I'm a 26-year-old woman who works as a developer since 2016 that's 5 years in this world and in this time despite I've worked in 3 different companies and known hundreds of developers I've only found a few dozens who are women. Actually, at this moment in my company, I work in an area where there are 50 developers of which only 2 are women, the strangest thing is that in the others areas this isn't the norm.

Since I began university and I saw only 10 girls in a class of 80, I knew that I wouldn't be working with a lot of girls, but in my work life I only saw the pattern even more marked, and from a few years I've been asking myself why this situation repeat in each company that I work, and the truth is that I have no idea, but in this post, I want to tell you my experience and debunk some really misleading ideas that I've heard.

You need to lose your femininity because you need to be hard if you don't they won't respect you

Absolutely false !! actually, I've found that my point of view is really appreciated and respected by my colleges without me having to take an aggressive attitude, and in some moments where tempers are too high I can help to calm down the environment and facilitate conversations and compromise, I think that if you give respect you will be respected, especially if you have good ideas and know how to communicate.

The guys won't help you because they think that women don't know how to code

Again .... False, I have been honoured by knowing amazing, caring and talented men from which I've learned a lot, and the thing is that they don't assume because of my gender because I don't let them, I'm always trying to be prepared and inform and when I don't know something I speak very clear that I don't, and the thing is that's ok, and they are generous with their knowledge and time, but you always have to appreciate that gift and honour it putting all your effort to learn and improve.

Code is too hard

Well yes, but no, if you put your effort you can do anything you intend so I invite you to not be intimidated and at least give it a try, you won't regret it, at least if coding isn't something that you enjoy, you have the satisfaction that you achieve something that you taught that you couldn't be able to. I read this somewhere and it has always stuck with me (I don't know who the author is).

If a human created it, as a human I can understand it

At last, I want to say that I write from my experience and I want to say thank you to all of my amazing colleges and friends who make this work my dream world, and I want to hear your experiences and maybe inspire more women to take this amazing path.