In honor of #FOSDEM rejecting our Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Belonging (DEIB) track, and time permitting, I will be posting numbers about diversity in tech and my personal experiences in IT today.
Feel encouraged to share numbers and experiences as well ❤️
First of all, ✨ I was a DEI hire once ✨
Ya girl had studied PolSci, and didn't have the attention span yet for her big girl job as a policy worker in Parliament, so she applied for a junior dev role. I already knew some programming, because as students we were always protesting something, and protesters need a website (html, css, javascript, php).
Capgemini gave me a Java bootcamp. Quote: "this will look great for our diversity numbers." Despite the wording, I'm still grateful they hired me. ❤️
Without this DEI program, I wouldn't have worked in IT. Again, grateful to Capgemini ❤️
Unfortunately I now worked in corporate IT. I was the only woman in every team. A self taught junior dev. The micro aggressions that I had to deal were _insane_.
Daily:
- expected to get coffee and take notes
- ignored, side eyed or talked over
- expected to write CSS as a Java dev because "girls are good at that"
- SO MANY weird and inappropriate jokes and comments
- weird invites to a senior devs house
Me and the literal 6 or so other women in this giant engineering dept even teamed up and participated in a hackathon. There were like 200 men and us in our pink sweaters :')
We made a food tracking app or something dumb, so we didn't win, but I do remember being a bit uncomfortable sitting in a hangar with 200 men overnight. The guys didn't engage much with us. It was fine, but not necessarily welcoming.
edit: typo
Anecdotally, how not to do inclusive leadership.
I had a senior manager whose wife had broken both arms on a cycling trip and he was complaining NON-STOP about now having to do everything at home while working fulltime. When I pointed out that I also did everything at home while working fulltime, and I was fine, he said "yeah but it comes natural to you" (plural you, 'jullie' in Dutch). This was in a team meeting. The same manager would often try to give secretarial tasks. Fun times.
@Gina Expected to get coffee? What the actual fuck? That's terrible. I hope your former coworkers read this and are deeply ashamed. FFS.
@Gina bless them, they probably weren't used to seeing actual real live women in the flesh!
@Gina Try being the only “technical” person in an otherwise non-tech environment. Different reason. Same energy. Bizar experience.
@sandorspruit I've been this person as well, but it does come with a certain baseline of respect because they assume you know wizardry. 🧙♂️
@sandorspruit @Gina this is not even kind of the same thing. And it’s wild to even suggest it.
Oct 21, 2026, 10:07 AM@Gina Ugh, what a f-ing douchebag. I feel sorry for whoever married him.
Anywho, after Capgemini I joined Mama Cash which, as a feminist fund, was a breath of fresh air. I got to build their open source stack and started going to #FOSDEM.
"A sea of white men" would be an understatement. It was intimidating. I felt like such an imposter. Barely anyone looked like me. I remember being super impressed by a talk by @onepict 🫶
I really liked the #FOSS ecosystem. Sure, there were a few awkward encounters, but overall @fosdem always has a great vibe.
Oct 21, 2026, 10:29 AMOct 21, 2026, 10:39 AMOct 21, 2026, 10:41 AMOct 21, 2026, 10:51 AM
@onepict
I'm still of the opinion that while I'm not like in the top 10% of developers, I sure as hell am better than a lot of the trash out there. But then I have a pretty low opinion of the tech industry in general :( hard to feel like an imposter when you feel so surrounded by cowboys.
Oct 21, 2026, 10:36 AM
Oct 21, 2026, 11:56 AM@onepict @Gina @fosdem
Yes OFFDEM is happening this year, and indeed Equity is at the heart of what we do, and we do have rooms.
The topics that interest you are discussed in the bonds workgroup, you might want to join it on OFFDEM forum: https://oxygen.offdem.net/g/bonds.wg
Oct 21, 2026, 11:46 AM@Gina I'm so so sorry to hear about and you are not the only one and I talked to a lot of female devs it is always the same.
This is a big issue and I have seen and experienced too. I was kind of responsible for DEI for a small company and was also in charge of hiring. I took care that we tried to always get female candidates too into our interview process, sometimes we just didn’t get any female candidates. Also when their CVs didn’t look the best, I know that (most of the) male (devs) go over the top on their CVs, cover letters etc and that (most) female (devs) are under selling themselves in these.
