Lean Out

the Week of February 24, 2014

This is our third issue, Lean Out. We look at evictions and gentrification in the Bay Area and open source projects to combat them. Learn about the politics of how we define “tech workers,” meet a startup focused on community-based sign language interpreting, and explore the contradictions of Lean In ideology in a sexist society. Later, we hear about quitting STEM, discuss starting companies without venture capital, cover care-giving in the age of quantified self, analyze what’s behind the gendered language debate and consider archetypes of women CEOs. Header photo CC-BY-SA by Andrei Niemimäki, cropped.

A diagram of a letter.

An Open Letter on Feminism In Tech

We are tired of pretending this stuff doesn’t happen.

Albright, the author, typing. Their face is turned in profile.

Emancipation of Deaf Voice

Deaf people can’t learn to hear, can you learn to provide access?

A vintage black and white photograph of two women, backs turned to the camera, working at an IBM punch card computer about the size of two large xerox machines.

Quantify Everything: A Dream of a Feminist Data Future

Women’s lives have been subjected to quantification for decades.

Joan of Arc illustration on vintage Harper's magazine cover.

CEO Archetypes: #7 Joan of Arc

If you are a woman CEO, no matter how good or bad you are, at some point they are going to burn you at the stake.

Sandberg, shown on a judging panel.

Lean Against: Building an Alternative to Lean In Within Tech

The ultimate message of Lean In ideology is transparent in the name itself: Stay in the machine. Work for the machine. Appease the machine.

The author working in a chemistry lab.

I Didn’t Want To Lean Out

Why I Left, How I Left, and What It Would Have Taken to Keep Me in STEM

by Fay H.
Bell, the author, posing with Soledad O'Brien.

Finding Success Outside of Venture Capital

My Startup, Advice for Bootstrapping Your Company, And Why VC Isn’t Always The Right Choice

Screenshot of the section of the libuv pull request comments. In it, bnoordhuis comments: Sorry, not interested in trivial changes like that. User coderanger comments: +1 for merging this change. Alex, who opened the request, comments: I'm sorry to hear that. I don't really see why you wouldn't merge it if it's so trivial though. Surely making the library less hostile is worth a few seconds of our time to press the merge button?

Gendered Language: Feature or Bug in Software Documentation?

How open source enforces male domination through shaming and hostility.

McElroy, the author of this piece, at a protest, holding a megaphone.

Tech Workers and the Eviction Crisis

A look at new technology projects combating Bay Area speculation, plus the role and responsibilities of tech workers within local communities.

The Author's re-creation of her childhood 'Super Mom' drawing, described above.

Your Marriage Will Fail

The Hidden Realities of Leaning In

Three workers, in blue shirts and name badges, talking to one another in an empty Apple store.

Why Do We Only Care About Programmers?

We Need to Expand the Tech Diversity Conversation