I believe it was a tweet or LinkedIn post from Ester Barthel that made me aware of this book. Women in Tech: a book for guys by Eva Helén. I ordered the book and received a nice handwritten greeting from Eva herself in the book, how nice. I had it laying on my shelf for quite some time, because needed to finish another book first… 📖

When I started reading I noticed it’s very “lightly” written. It reads easy and has a very positive tone to it. It’s full of real life stories from people in Evas network which makes it definately more interesting. After reading it I thought, this book isn’t just for the tech sector, most things are pretty applicable in every man dominated organisation.

About the subject “Women in tech”… For me it’s in a way a no-brainer we need more diversity in tech (not just more women). And we should work actively to make that happen. The challenge is that we can’t force things too much, things take time. I realised that Eva (born in Sweden) is living in the USA for most of her (working) life now. I’ve grown up in The Netherlands and have lived in Norway for the last 9 years. And I think these two countries are already further in the process of cultural change about women/diversity in business in general. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not there yet, not even close. But I think we’re a bit further on the path of general adoption then the USA. Or am I just being biased now? Let me know what you think. 🤷‍♂️ Raising two daughters myself made me even more aware of this challenge we have ahead of us. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧😉

My personal take aways from the book:

• Men and women take different approaches in solving problems, which needs different management approaches.
• It gave me some more guidance in how to help the cause. Things that suits me as a person.
• Most men taking an active role in this cause have daughters themselves. :-)
• If there is a “women in tech” event, check if men are welcome, and attend if possible.

Note: I know the world is not binary when it comes to people.🌈 But that is what this particulary book focusses on, and I think that is OK. That’s why I also mentioned “diversity in tech”.😉