Website design is an interesting career. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ qualification for it. No ‘this is the right way’ or the right software or anything. People find their way to website design in all different ways, at different times and, they are all welcome in the arena. Well, almost all are welcome.
I’m in some web design groups especially for women and, whilst usually I wouldn’t gravitate towards gendered stuff (especially having grown up with a twin brother). I can see why *inclusive female only spaces are necessary.
Website design is an industry that’s full of ‘dude bros’. You’ll know the type – men who all celebrate each other, who belittle women in the arena saying they don’t have the right skillset or aren’t using the right tools. The same dude bros who like to jump on others’ social media posts, criticising women and trying to humiliate them online. The behaviour isn’t always capped at women. Anyone who they feel threatened by or who they disagree with will undergo the same treatment.
These guys have a superiority complex, thinking that because they learned to code the old fashioned way and they code websites rather than use page builders or other tools available, that they’re somehow better than women who haven’t been doing it as long. The reality is more like this:
- More men learned to code back in the day because computers and coding weren’t offered to girls in the same way. We were often encouraged to take courses in less scientific things and opportunities weren’t always equal.
- The gender pay gap means that women earn 87p to every £1 a man earns. The world hasn’t adjusted to this and things like rent, bills, food costs etc aren’t pro-rata’d accordingly. Women have the same expenses but with less money to pay for it.
- The pink tax means that women are expected to spend more money on grooming, outfits, products etc. All on 13p per £1 less than a man. If a women isn’t as groomed as would be expected, she’s likely to miss out on job opportunities. Studies have shown that more attractive women (often a result of maintenance and grooming) are more likely to get hired, get promotions etc.
- Women do the brunt of childcare, as well as maternity leave where pay is lower than minimum wage and often work reduced hours to accommodate for the six hour school day.
So no, the arena isn’t equal and many men who learned to code long before the majority of women joined the website design arena, started off in a position of societal privilege compared to their female colleagues.
I work with and mentor web designers just as much as I work with website clients and to be honest, I don’t care what setup you’ve got. Whether your code everything from scratch, or whether you solely use page builders, or whether your websites are a mixture of both (as mine are). Whether you’re with Wix or WordPress or SquareSpace or Joomla (I think that’s still going) or Drupal or Dreamweaver, you’re welcome here.**
Because it’s not about the tools you use to build your websites. It’s about the robustness and future proofing of the website, as well as how the client experiences it. For every website I’ve taken over, whether that was built by another developer or an agency, the client has never declared ‘I hate the software they’ve used’. Instead they may speak about feeling the website doesn’t represent them anymore. Or they don’t know how to update it. Or something else. The secret of my own success has been in choosing software that I think is a really good fit for them and then giving them training and resources so they feel confident in taking it from there once the website has been handed over. This means creating training videos, each website comes with a website user manual and my clients are always able to book one of my free calls to talk through updates and changes to the website. It really is about the journey, as well as the destination and there’s no superiority complex needed, just great processes and happy clients.
*and by inclusive female I’m referring to anyone who identifies as female regardless of their gender at birth.
** although please don’t use GoDaddy hosting and you may love Elementor but it really isn’t the miracle software you think it is.
