Back when I was a wee intern at LucasArts, I had an epiphany.  “Most of the employees here are young males who share my geeky obsessions.” I thought.  “If I ever want a date, I can practically have my pick!”

Ladies, I’m not recommending that you go into the games industry to pick up guys.  Dating a coworker can be messy business.  What I am saying is that there are perks to working in a mostly-male environment. 

Let me illustrate another positive about being in the minority.

Some years ago, there was a random convergence of women in our company’s kitchen.  It just so happened that five or six of us had stepped in on different errands.  We were in the middle of chuckling about it when a male employee rounded the corner.  He stopped in his tracks, and to this day I still swear I could see an exclamation point pop into the air above his head.  He looked from one of us to the next with wide eyes, and abruptly scurried out of the kitchen.

The resulting laughter could be heard for miles.

That brought home the realization that I can be the only woman in a room full of men and remain oblivious of the differences in our gender.  It’s like a sneaky little superpower, and I got it just by showing up and doing my job.  The men here don’t get this perk.  There will be times in their lives when they find themselves surrounded by women, and they’ll be the ones sweating and nervously trying to make a good impression.

Fears and frustrations of past generations have a sad way of eclipsing positives like these.   When a woman gets passed over for promotion for a man, in any industry, the woman is left to wonder if it was because she wasn’t qualified or because she is a she.  Is the man in the next cubicle getting away with unprofessional behavior because he is male, or just because?  Am I making less money because I’m female?  Do they think less of my work because I’m not one of the guys?

And there is the other side of the coin – shiny, but still disturbing.  Have I been given an unfair advantage because I’m female?  Was I promoted over the other guy because the boss thinks I’m attractive?  Was my idea really better, or did they pick mine because they needed to look like women have more involvement here?

From my experience, most such fears are baseless.  Our mothers and grandmothers had to fight for equality, and they taught us to fight and be ever vigilant.  So, we are left looking and looking for inequality where often none of any significance remains.  And we are left to take responsibility for our own failures.

I am deeply grateful to them that I live in a society in which I can work with the boys in such equality.  But their efforts don’t mean that gender-based stupidity doesn’t still occur.  It means, instead, that we have the tools to fix the problems as they occur, on every level from the massive lawsuit down to the friendly conversation.

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