During one hiring we had an amazing female candidate and after the last round of interviews the female team lead, who was looking for a new team member, disqualified her as she was in her mind “too cocky” and “too confident”. She never said that before or after to any male candidate. In my perception the candidate never really was. She did know her stuff and just told so. But for the team lead, this was not something what a woman did and that this would disrupt the team 🤯😭 Mind you she was a woman too.
That whole situation shocked me and was bonkers to me. I tried to intervene and told her differently and in the end it was her decision.
This is a very sad reality and we should talk about it and fight it.
@fosdem Now for some numbers.
Women are about 9.8% of OSS contributors; only 5% of projects have women as core developers.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2105.08777
The Covid 19 pandemic had a huge impact on female public code contributions.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.07278
For women who aren’t project insiders, acceptance of PR's falls from 71.8% to 62.5% when their Github profile made their gender identifiable. Aka documented bias.
https://www.scrippsnews.com/science-and-tech/gender-bias-in-open-source-coding-may-be-tech-s-latest-setback
@fosdem
These stats don't even mention other intersectionalities based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, ableness, etc, which are equally impactful.
The #FOSS ecosystem might be missing out on incredibly talented contributors. Which were exactly the type of people we wanted to attract to #FOSDEM27.
And btw, I do have to note that I consider 99% of the white men that I usually work with to be well intended allies. I'm sure that many of #FOSDEM 's visitors would have proudly stuck our cool 'not a tech bro' stickers to their laptops. ❤️
@Gina FWIW, your proposed track would have been a strong motivator for me to try to make space for fosdem in my already busy travel schedule. -- a white man.
Oct 21, 2026, 12:54 PM@Gina Thank you for this very informational (alhtough quite disappointing) thread!
I do hope the devroom rejection won't stop you from from submitting a proposal for the main track (and maybe even a stand?), I'm quite optimistic about such a talk being accepted AND able to fill in Jansson :)
@Gina I kinda want that sticker (and I think a couple of my colleagues, too). Lemme know when you stick 'em in a shop, somewhere!
Do these well intended allies stand up for you in the moment you're asked to get coffee or whatever, or do they just express how sorry they are for what you deal with, after the fact?
Oct 21, 2026, 1:02 PMOct 21, 2026, 1:14 PMOct 21, 2026, 1:16 PM" EIT Higher Education Initiative<https://eit-hei.eu/> invites consortia of higher education institutions, businesses, research organisations, public bodies and other innovation partners to apply.
The call is aligned with EU initiatives, such as the Union of Skills<https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/union-skills_en>, the STEM Education Strategic Plan<https://education.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2025-03/STEM_Education_Strategic_Plan_COM_2025_89_1_EN_0.pdf>, the Competitiveness Compass<https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/competitiveness-compass_en> and the Clean Industrial Deal<https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/clean-industrial-deal_en>."
Oct 21, 2026, 1:17 PM@Gina "
Selected projects will strengthen the capacity of higher education institutions by developing innovation, entrepreneurship and intellectual property skills among students and staff across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and related fields most relevant to manufacturing and deep tech innovation.
Oct 21, 2026, 1:18 PM@Gina "They will also improve knowledge sharing, technology transfer and intellectual property management, while building stronger links with industry partners, investors and innovation networks. "
@onepict Sounds interesting, but knowing the EU, also really bureaucratic. I dont think we'd have needed more than 10k to fly a bunch of people in.
Oct 21, 2026, 1:23 PM
@alexadeswift @dianea I have many more examples of micro-aggressions like that. Just shitty comments, not big enough to do anything with, but enough to be death by a 1000 cuts. It's so disheartening :(
@Gina This does not surprise me. It drives me to despair, though.
@Gina My brain made a dream responds to his bs:
"Don't be so hysterical. How will you ever find a wife with this attitude? If you can't even handle this how will you ever become a father? And also smile more."
But sadly it wouldn't ever have the same effect on such douchebags as it has in my fantasy.
@CaptainMalu
I think impugning his masculinity might do better, "oh man up and deal with it".
@Gina
@Gina this is so unhinged. It's one thing to think weird stuff, but a whole other level to let that thought cross the brain-mouth-barrier.
Or maybe I'm to generous and this is actual incel stuff. Unhinged it is at least.
