Too long for a tweet, too short for a proper blog post, but going in here anyway.

I read the things my male tech colleagues have said to me article and thought about my own experience. Thankfully I haven’t been subjected to nearly as many microagressions (but hey I’m still young! there’s plenty of time!), but there were a few points that resonated wih me:

• “You don’t look like you…” or “Most girls aren’t …”* Boston is a melting pot of colleges and you’ll often start conversations at parties with, “What school do you go to?” I got tired of hearing “You don’t look like you {go to MIT, major in math/eng}” when guys asked me this at parties in college, so my friend and I started to respond with “guess” when asked, and they were usually taken aback. They’d say “Well only MIT girls would say that, so you must go to MIT.” At least I turned it around on them.
• Getting mixed up with receptionists. First of all, being a receptionist/administrative assistant is a difficult and thankless job. You are constantly behind the scenes making sure everything is running smoothly and taking care of all kinds of tasks that nobody else wants to do. It’s hard work. That said, it’s unfortunate that these positions are seen as low-skill and as such, only for eye-candy women who aren’t good for anything else. I’m not a receptionist, and you should respect (not assume) my career choices as well as the receptionist’s.

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