I was struggling with a title for this post as well, hacked off is taken! And thanks now to my extreme procrastination, I am finishing/posting this on International Women’s Day, a better person would have planned it, but I am going to take it as a sign!
This week’s misdirected mail, has irked me somewhat. The title of the organization is WomenHack and while after a bit of research (Google/LinkedIn) it appears to be a recruitment company, I am still irked. Why? Oh let me start!
Firstly the name of the company! WomenHack? What is the intent here? What is it supposed to mean, or inspire? They appear to be American so I appreciate we have cultural differences…but still…hack? women?
Back in the olden days hack meant to manipulate code ( software ) to do something it wasn’t supposed to do; or go somewhere you were not supposed to be; or gain access to information that was not yours; break in to NASA; to break into the phone messages of celebrities and great headlines from private conversations! There are lots of not very good films about this form of hacking; they normally show lots of elaborate lights, circuits, and beeping noises to show you the progress ‘through’ the system. It should be said that in the films, hackers are often the ‘goodies’, a great example of the genre is Hackers.
Now, I am in no way saying hacking is cool, or good. It is used for nefarious purposes; for other governments to influence elections or referendums, to steal data and blackmail people, to sell data, and obviously gain money or power. Try for a minute now, to apply this version of hacking to women. We are to manipulate a system to do something that it is not designed to do? What?; manipulate it to hire women? That the system is not designed for this??? My head is actually exploding.
The system, especially IT companies, which WomenHack seem to be targeting, are definitely not designed by or for women. However, and this is a big however, labeling is important. And when you name something targeted at women, as being an exception, as being different, you are maintaining the status quo rather than changing it. An employment company aimed at women, that describes themselves as hacking, doesn’t, in my view, value women in the workplace.
Deep breath!
And the second, maybe more grating, is the way hack seems to be used as a synonym for tip. Lifestyle ‘hacks’ (it grates to even write that) all seem to be related to either housework, or food making. Both, unfortunately, considered ‘women’s’ work, and shocking landing on female plates, metaphorically, and in reality to a greater degree then men during this global pandemic. So, how do we apply this to women? We can hack women to…make them fit more easily into the corner cupboard? to make 16 different pastries from a ready made pasty pack, with a knife, a hazelnut spread, and some jam? Come on.
Not sure who the Sarah is who signed up for this particular event, it is the most local Sarah to me in a long while. There are more than a few of us in this here London! But no, it is not me, and I can’t imagine it, I dislike the name, I dislike the exception, I feel patronized by the password to access the event, I wont share it as it is not fair to the company, but it is shockingly lazy!
Good luck with the search Sarah, though I think that this might not be the door you want to open. Or more importantly this door is the hacked version, the backdoor. Go through the main entrance, you are worth it.
IJustHaventDoneItYet 