talks are really designed to allow members who are kind-of intermediate to advanced to come in and talk about new technologies or a better way to do something and get something out of the talk, but also allow beginners to come in and say, ‘well, where do I start? Maybe this is where.’”
Organizations like WWC and others like it– Girl Develop It, Women in Technology, Girls in Tech–work hard to promote learning and interest in coding and technology among women because the technology, computer science, and engineering fields are heavily male-dominated. In 2013, only 26 percent of computing jobs in the US were held by women. And at large tech companies, even if women make up a significant chunk of employment, the numbers are much smaller in the tech sector. Google, for example, employs 30 percent women, with only 17 percent in tech. At Facebook, women hold 15 percent of tech jobs. And at Twitter, only 10 percent.
“Our Lightning Talks are usually very popular because it’s for a range of skill levels. We try to structure it in a way that we have enough for everybody,” McTigrit said. “Because the Lightning Talks are really designed to allow members who are kind-of intermediate to advanced to come in and talk about new technologies or a better way to do something and get something out of the talk, but also allow beginners to come in and say, ‘well, where do I start? Maybe this is where.’”
Organizations like WWC and others like it– Girl Develop It, Women in Technology, Girls in Tech–work hard to promote learning and interest in coding and technology among women because the technology, computer science, and engineering fields are heavily male-dominated. In 2013, only 26 percent of computing jobs in the US were held by women. And at large tech companies, even if women make up a significant chunk of employment, the numbers are much smaller in the tech sector. Google, for example, employs 30 percent women, with only 17 percent in tech. At Facebook, women hold 15 percent of tech jobs. And at Twitter, only 10 percent.
“I think a lot of women hesitate to even go into it because there are stereotypes, because it can feel hard. I think women automatically assume that they’re not good at math and so they’re not going to be good at programming, when in reality, you don’t have to be a math whizz to be a good programmer,” McTigrit said. “Some of the best programmers I know are either English or art majors.”
McTigrit said that when she speaks to young women about getting into tech, she makes sure they understand that this male-dominance is common, but that they should hold their own in the face of it.“I tell them, as a female, you have to work harder and you have to stay later and you have to come in earlier. I think there’s a natural inclination for men in that industry to sometimes overpower you. Or to think that you may not be as intelligent,” McTigrit said, adding that she does not think it is always a purposeful attitude, but one that does happen. Being the only girl in a company is possible and even probable–“you may be their first female developer ever,” McTigrit said–but McTigrit thinks owning the position is a good way to help remedy negative attitudes. “I think, as a female, you also just have to know that, you’re going to have to maybe talk a little differently or just hold your own in a different way and not be afraid to just follow the crowd and the trends,” McTigrit said. “Just being yourself, I think, is the way to counteract that.” Story by Britny Eubank Quizlet by Hannah Smothers |
Infographic by Katie Arcos
|