Raising a glass on Saturday March 8th 2025 to International Women’s Day put me in a reflective mood.
Before I knew it, I was also looking back on my career in IT, which now totals 40 years, both as a developer and analyst, sometimes permanent and sometimes contract, but always as a deliverables-focused woman in tech, writes consultant business analyst Elaine Richardson.
I was far from encouraged to study a STEM subject
Despite my four decades in tech workplaces, my first real understanding of the nature of discrimination actually happened at school.
It came as I was choosing my ‘O-level’ subjects – today’s GCSEs.
Apparently, I couldn’t choose Physics on the astonishingly technical grounds that “it clashes with the girls’ PE lessons.”
I remember later being carpeted in the headmaster’s office for saying I found the excuse to be odd.
Nevertheless, I persisted and eventually another girl and I were “allowed” to study Physics.
The maths teacher who didn’t teach girls
Not much later as it was also in the classroom, discrimination still had its claws in me. Feeling a bit like the headmaster was getting his own back for letting two Physics pupils who weren’t boys get past him, I was told that I could not take A-level Mathematics.
The Maths teacher, it was explained to me, simply “didn’t teach girls.”
Skirmishes, battles and war
It was loud and clear. While I might have won a skirmish – to study one STEM subject – I couldn’t win the war.
Perhaps it sounds daft that this pre-workplace discrimination still crosses my mind today as a woman working in tech, but I’m rather pleased it does. While I hated the feeling, it was a valuable experience as it taught me early on about the importance of choosing your battles.
What was my first job as a woman in tech?
My first formal role as a woman in tech was a delight.
It was a full-time position as a COBOL programmer.
Rather refreshingly, my cohort of software development trainees boasted an equal gender split. And despite it being the 1980s, the department I joined for my employment had a 50:50 male-female ratio.
No female senior managers
But few of the managers who were above me were women.
I was always supported in my job, however, with the strong feeling that my contribution as a junior (and female) programmer was of equal worth.
I told you that my first IT job as a woman in tech was a delight!
More COBOL programming, more absence of women in management roles
My second role as a woman in tech was again as a COBOL programmer. Again, it was full-time and again it was great!
That said, here is where the scarcity of females in the department was noticeable, and despite my previous job being no different at the top, it surprised me.
I suppose from me previously being in a gender-balanced tech team, whereby half the people immediately around me were men and half were women, it stuck out to me that less than 10% of development positions were now occupied by women, and barely 5% of top management.
No workplace exclusion but still, give as good as you get
Positively, even though I was a junior developer, I was always included in everything and never felt excluded.
There was a level of ‘teasing’ in the office that meant it was necessary to give as good as you got (or at least most of it would still be called ‘teasing’ today.).
Again though, I was always respected and well-treated, so I deduce that any discrimination against technologists on the basis that they were women must have been minimal.
Becoming an IT contractor as a female software developer
For tech job number three, I dipped my toe in freelancing.
As a woman IT contractor, I found myself in an almost entirely male environment.
Back then, in 1993, female contractors were like hen’s teeth; almost unknown, especially those who lived away from home to work, stayed in hotels or (occasionally in my case) rented flats or rooms.
But oddly I found this lack of representation gave me an advantage.
When ten candidates are being interviewed, all with mostly the same tech skills, being the only female made me stand out, making me memorable to the interviewer before I even answered a single interview question!
IT contracting? It’s a man’s world
Thirty years later, I can say my whole tech career since going freelance has been much the same.
What do I mean? Well, there are now more female staff in IT departments, and some of them are even freelance too.
But whether it’s discrimination or another reason behind it, apart from a couple of exceptions, the heads of the technology department have usually been male.
The odd dinosaur
As to discrimination or prejudice from these individuals, I confess I have witnessed a few issues with the occasional ‘dinosaur.’
One in particular who expressed his Jurassic attitude was summed up when I think I heard him say “women shouldn’t be in IT.”
Apparently we were “too sensitive”. I call that not taking any nonsense.
But as a female tech contractor, my advice is that it’s never a good idea to fall out with a permanent manager, regardless of gender!
My approach in the tech workplace (includes mild discrimination)
That doesn’t mean I necessarily ignore discrimination. But the job at hand simply dominates my attention and I’m almost not distractable because I immerse myself in the work.
Nonetheless, discrimination still shows up — often in a mild way, such as not being invited to lunch, or included on a corporate night out.
But if they are discriminators in that Thursday evening crowd, who would want to go out socialising with such people anyway?!
Bullying
A few times I have stuck my neck out and complained, because I saw others in the tech workplace being bullied.
Bullying can of course be discriminatory (in many ways), but to me, it’s slightly different, because it’s predominantly someone in a position of strength having to prove themselves by undermining a member of their team.
Personally, I cannot recall suffering because of bullying.
Know how to complain, and to whom
But me escaping being a victim of bullying might be because of who I complained to – and that was never the bully themselves. Wherever possible I complained to their manager.
That might be cowardly, but I prefer to consider it strategic!
My sense from talking to other women in tech is that I have been extremely lucky, insofar as any discrimination I’ve suffered I have either been able to cope with — possibly because of my slightly bolshie attitude — or I’ve made a point of only caring about the opinions of people I respect. If I don’t respect someone, their opinions don’t matter to me.
This approach won’t be for everyone, of course, but try it out if you’re struggling.
Social media has given discrimination a new platform
And to be clear, I am not saying that discrimination doesn’t exist in IT. If anything, with the rise of social media, things have become very nasty online for females who use technology and females who use technology for their jobs. My hope was that things might improve for all women in tech as we enter the third decade of the 21st century. But I’m pretty certain they have not. Indeed, there’s one particular bugbear of mine amid the many forms of discrimination still out there in 2025, in tech and other workplaces, that’s probably going nowhere and I’ll share that next time for Women In Tech – ageism.
Elaine Richardson
Elaine Richardson was raised on a Yorkshire farm and attended her local comprehensive school, before trying her hand as a pizza restaurant manager! Elaine holds a a BsC(hons) in Economics and Economic history, and a CCTA certification as a systems analyst. She has worked in IT since 1985 and contracted from 1993 to March 2020. Elaine won her IR35 case against HMRC in Feb 2011, with the FTT judgment in favour of ECR Consulting Ltd now framed above her desk. Elaine is today available to hire as a Consultant Business Analyst.
