#25 “I’ve noticed multiple times that even though a strong leader is expected to have multiple leadership and technical skills, how we use that for both men and women is very different.”

“I’m currently a tech bar raiser at amazon. I’ve noticed multiple times that even though a strong leader is expected to have multiple leadership and technical skills, how we use that for both men and women is very different. When a women cares about her team’s well-being and volunteers to organize team-building activities, her tech bar is automatically assumed to be lower than if a man was to do the same. We talk about diversity but it’s an obvious bias to equate affinity group participation to fun activities just for women. This ends up impacting women a lot more during the promo cycle. I’ve actually been in rooms where women are not getting promoted because they are perceived to not have high technical skills so they don’t pass the technical bar. This is all because they are putting efforts into building the social bonds of the team rather than going and coding something.“