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As I started working in my current job, I started to sense of why women opt-out of this career field. On the primary ground, technical fields are usually viewed to be jobs for men, which I am very sure nobody knows why.
“In the face of adversities is where you emerge the strongest”
I am a brown woman working in an international setup filled with westerners and mostly male dominated team as a software programmer.
My introduction itself portrays the adversity that I face day in, day out. According to world statistics, there is a decline in women working in the IT sector over time.
Only around 15.4% of women who hold a degree in the technical field end up working in IT between the ages of 30-45 and after 45, it declines further to around 9% of women still working in IT.
I have always questioned these statistics because for me, I can only relate to being a software developer and nothing else.
But apart from this, from my personal experience, many women quit the IT sector because of the working environment they are exposed to.
When I started my job, I knew the odds, but programming for me was the job I was the best at. I am the only woman in a team of 10 people. Out of all of whom are natives of Germany and can speak the language flawlessly.
And then there is me, who is still making a heartfelt effort to learn and speak the new language.
With the combined consequences of male domination and the language barrier, comes the fear of being left out of most conversations where I can give my technical insights or, at least, share a laugh.
These questions always run in my mind, is it because I am a woman, or is it because I am a foreigner? Is it because I don’t speak the same language as fluently as you? I have broken my head over this for more than a year!
A year of facing such adversities lead to a lot of new learnings. I craved for people to give me a space where I could put forward my ideas. I looked forward to people giving me a consideration.
But that’s never going to happen, because I am the one expecting it to happen from others, while sitting around sulking about it.
The change has to come from me, I am the one who needs to create a space for myself, I am the one who should put me into consideration, I am the one who should put forward my insights, although there is no ear for it.
The one who wants to stay put in this job is me, so it has to be me who makes all things possible. My solution to all my problems was to find the strength from within.
I am a woman who pushed out of all my comfort zones and chose this career, and I am extremely proud of it!
Image Source: Startup stock photos via pexel, free Canva Pro
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As he stood in front of his door, Nishant prayed that his wife would be in a better mood. The baby thing was tearing them apart. When was the last time he had seen his wife smile?
Veena got into the lift. It was a festival day, and the space was crammed with little children dressed in bright yellow clothes, wearing fancy peacock feather crowns, and carrying flutes. Janmashtami gave her the jitters. She kept her face down, refusing to socialize with anyone.
They had moved to this new apartment three months ago. The whole point of shifting had been to get away from the ruthless questioning by ‘well-wishers’.
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I huffed, puffed and panted up the hill, taking many rest breaks along the way. My calf muscles pained, my heart protested, and my breathing became heavy at one stage.
“Let’s turn back,” my husband remarked. We stood at the foot of Shravanbelagola – one of the most revered Jain pilgrimage centres. “We will not climb the hill,” he continued.
My husband and I were vacationing in Karnataka. It was the month of May, and even at the early hour of 8 am in the morning, the sun scorched our backs. After visiting Bangalore and Mysore, we had made a planned stop at this holy site in the Southern part of the state en route to Hosur. Even while planning our vacation, my husband was very excited at the prospect of visiting this place and the 18 m high statue of Lord Gometeshwara, considered one of the world’s tallest free-standing monolithic statues.
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