A World Where WomenInTech Leads

What are the societal changes an empowered woman in tech will bring

I was at Google's India Community Summit over the last weekend. ICS2019 is an annual conference for all GDG, WomenTechMakers, and GDGC leads from all over India. It is a space for us to meet, collaborate and share ideas. You can think of it as a meetup for people who organize your meetups.

On the 2nd day of the summit, we had a special workshop for womentechmakers leaders. During the workshop, we were asked to brainstorm on an ideal world where women in tech are paid and treated equally where we no longer have to struggle for what we deserve.

We were split into a team of 6 and asked to brainstorm ideas. Ideas started to flow. I took everything that bothers me in the current world and made it a part of my imaginary world. I am going to list them down and help you visualize how this world would look like.

Public Restrooms

Imagine your colleague leaving for the day, she drives a scooter and her commute time is almost two hours. Unlike other Chennai days it was raining and she was drenched. The cool wind adds up to the situation and she starts shaking and wants to pee. Where will she go? As men, it is so easy for you to find a corner on the road and do your business but seriously where will we the women go?

In my imaginary world where women thrive there will be well equipped clean public restrooms around the city. We would not have to shut our water intake to shut our exit.

As men, you can help us in this in a big way. Every time you use a public space, trains, transport offices, restaurants, schools, temples make sure the restrooms are clean. Don't give Zomanto or Redbus rating just for their food or travel. Rate them for the quality of their restrooms.

Work-Life Balance

Why do you have to go home early? You are not even married? I have heard many women complain about this but the sad part is the women in the hiring end say "women can't work long hours". I vouched that if I ever manage a team I will make it a rule for men to leave early to spend time with kids and share domestic work.

In a woman built world, we don't have to fight our way into work-life balance because it will just be the way of life

Domestic Work Gets Paid

Imagine a world, where domestic work is paid. Washing dishes, clothes, cleaning the house and so on. It gets paid so much that men might even fight that they would take care of all the chores. We are still talking about an imaginary not ideal world.

Chairs to Cars

In a world designed for women, we don't have to work in a station build for men's average height. We no longer have to travel on buses with handles that are far ahead of our reach. We can be sure that the cars we drive are safe for us because it is tested with dummies of a female skeleton.

In a world designed for women, we have more challenges to face than social norms and ideologies. When women in tech rule, we don't just change the way tech works but, the way the world operates.