The most primal barrier of entry for women in the field of tech can be the inability to envision a smooth journey to success--whether success is in building a profitable company or in implementing a creative idea. This can only be combated by not letting stereotypes affect your self-confidence.
The biases women are accustomed to hearing clusters under the same umbrella of whether they can do something as well as a man. While most of women aren't here to prove that point to someone else, they are here to simply use our skills as engineers, leaders, and thinkers to optimise the path of our firm.
It can be helpful to visualise the barriers that surround us as transparent - as if they do not exist. We know the end goal is to create and view a workplace with a lens of ideas and contribution - so why not start with that conviction itself? I firmly believe that boundaries exist in the mind, and once we stop focusing on the gendered barrier, we must have to break to move ahead - where we can be engrossed in pushing the boundaries of technology, entrepreneurship, and most essentially - thought-leadership even further.
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It is important to remember that we are more than our gender and do not need to be competing with or compared to the opposite sex to solidify our capabilities. Let your work speak for you and set the tone of how biases should be responded to, rather than attempting to abolish them single-handedly.
A good way for leaders to set this tone lies in their approach: an active acknowledgment that someone's intelligence and expertise are valid and whole factors to be an asset to a firm.
Working for our dreams with our evidently non-gendered skills and techniques not only helps in consolidating them but simultaneously changes the normalised idea of who they came from. To every woman reading this today, I want you to know that your journey to success is not conditional on overcoming struggles you may face as a woman in the industry.
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Your journey to success is a story of how you are a capable, competent individual who executes her vision in a fast-paced world to secure her place in the industry. Dedication and perseverance are two of the most important qualities that will set any individual apart in any path they choose to walk on.
In today's reality, any successful setup knows that the key to success is placing value in the act of exchanging ideas and creating advancements for society as a whole. Much like for an entrepreneur, the ambitious engineer knows how to "acquire customers, find a niche, and delegate to make it big."
Efficiency and competency go beyond technical knowledge and, quite frankly, see no gender. Thus, female engineers now thrive in a career of manifold thought and involvement. Fortunately, the world is so intersectional now that anyone in tech can flourish--not only as an engineer-- but as a leader, team-player, analyst, and problem solver.
(The author is Co-Founder and COO, Locobuzz Solutions.)