Dear PyCon 2019 staff,
Thanks so much for hosting such a successful PyCon!
This was my first PyCon and overall, it went quite well.
However, I just wanted to let you know that on my first day at PyCon
(Thursday), I felt some prejudice at several booths in the Expo Hall. On a
couple of occasions, I was having conversations with reps at the booth and
they would ask me "are you a developer?", "do you know Python?". I got the
sense that they assumed I wasn't technical because I'm female. This was
pretty disheartening because I've been using Python for years and have
worked as a software developer in a senior role for quite some time. They
didn't question my male friend's technical knowledge who was standing
beside me. At one particular booth, my friend and I were inquiring about
job opportunities. She was very happy to give my male friend her business
card to connect further. When I asked about their data science roles, she
told me that they are only looking for people with several years of
experience and said that I wouldn't be a good fit. It's unfortunate that
she assumed I didn't have enough experience (perhaps she assumed I was a
recent undergrad graduate?) even though I've been out of school and working
as a dev/data scientist for 7 years.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know about my experience at these booths
because it's a very discouraging feeling for first timer attendees. I know
this type of prejudice is a general issue in tech, but I was certainly
reminded that I'm a female minority when I was at the booths.
I'm not sure if there's a solution. I do hope that some day females can be
treated as competent technical people in this industry.
Regards,
Jill
