pot’vin

Conscious and unconscious bias, societal pressures, and discomfort with women’s ambition are issues that women are confronted with in any male-dominated setting, and tech is no exception. Statistically, women are a disproportionately small percentage of the technology industry. How did we get here, what is changing, and what can future generations of women in STEM expect?

In Crushing the IT Gender Bias, author Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman applies her two decades of experience in tech to these meaningful questions, plus many more. As a mentor and sponsor of women in the database and development communities, Pot’Vin-Gorman uses experience, visualizations of hard data, and industry interviews to describe the many challenges that women face in STEM. She then shows you how to inoculate against them. Small, positive changes like these are similar to a vaccine: they build individual immunity and thus create herd immunity to protect the most vulnerable. This shift is accomplished through increased representation of—and direct exposure to—successful role models in the industry.

You’ll get practical advice related to hiring practices, salary negotiations, and barriers to collaboration. After witnessing multiple female peers depart the tech world, Pot’Vin-Gorman has written Crushing the IT Gender Bias to make her voice heard and to start this necessary conversation productively so that women can thrive. Additionally, this book is for male professionals who desire to grow in their understanding and eliminate bias in their environments.

Do not be content with mere survival. Read this book, practice the techniques, and, most importantly, learn how to pay it forward. By arming yourself with knowledge and facing bias head-on, you can be the meaningful change that you want to see in the tech industry.