Editors Note: In honor of Ada Lovelace day, we have asked core MongoDB developer Kristina Chodorow to be our guest blogger today—and she came through in fine style.
One Friday when I was young and foolish (last year) I committed some code changes, tested nothing, and went home for the weekend. When I got in on Monday, I saw that my coworker had sent out an email to everyone that said "Kristina, you broke the build, you wacky redhead!"
On top of being embarrassed about breaking the build, I was also furious about being called a "wacky redhead" in front of the whole company. Would he call our coworker John a "wacky blonde" or Sam a "wacky brunette"? I'm taking a wild guess at no.
I'm certain that he did not mean anything bad, he just thought it sounded funny (which it does). It's like the XKCD cartoon about segfaults feeling like waking up with a jerk: when someone talks to me like this, it feels like a segfault.
Almost all of the "sexism" I run into is unintentional and well-meaning, but it's annoying. Would you tell Larry Wall he was "cute"? Would you send Linus Torvalds a rose (@}-->--) for fixing a bug? Would you ask Joshua Bloch "Are you a busy boy today?"
Before you say something, think, "Would I say this to a guy?" Please, talk to us like we're programmers, not like we're women.
I told my coworker that I didn't like what he said and he understood and apologized. That made me feel better and, as far as I was concerned, closed the matter. Which was when my boss pulled my coworker aside and told him what he had done was inappropriate. Justice ended up being swift and a bit excessive, but everyone lived happily ever after.
One Friday when I was young and foolish (last year) I committed some code changes, tested nothing, and went home for the weekend. When I got in on Monday, I saw that my coworker had sent out an email to everyone that said "Kristina, you broke the build, you wacky redhead!"
On top of being embarrassed about breaking the build, I was also furious about being called a "wacky redhead" in front of the whole company. Would he call our coworker John a "wacky blonde" or Sam a "wacky brunette"? I'm taking a wild guess at no.
I'm certain that he did not mean anything bad, he just thought it sounded funny (which it does). It's like the XKCD cartoon about segfaults feeling like waking up with a jerk: when someone talks to me like this, it feels like a segfault.
Almost all of the "sexism" I run into is unintentional and well-meaning, but it's annoying. Would you tell Larry Wall he was "cute"? Would you send Linus Torvalds a rose (@}-->--) for fixing a bug? Would you ask Joshua Bloch "Are you a busy boy today?"
Before you say something, think, "Would I say this to a guy?" Please, talk to us like we're programmers, not like we're women.
I told my coworker that I didn't like what he said and he understood and apologized. That made me feel better and, as far as I was concerned, closed the matter. Which was when my boss pulled my coworker aside and told him what he had done was inappropriate. Justice ended up being swift and a bit excessive, but everyone lived happily ever after.
