It’s different for girls according to the song. Lead QA Devon Smith explains the challenges and benefits of being the only female in the testing department.

 “Oh! You’re a girl!” said a remote member of a QA team I worked for during our first phone call. “I didn’t expect that.” Taking people by surprise is something you get used to when you work with computers. Millennium aside, the software field is still dominated by men, and there is a good chance that as a woman, at some point in your career (in my case, a few times) you will find yourself one of the few- if not the only- woman on your team.

That is something they do not prepare you for in college. Your co-workers may be the nicest guys ever, but at first glance, you look more like their sister than their teammate. Will your bugs be taken seriously? Will you ever fit in? It feels a little like walking in to the locker room on the first day of gym class- except you accidently walked in on the guys’ side. Being the only (or the first) woman in your company is a unique experience. There you are, laptop in hand, the lone woman in a room full of programmers.

“I walk in the door and everyone thinks I’m the secretary,” said one female programmer I talked to. A QA manager kept threatening to hang her degree on her office wall to prove she belonged. I have shown up for interviews and had people say “actually, I’m waiting for an interviewee right now, but he isn’t here.” I did get to enjoy the surprise on their faces when I explained that I was, in fact, that interviewee.

Certifications, degrees, experience, and testing philosophies mean nothing if you cannot integrate into the team, and in some interviews, it feels like they are evaluating your skills as well as your nail polish. If they take you on, what other obstacles will they have to face? What does it mean to have a woman working on the team? Sometimes the subject is delicately breached before hiring, as the company tries to gauge your ability not only to do the job, but also to work with all men.

You move into your new office space (which you share with a guy named George) and start to unpack and set up your computer. Your boss seems nice, your office has a window, and the lunchroom fridge is stocked with soda. You have made a mental note to request Diet Coke. George is friendly, but a little awkward as he clears off his collection of army men that have been launching a full-scale attack on one corner of your desk. He offers to show you around and introduce you.

Somewhere between introducing you to Mark, Brian, Greg and Dan, he leans over and says “I’ve always wanted to walk around the office with a girl on my arm.” It is right then that you realise you are in strange territory. This is not an ordinary office- this is a tech office and until you started– this was a place for jeans, “that’s what she said” jokes, and hot wings lunches. While you are introduced to Dan, you can tell people are looking at you, and it is not because you are the new person- it is because you are the first woman on their team and everyone wants to know what that means.

You are the new dynamic. In that awkward silence on your first day, your co-workers might be a little worried that you will radically change the office culture. Are you the new house mom? Will you be uncomfortable if they make jokes like they used to. Do you know what you are doing? Can they keep wearing that stained t-shirt they love so much?

They have lots of questions, but so do you. How do you act around these men? Are you supposed to fit in and be one of the boys or do they expect you to be a lady? What do you wear? You might be uncomfortable wearing feminine (office appropriate) clothes. Nylons, necklaces, and necklines are all new here. Is a knee length skirt too short when no one else is wearing them? There may be no HR policy about open toed shoes. When the guys wear shorts in the summer– is it ok if you do? How sensitive should people be about professionalism? Will there be a women’s bathroom or will you all share? Most of that depends on the culture of the office- but a lot of it you will define yourself as you find your spot on the team.

If you have come from an office with more gender diversity, you may find yourself suddenly wearing lots of turtlenecks, questioning the length of your skirt, and feeling very aware of the sound of heels clicking on the office floor. It is obvious you are in a different world here – the office is like a bachelor’s apartment (ok, honestly it is sometimes like a frat house) empty toilet paper rolls and all. Some days you are one of the boys, and some days you get asked out three times by the same co-worker. At first one of them tries explain to you how to work a mouse and a file menu, but eventually they learn that you can match them in discussion about requirements and software behaviour.

I read an article that studied women in male dominated workplaces. They found that women would subconsciously speak in a lower voice in an attempt to fit in with the men. I believe you do not need to be one of the boys to be one of the team. You may need to learn to communicate in a slightly different way with the developers, but that is part of QA anyway. Besides, often the guys will tend to communicate with you a little differently at first. They do not want to hurt your feelings, but they do not always know how to talk to women. It is important to remember that even though you are all co-workers, women and men are still wired a little differently, but that is a good thing! You might look for bugs in new places, or question the wording of a spec that never would have been considered. If we think differently, work together differently and test differently, it brings a valuable new dimension to the team.

At some point, you may end up managing men; sometimes much older men. When I was 23, I found myself, as the youngest team member and the only women in the group, in charge of men old enough to be my father. Age is a factor, but so is gender.

Being open about any uncomfortable dynamics there is the best policy – even if you have to be the one to bring it up. There were a few rocky releases for us, but eventually, we were all up together on late nights testing. We learned to work together and overlook the generational and gender gaps to make a great team. It feels strange to talk about it, but gender is defiantly a factor.

When a woman I know started a new job to lead a group of programmers, she told me that one of the biggest challenges was coming on and taking over a man’s role on a team of all men. She had to work to find her place- both as a new employee, and the only female lead. It can be uncomfortable for you and the people you have been assigned to manage. There are different boundaries; different ways of interacting that are often overlooked. It can be intimidating to stand up and take charge in that situation, but as a leader, it is important to address the issues and face them so that your team does not suffer.

When you have been on the team a while, navigated through shared bathrooms (was that a Maxim Magazine in there?) and a few awkward conversations, you think you have made it through the hard part. Nope! Even when your team settles in to routine or hires a few more women, there is still new territory to cross.

Sometimes that territory is a little uncomfortable, especially if you are working for a small company that has not had to deal with a lot of office-place issues yet. When the first woman goes and does something like getting pregnant, the company scrambles to put together a maternity policy. The first woman to have a baby at my first job had to pump in a bathroom stall because people walked in on her when she tried to use an office. Eventually there was another new clause in the company manual about working mothers, which they created after her.

You have to be more honest about what you need- even if it is embarrassing- like covered trashcans in the co-ed bathroom for example (that one took me about three months to implement). When you travel, you might need to remind them that while you are fine sharing a rental car, you would prefer your own hotel room.

It seems like regardless of how progressive your co-workers are, someone is going to ask you to plan the monthly birthday party, or the baby shower, or bring in cookies, or decorate the office lobby. It is not always a negative thing. Let’s face it, sometimes we need help reaching the plastic silverware on the top of the cupboard, and sometimes your male co-workers need help picking out a cake for birthdays. The trick is to get everyone involved, so you do not feel like QA, party planner, and interior designer all rolled in to one. Besides, guys are apparently really good at hanging streamers and everyone needs a break from the laptop glare sometimes.

Once you find a comfortable fit though- the joys of being one of a few is apparent. I have found the offices to often be more laid back and less cliquish. After few late releases together (or after you win your first chicken wing eating contest), you are suddenly part of a team that can use its differences- in age, gender or background- to its advantage and work together. It makes for stronger QA teams and a more interesting work place.

Then one day you are sitting in a meeting debating requirements documents and one of your co-worker says, “you are like the most awesome girl ever” and you realise that you have done what not a lot of women even attempt. You have made a place for yourself on your team and brought something new to the work environment. Everyone has relaxed. Even though when you go to the company Christmas party every other girl there is someone’s date, you know that you hold a special place in the office.

Maybe future new girls will have it just a bit easier. A woman in the workplace is not such a daunting idea anymore. You have proven yourself as a good QA and a good teammate. Your co-workers know that you can file bugs, play pranks, and debug a test suite with the best of them- only backwards and in heels.

Devon Smith
Lead QA
Agora Games
www.ladybug010.wordpress.com