“Look at the line to the men’s restroom. This never happens!”
This June I attended my first WWDC, Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, in San Francisco. The conference is an opportunity for everyone developing software on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Web platforms to come together and spend a week learning the latest and greatest coming out of Apple headquarters while networking and learning from each other. And when they say worldwide, they aren’t kidding! I met developers from Australia, Malaysia, UK, France, Germany, India, and more. But aside from the knowledge I gained, and cool people I met, what really stood out to me, and what I want to share about my experience, is how I felt about the number of women in attendance. There were an estimated 100 or so women in a crowd of 5500 people. Imagine an occasional rose in a sea of thorns. Ok, I’m kidding! Guys who are reading this, don’t be offended. I have nothing against you! I simply wish to see this ratio become much more equal in the future.
The reason I can’t share with you the exact number of women to men is because Apple declined to share this information with the several women who asked. We didn’t think this kind of statistic would be “confidential” but we’re guessing it’s considered bad press. I can tell you whatever the number of female attendees was, it was small. This became best illustrated when breezing past the ridiculously long lines to the men’s restrooms in between sessions, to stroll into a no-wait women’s restroom (hence the title of this article). Women kept exclaiming with triumph in their voices “this never happens!”. But in reality, it’s a negative sign that there are still so many fewer women in the software industry than men.
Although men and women alike who have attended this conference in the past were extremely optimistic about the number of women in attendance growing considerably this year over previous years, as a first-timer I was not biased by the fact that this was an improvement because the numbers were so disappointing. I am glad to hear that there is an up-swing of female developers, but we are nowhere near equal numbers in this industry! And this conference, more than anything else, solidified that realization for me. I have written before about the gender differences in the technology industry, but it always saddens me when I am reminded first hand. Here’s hoping that next year there is a line for the women’s restroom too!
If you’re interested, one of the awesome female developers I met put together a fun overview video of this year’s WWDC.
