An LGBTQIA+ woman in tech'

A woman in tech'

I am a woman working in a man's world. But I am lucky. I work in a very small team: my boss, my colleague and me. Double lucky me, my colleague is also a woman.

I am a PC and Network Administrator in a small municipal administration in Belgium. Fun fact: there are three of us in the IT department. That's very rare! Even rarer, out of three, we are two women. And that's why I say I'm lucky.

Training

But it wasn't always like this. During my training, I was the only woman out of twelve students. It was clearly not easy: I was subjected to sexist and misogynistic remarks.

During my job interview at this training, one question clearly marked me: "Are you ready to work with only male students?"

It stuck with me because I thought, "Why is it up to me to adapt? I'm certainly not going to make sexist remarks all over the place, or harass my colleagues..."

In the end, it went pretty well. I didn't take offense to the remarks, although I clearly could have. I integrated quite well, even if sometimes at the expense of my identity.

Work

Back to the present time.

I work in a proportionally female team. And everything is going well! Goodbye to stereotypes: no, we don't get into trouble all the time ; no, we don't gossip all the time. We simply work, like any other worker.

LGBTQIA+

Recently, I "came out". I simply talked about my girlfriend one day, as I would have about a boyfriend. No one picked up on the word.

The next day, I put a picture of the two of us on my desk. And my colleagues didn't even notice.

In conclusion

I am lucky, I know it and I wish everyone was as lucky as I am... Because I wish I didn't have to say I was lucky. But let's hope we are on the right track!

In any case, in Belgium 🇧🇪, the mentality is rather open. And I'm proud of that!

Next time I'll talk about being a woman, LGBTQIA+, with a psychiatric disorder working in IT. And yes, everything is going well!

Tiffanie BOREUX