Thanks for sharing and for talking about your experience. I agree that we need more role models to inspire other girls, women to work at this jobs.

Joone

Julie is full of hope and desire when it comes to gender diversity. After always being surrounded by men since she studied engineering and became a developer, she’s been thinking a lot about how she could end the lack of diversity in tech and shares her story as often as she can.&nbsp;It was love at first sight&nbsp;I never heard about coding until I discovered for the first time the job of a developer. I was in preparatory class right after highschool as I planned to study engineering and I had to do a homework assignment on ants. During my research, I read fascinating information on the internet: some computer algorithms are based on ants pattern and behaviour. That day, I fell madly in love with computing and since then, my passion for IT never stopped growing, I still find computers so fascinating. People have no idea all the things we can do with them!&nbsp;A few years later, I did 2 internships as a developer in Montreal, Canada: the first one as a QA tester, which made me discover a completely different aspect of computing. I fell in love with computing for the second time, I didn’t know it was possible. I then worked in Montreal, Canada, and really enjoyed my experience since I worked with so many different people on so many different projects. All this diversity completely convinced me. After this journey, I knew I wanted to become a full-stack developer for the rest of my life.&nbsp;Unfortunately, working as a developer means working with male developers only. I’m the only woman doing this at work. This isn’t surprising, but I wish I could change that. Some of my girl friends gave up on being developers at the very beginning of their career. Women are expected to be glamorous, to do a glamorous job and to work with other women, so men are confused when they meet women who’re different. It’s so stupid, but stereotypes die hard. One thing’s for sure, I would never give up on my job.&nbsp;We need more female role models in tech&nbsp;I got used to being the only female developer at work. My experience as a woman in tech led me to understand why there aren’t many women working as developers: we don’t have any female role models. Does anyone know any successful female developer? I don’t. Has anyone heard about a woman working on developing a well-known website or social media? I’ve never heard about that story. We never hear any inspiring stories about a female developer who loves her job and who’s very good at it. We don’t know any woman around us working as a developer and talking about her job with passion. Nobody breaks the rules.&nbsp;The problem about diversity in tech isn’t about skills, it’s about having role models. Common preconceptions say that men are better at computing. We all know it isn’t true. More women could think of&nbsp;becoming a developer if they knew more information about the job, or if they knew another woman in that position. Since I’ve been knowing the problem, I try to talk about my job as often as I can so people can discover my work. They can hear a woman talking about it which is rare. Maybe they’ll start becoming curious about it.&nbsp;We have to end stereotypes. I wish I could do it on my own. A developer isn’t a male job. Developers aren’t geeks working behind their computer all day and all night. As a developer, I have to be creative, multitask and I have to work on customer issues. We have to communicate with others a lot, from inside and outside the company. Project management, architecture and design aspects are also an important part of our time. This isn’t only about coding everytime. This job has so many aspects people don’t know about, that’s why we need to talk about it.&nbsp;The future is female&nbsp;Since the beginning of my career, I worked in 5 different companies, and I never worked with a female developer. In spite of that, I feel fairly optimistic since I have been working at Joone. It’s a french start up that has been launched by a woman. Carole, the big boss, wants to hire more women in tech since the first day, and it’s a very good idea in order to end stereotypes. Diversity means possibilities. Women have different experiences, different profiles, different feelings from men as they have been given different education.&nbsp;Women can improve the way the company works and make it grow.&nbsp;Carole is really smart, she knows how to go a long way. If we keep working with men only, who studied at the same schools, who come from the same fields and who have the same profile, nothing can change. Tech offers so many new possibilities for a better world, and a better world starts with gender equality.

"The need for female role models"

Julie Boulangée