Breaking stereotypes: #ilooklikeanengineer aims at gender diversity in tech

Social media has been changing the way we interact as well as react. Whether you are a spectator or active participant, one cannot miss the typical social media pattern that usually involves a mix of backlash and praises. Sometimes the backlash turns positive overnight and that is exactly what happened to Isis Wenger’s startup ad campaign that went viral on Twitter with the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer. Wenger is a 22-year old platform engineer and the new face for the recruiting campaign for her company called OneLogin. And people weren’t really pleased with her ‘sexy smirk’ on the ad and she started receiving berating messages about her look. https://twitter.com/isisAnchalee/status/628294846713757696 “As a genuine introvert I have never cared much about gaining public attention and I really wasn’t prepared for how much everything blew up. Honestly when I see ads, I don’t think much of them and I certainly don’t try to read deeply into them. It was surprising to me to see that other people did," she told Techcrunch. Soon, Wenger explained her part of the story – what’s the campaign ad all about and how she has been harassed – via blogging site Medium. “I didn’t want or ask for any of this attention, but if I can use this to put a spotlight on gender issues in tech I consider that to be at least one win. The reality is that most people are well intentioned but genuinely blind to a lot of the crap that those who do not identify as male have to deal with,” she said in the blogpost. In the well-written piece, she also encouraged people join the conversation for redefining ‘how an engineer should look like’ with the now popular hashtag. And she wasn’t disappointed and turned out to become an overnight star on Twitter for ‘gender diversity’ in tech. The tweets also came from some really renowned techies from the industry. https://twitter.com/hopefulcyborg/status/628331124113186816 https://twitter.com/JCHayes/status/628313012152090625 https://twitter.com/MarisaH92/status/628351071744868352