Being a Better Ally to Women and People of Colour in Tech ⇥ ntrsctn.com

Really great article from Victoria Kirst, writing for Ntrsctn:

… ‘Are you sure it was sexism?’ is a pointless question because the answer is always the same: No, I’m not sure. I can’t be sure. It’s impossible to be sure.

Engineers solve technical problems at work every day, so it’s tempting for us to solve all of life’s problems using the same approach. But it’s ridiculous to apply engineering techniques to social problems, where it’s impossible to get the evidence we would normally demand to solve them. We need a different approach.

Empathy is a very powerful tool here. The better we understand the abuse, discrimination, and oppression that women and people of colour face — often daily — the better we can be an ally. The only way we can even begin to understand this, though, is to listen, and that’s something we’re not doing very well right now.