Feb 21
2010Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Workplace
Filed Under: Google, National Instruments, Working in China
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Here at the Google Shanghai office, the majority of engineers are men. I can count the number of female engineers with one hand! At my last job at National Instruments, the majority of engineers are also men. However, I sat with the rest of the technical communication department where the gender ratio was almost 1:1. It was a different feeling. But here at Google, I’m the only technical writer. I sit with the engineers and work with them all day. It gets a little lonely being the minority — both gender and expertise-wise. In addition, the challenge of being pregnant and working in a male-dominated workplace prove to be even more lonely.
I’m curious to know if there are other women (reading this blog) that also work in a male-dominated workplace. I’d like to hear your thoughts and experiences.
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I’m a technical writer at software company. In my 3 years there, we’ve only, briefly, had one female engineer. At other engineering/software companies where I’ve worked, there were no female engineers. Before I started technical writing, I was an electronic technician–almost always the only female on the team. Back then, the late 70s/early 80s, the idea of sex discrimination was unheard of and “Ron Burgundy” behavior was considered normal. These days, I don’t hear the off-color jokes, “sailor” language, and so on, and the young guys actually talk with each other about their wives’ pregnancies and their children. But I think because I have spent the past 30 years working mainly with men, I’m less “girly” than most women. Subconsciously, I guess, I try to be “one of the guys” but in the past 10 years I’ve noticed the guys becoming less and less masculine, too.
I’m evious of Karla’s enlightened work environment. My guys (much as I love ‘em) are all about off-color jokes and sailor language. I think they make members of the local staff slightly uncomfy sometimes. I have no illusions that I’ll become one of the guys. They’re nice to me, but they’re still guys. Sigh.
When I became a tech writer 5 years ago, I joined a techpub team that is 100% female except the team header who did not write at all. Then at my second company, a semi design house, I was lone writer surrounded by all male engineers and leaders. In the third company the situation improved a little.
For my first doc consulting customer, an auto manufacturer, again all male coordinators and engineers. The current telecom company is much balanced compared with the rest of all.
According to my experiences, most male engineers are easy-going, while some may also undervalue writing work. The best way to win their respect is to understand their work as much as possible to share common knowledge background.
Thanks for sharing your work experiences! I don’t hear much sailor language or off-color jokes in the office either. Male engineers are pretty easy-going but I guess they tend to also be on the socially awkward side too.
Just to turn things on their head, in my previous Technical Writing job, the Publications team consisted of six women and two men (including me). My manager was female and her boss was also female. In fact, since I started my Information Design/Technical Writing career, I’ve always reported to female managers. I never really thought about it until I read your post though! Maybe I’ve been trading off my looks all this time…