South African Clint Lynch, senior developer at Realm Digital, believes being a woman should not keep females from entering the tech space as gender is not exceptional to other differences.
Lynch spoke as a guest speaker at the female developer-themed Geek Girl Dinner in Cape Town (GGDCPT) on Tuesday night in Bantry Bay.
He said: “Every software developer, every person for that matter, is so different.
“We all have different challenges and different experiences in our life and this means we’ll approach problems in different ways. We all have our own separate needed approach to problem solving in the software industry and I suppose as well as in life.”
Lynch believes difference is a benefit rather than a disadvantage, explaining that “a world with a bunch of mes”, as well as a tech company filled with only one kind of person will not work.
“There has been much focus on the equality in the workplace and I know it is necessary because over the years there has been women, and other racial groups are being treated unfairly over the ages, but what I’d really like is for differences to be celebrated,” he continued.
The developer related his experience of working with women as pleasant, saying: “Women… demand a certain amount of respect”.
He encouraged women to not enter the field being gender-conscious, adding: “Forget about the fact that you are a woman or that you are black or white or whatever and just be yourself.”
According to Lynch, there is a general piece of advice he would give to any employee: “Be yourself and do your job. If you are an open, honest person you don’t need to put up any front or pretend to be anything else.”
“Nobody can fake their way through being a developer,” Lynch told HumanIPO, referring to a skill set rather than difference in race, gender or other personality traits to be the main advantage of occupying a position.
He does not believe there needs to be powerplay between genders in the office or that age matters.
“We should be treated fairly, but equal is an absolute state. We can’t be equal because we have a difference. We all different and our diffrernce should be celebrated.”
Other speakers at the GGDCPT included software developer Shalina Naicker and programmer Lyndsay Lawrence.
HumanIPO reported yesterday on Lawrence’s standpoint on being labelled as a female on the tech scene.
