What’s it like as a woman where you work?

The best way to understand women in the technology sector is to find them and talk to them. Boston.com reached out to local women in technology and posed the following question: What is it like to be a woman at your place of work? Many responded asking for more more context or clarification, but the question was kept intentionally vague in the hope for honest and varied answers from the women. Almost all noted that they were one of few females, if not the only one, on their engineering teams, but they are hopeful they can trailblaze the way for other women to join them. Many also said that although the lack of diversity can be challenging, a welcoming culture at their workplaces go a long way.See how these eight women, from developers to UX designers to product managers, interpreted and answered the question.

Lauren Fazah, Web Developer at Hill Holliday

“On a surface level, being a woman at Hill Holliday is no different than being of any other identity. I have the same conversations with coworkers, the same workload, and the same invitations to lunch as I would if I were not a woman. However, I am the first female web developer here, and therefore, these conversations, workloads, and lunch invites are so much more meaningful to me. Slowly, women are entering the tech field to narrow the gender gap, but still we make up only a small percent of the field. Therefore, I hope that by being a woman in my place of work opens up opportunity for many other women to follow. It was women who encouraged me to follow my dreams and enter the tech world, so I can only hope to return the favor.’’

Elizabeth Long, Application Specialist at MOCA Systems

“I f*cking love my job.Two years ago, I worked as a legal assistant and was tired of being someone’s assistant so in my search for places to learn new skills, I started Girl Develop It in Boston where I learned computer programming and became part of the technical community. About a year ago I made a decision to level up my career, so I enrolled inStartup Institute which gave me the clarity around exactly what type of a place I wanted to work and the network to make it happen. These experiences led me to find my current role at MOCA Systems in a role that is challenging and rewarding. Where I am now, I am the only woman in a group of eight and it is awesome. We have a wonderful team that works well together. The best part of my job is being able to bring a different perspective to the table, which no matter your gender, has to be articulated well and defended in some cases. I know my strengths are valued and I am rewarded for my hard work. I credit lots of people supporting me to get here, but ultimately it was by design — I knew what I wanted and I went for it.’’

Lindsay Ritzenthaler, Senior Software Engineer at Punchbowl

“I’ve been a software developer for eight-and-a-half years, and I’ve never worked professionally with another female engineer. I’ve worked with other women, for sure, but never in my same role. I’ve worked at places where I was constantly reminded that I’m female — mostly due to the type of culture where disrespect was encouraged and labeled “humor.’’ However, my current place of work, Punchbowl, is different — proof that a culture can be fun and respectful at the same time. All I ask for is A) that my gender does not play a part in the judgement of whether or not I can successfully do my job, and B) that I’m treated with respect.’’

Anita Patel, Web Applications Developer at Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

“To be honest, I never think about my work environment at the Berkman Center as it relates to me being a woman. That is likely because there is a pretty even distribution of sexes among the entire staff. While among the developers and engineers I am the only female, it never really crosses my mind when working with my peers. I consider myself to be lucky to work with such open-minded and forward thinking ‘geeks,’ as we lovingly call ourselves. So much so, that my male colleagues have helped organize and participate in ‘women-friendly’ Ruby developer workshops to help foster women entering the programming field. If I had to stop and reflect on what it is like to be a woman where I work, I would have to say it is pretty awesome!’’

Liana Leahy, Product Manager at MeYou Health

“I’m a product manager at MeYou Health building products that help improve your well-being. I started out life here as a software engineer with 20 years experience from desktop software to Internet to mobile technologies. These days I’m learning Elixir with my colleagues because it’s important to me to stay technical.Throughout my career I’ve been the only female engineer for miles around and I’m thrilled to see that changing. At MeYou Health, I’m one of three for the first time ever. I love my job and my colleagues and couldn’t imagine working any place else, doing anything else.’’

Annette Arabasz, Senior Creative Technologist at Mad*Pow

“Being a manager of a developer team at Mad*Pow has been incredibly rewarding because I feel like I have a partner in trying to solve some of the big issues out there. This includes the issue of gender imbalance in the tech sector. Through my company’s involvement with local and national organizations, including Girl Develop It and XX in Health, we are playing an active role in making an impact.We’ve just hired the third female developer in our Boston office, which I am psyched about. But what excites me even more is the fact that all of the applicants for the role were female. That suggests to me that things may be getting better — more women may be training in the industry, or women may be gaining more confidence to pursue a tech job, or my company is doing something right.’’

Amanda Cheung, Lead UX Developer at DockYard

“I find it empowering to see how DockYard has grown over the past few years. As the first woman on the team, I have seen the company expand to now consist of 40 percent women. I’m surrounded by talented female designers and developers. Although our current female to male ratio is above average, I know women are disproportionately outnumbered within the greater tech industry. This drove me to share my passion and knowledge of web development with other women who were interested in getting into the field so I started teaching HTML/CSS and Responsive Web Design classes with Girl Develop It, an organization that aims to bring more women into the tech industry.’’

Jessica Scott, Tech Lead at HubSpot

“I’ve worked at a few different places, often being the only woman on an entire engineering team. When I started at HubSpot there were only two women, but it’s been so great to see that number grow, in large part to having a team that genuinely cares about diversity and expanding that number. Now we have many more women, and it’s so refreshing to work somewhere with a group of strong, supportive women. It’s also great to see women in leadership roles, like tech lead and director, to show those younger engineers (especially the young women) that we can be in charge.’’