#ChooseToChallenge: Taking the First Step
I'm a solutions engineer lead, GitHub Star, Director of WomenDevsSG, and co founder of ragTech. I work at the intersection of tech, systems, and leadership, and this blog is where I share my journey through all three. Expect honest reflections, real experiences, and thoughts that are still forming rather than polished career advice.
Today's article is a spontaneous one, suggested to me by the brilliant Hashnode team. The #ChooseToChallenge is an amazing initiative in celebration of International Women's Day 2021. But what's more amazing is that Hashnode decides to be a support pillar and lends their voice to celebrate women in tech and call out gender-bias in the tech ecosystem.
Find out more about the challenge here:
- https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Theme
Visit the Hashnode page on it here:
- https://hashnode.com/iwd2021
My Challenge
When I heard about this challenge, the first thing I worry about was how I am going to take a picture of myself and show it to the public. As most of you know, I'm too shy to show my face (look at my 2D profile pic) and immediately, I thought of my first reason to participate in this challenge.
Women are constantly judged and criticized for their appearances. When I was young, being good at mathematics, science or programming is not admirable for a girl. But being good at makeup does. Hence, I #ChooseToChallenge that. By picking up my phone, taking a selfie of my bare face and making that picture the cover image of today's article.
Another reason to challenge: there is gender imbalance in the STEM community. Women are discouraged from taking on careers in their field due to internal pressure from family and external societal expectations.
I #ChooseToChallenge this imbalance. Not only by being a woman in tech, but also by being active in the tech/blogging community and using my platform to create value for both men and women equally.
Final Words
Thanks Hashnode for this initiative and taking the first step to spread the awareness of social issues. I am inspired to do the same and wrote this article. If you read this article, I hope you will participate too.
Thank you for reading, cheers!
