On Breaking Rules: Being a Woman, Being a Doctor, Being in Tech

When I was in college, my professors would usually talk to my mom, who is also a college professor herself. Always, they have just one thing to say, "Your daughter has her own mind. You cannot teach her what to think. She has her own mind". That's what I am according to them: stubborn.

Well, there were many instances in my life wherein I have broken rules and have proven many people wrong. Let me enumerate some of them.

1. Being a Writer/Editor While Majoring in the Sciences

They say that when you are good in writing, you should be in journalism. And when you are good in math and sciences, you should be majoring in science, business or engineering. But I am proud to say I was able to graduate from Medical Technology/Clinical Laboratory Science despite being a campus writer. People used to ask me if I really want to become a medical laboratory scientist and I said yes, and they got this weird look in their eyes that say "Then why do you keep on writing stuff?". And when I went into hospital internship, I juggled press work and hospital laboratory duties. Well, I survived.

2. Becoming a Doctor While Doing Freelance Web Writing/ SEO

They say that when you go to medical school you should drop your other sidelines and just concentrate on studying medicine. Well, I also broke that rule. I turned to content writing to help finance my studies. During the early 2000s, writers who went to content writing were viewed as being stupid. After all, content writing consisted writing articles with repetitive keywords and outbound links. No journalism graduate can handle that, que horror! To earn some decent income I was willing to be trained in that "dirty" job of SEO writing. I began to write for ad companies who trained me more on SEO writing. I did not expect SEO to become this big. But I know I did the right thing, picking up the dirty job to earn gold.

3. Becoming a Resident Doctor in Internal Medicine and Doing Freelance Online Jobs

Yes, a resident's physician's duty can last for 36 hours in the hospital. But I still found time to write, as I needed the income still. I was able to finish residency training and pass diplomate exams while being a freelance writer. Not only did I become a writer, I also learned front-end web development because clients didn't want to spend more on getting a separate designer. And so I learned HTML, CSS and Javascript. I met some crazy web developers and digital marketing experts (all of them were males) who became my precious friends. They were the ones who taught me more about digital marketing and some back-end web development (PHP, SQL).

4. Starting a Drugstore and Distribution Business With Limited Capital

They say that you will need a million bucks if you want to start a drugstore and distribution business. I started small with minimum capital but I did not spend the income I earned. Instead, I used it to purchase stocks until my inventory grew and grew, along with the profits.

5. Entering the World of Web Development As a Woman and As a Doctor

Because of my skills in web development and SEO, some of my clients who owned web development companies began to invite me as a part of their teams. And so, I am a doctor during the day, but a web developer during the night until the wee hours of the morning. I was attractive to clients because I am a doctor-writer possessing IT skills. I am now a part of various web development teams from the US, India, Israel, Romania, UK and Singapore which focus on online pharmacies, medical websites and medical e-commerce sites.

So there I was, dividing my time as a doctor-by-day, vampire-by-night. I was happy. Until one day, a message popped up in my Slack saying "Hi sexy. You're so beautiful. Got a boyfriend?" It was from one of my teammates in a US-based web development company.

It was then that I realized that I am a WOMAN and I am different from them. Physically. I realized that I have long hair and that I wore a bra.

A cold realization swept through me: I am a woman. Yes I am, but what's the fuss about it? I write well, I get things done on or before the deadline. I don't do sloppy work. Why? What have I done to deserve this?

Why is there gender bias in the tech industry? This happened to me not only once but twice: my co-workers online calling me names. Was it because of how I look? Well, I admit I am not ugly-looking, but this face is just a mask. I am still a human being capable of doing what a male web developer can do! I was hired to work and not just become a teaser here! But I have NOT noticed this among Caucasian developers who came from countries where there are many women in tech. I have observed this among co-workers coming from countries where tech is a male-dominated industry, particularly in the Middle East, Pakistan and India.

I know I am not the only woman lamenting on this. This is why large organizations such as Google are encouraging more women in tech. Maybe these talented women just stopped coming to work because they were called "babes" or "sweethearts". Maybe they even experienced some form of abuse.

I know that tech work is very demanding. Even though IT is not my primary profession, I spend 8 hours a day or more doing website projects. Whenever there are projects I usually finish the job according to schedule. Even though I am very tired, if I have a deadline, I would make sure I will finish it, even if it would mean staying up late until the morning.

I hope this issue will end soon among women in science and technology. I am willing to work towards this realization. I want to end this judgmental attitude. I have broken many rules and have proven many theories wrong. Now, as a woman doctor who is currently learning to write code, I have managed to break rules again.