Steminists — Where are all the women?
By: Justine Manaloto
Tags: Female Empowerment, Coding, Flatiron School, STEM, Software Engineering

I opened up two fortune cookies recently that I ended up saving on my desk and still randomly read them for inspiration.

Ironic to receive such wise words during a time when I really needed them the most. Pursuing software engineering as a woman has really inspired me to be more empowered in growing in a field that I originally thought was built for men only. I can’t recall how many times I’ve ever met a woman in my younger years who said she was an engineer or was studying to be one. In fact, prior to joining Flatiron School, I had never met one at all. Not saying they didn’t exist — I just didn’t know of any because they weren’t taking over the industry and I’ve only ever known men to be engineers. According to statistics on BuiltByMe.com, “While women constitute almost 50% of the labor market, there are only 28% of women in STEM fields as opposed to 72% of men.”

Source: BuiltByMe.com

Source: BuiltByMe.com

Source: BuiltByMe.com

Source: BuiltByMe.com

Since joining Flatiron School and only having completed 6 weeks, I have literally found myself subconsciously promoting their programs like I’m some walking endorsement or just having other women look into coding as a career. Anytime I ever hear any female acquaintances or friends saying they don’t know what direction to take their life, I’m always encouraging them of the perks that can come after successful completion of a bootcamp program. I talk about the scholarships that are offered for women to actually join these coding schools and would assist in their tuition if they can meet qualifications or write essays. Granted, I do give a full disclosure first of how much homework there is to be done in the program, along with the fast-paced curriculum. Still, it hasn’t deterred any of them from inquiring about more information. From old coworkers that wanted to leave their low-wage jobs to stay at home moms who wanted to study from home but didn’t know what to look into, there I was popping my head in with my two cents encouraging them to at least READ about software engineering.

In my current class, only 25% are women and are all minorities, including myself. I can’t tell you how proud I am for the opportunity to be one of them on this amazing journey. It’s such an achievement as an Asian American woman to learn and thrive in a field that is NOT medical related. Most, if not all, Filipino parents ingrain their children with the knowledge that a degree in nursing would be the best possible career choice no matter what. The field was so diverse. I could do travel nursing, work in any department in the hospital if I specialized in it, work with the elderly or the sick, and so many other avenues. Plus, the money would be great! I had classmates in the Philippines who came from studying to be a doctor to returning back to school to study nursing instead because the chances of migrating to the United States for work was easier as a nurse than it was to be a doctor. That was all I had ever heard growing up: NURSING, NURSING, NURSING. Nobody ever talked about science, technology, engineering, or math for women. I thought I could force myself to find passion in nursing but even after joining a BSN program in college, I dropped out of that soon after because it was a dream that my parents wanted for me, not a dream I wanted for myself. It’s so important to have passion in what YOU want to become, not what everyone else sees is right for you. Otherwise, you’ll have to live out the rest of your life always wondering if you made the right choice and if you’re truly happy with it.

In the short amount of time that I’ve spent in bootcamp at Flatiron School, I’ve learned a little about a lot and I honestly am shedding the layers of the lack of confidence day by day and feeling like this very well could be the career I’ve always been looking for. I might not be the most tech-savvy in class and while I certainly can be intimidated by the knowledge of some of my peers, their support, advice, and positivity lets me know I can do what they’re doing too, just at my own pace. We’re all learning together but you have to put in the work. I’ve learned Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Active Record, passed two Code Challenges, built two partner projects, and now, I’m learning JavaScript starting on week seven. Quite an achievement to be proud of for any student attending this program and now, I’m looking forward to expanding my portfolio and knowledge even more from here. With this growing confidence, I feel as though it is my duty to encourage other women to join the STEM field so they can feel that sense of accomplishment of being able to change the world.