We're mentoring a young women in cybersec right now. She's doing rly well and so far I didn't sense any weird vibes towards her. That said: she hasn't been to the big tables yet. What can we - as colleagues and mentors - do, to support her when time comes and she gets shit on? Mind sharing what might have helped you in these scenarios?
@Gina addendum: weirdly enough (and as a former java dev) the CSS-part hits me the most :ablobcatpoprev:
@AwkwardTuring Lol and I was so bad at it too 😂 Design is an actual skill.
@AwkwardTuring The thing about the 'weird and inappropriate jokes and comments' part is that I don't think a lot of them meant any actual harm with them. They were just.. odd. You learn to awkwardly smile them away real quick.
Idk what would have helped. It being recognized and addressed by older coworkers? I was too junior to call anything out (and sometimes didn't even recognize these things until much later).
@Gina aye. I guessed as much. Had a female boss for several years who did exactly what you mentioned towards me. But idk what would have helped in terms of support, without exposing me even further.
What I thought of doing is (obv) not laughing at smth like that and firmly "move on with the conversation" or shielding my coworker by mentioning that X should not be her task - Actively holding the professional space/frame so to speak.
Not sure if that helps, but I honestly don't know what to do without framing her as damsel in distress of sorts.
Anyway thanks for sharing! Rly appreciated!
@AwkwardTuring @Gina Depending on many, many factors, you might consider two things. 1) having a few phrases ready to stop interruption eg, 'hang on, I'd like to hear the rest of Sarah's point' and 2) a few phrases ready for weird comments, "Huh, that's an odd thing to say in a work meeting." or "That's not really on topic for this meeting." and then turn the conversation to the next point.
@Gina Witnessed the switch from "CSS is not REAL programming" to "With SASS we can finally code CSS!" to "CSS is now Turing-proof, so REAL programming language, dudes are made to do this!".
@Gina when I outright refuse to be the one that takes notes in meetings, and even have insisted that a younger junior woman (and the only other in the meeting) also not take notes. Then I get called aside and told I'm being "not a team player". I'm burnt out from the constant battle that is being a woman in tech.
@quixoticgeek Bwhahha now that I'm older and come with a bit of seniority, I make a BIG DEAL out of it when it happens. Teaching moment and all.
Edit: also, sorry that you're feeling burned out. I didn't mean to make it sound like I was laughing at that. :blobcatsad:
@Gina yeah. I've been in this industry for over a quarter century. I have very few fucks left to give.
@Gina “Why are there so few women in tech? We shall never know. It must be something about their brains” 🤷
@Gina I feel the dev world does not really care that much for DEI, let alone Belonging. At least in the past decades, I've seen it elevate its most debatable figures and their worst traits to godlike attributes. Weizenbaum spoke of the compulsive programmer, and Musk is all about his guys (it's always guys) needing to be "hardcore", I call them algojerks. I think there's a thread between gender inequality, disregard of diversity and turning an engineering discipline into "hacking" wasteland.
@Gina Have applied as frontend dev at a leading employer in Germany, UK and US with lots of badges for "Be yourself", "Stretch your horizons" and "Develop your curiosity", explicitly advocating diversity and accessibility in the code.
In the process my solution was the most accessible code and according to the CTO nobody before came up with it.
I was rejected: 3 talks with 5 white dudes and one non-dude, who was observing silently.
Honestly? This company has no credibility to me anymore ...
@Gina I was once at PHPBenelux, the company I worked at back then was main sponsor, when the CEO of another sponsor called out one of our engineers "You're not an engineer, I don't believe you, you're too pretty. They're making you say that, you must be in sales or marketing".
@Gina I found such a massive change in attitudes after I came out. Like the number of men who assume I know nothing about computers now is outstanding.
@KelcieLGBT This. And also "oh you started learning Python?? Name all frameworks and methods. Yeah didn't think so." Or, if I messed up, it somehow reflecting upon all female developers on this planet and also our parking skills.
@Gina That could have been a really interesting track. It's a shame it was rejected 🙁
And then politicians, employers, society etc. wonder why women don't work in tech. Sorry that you had to endure so much bullshit. I do hope that in 2026 it got a bit better and that your new company treats you well.
@graves501 It so much better in recent years. Seniority in general brings a bit more respect, but also now having the understanding and language to call things out.