'ILookLikeAnEngineer' Hashtag Helping Women Break Job Market Stereotypes
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A San Francisco woman is helping break the stereotypes about tech workers with a hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer that she created for an in-house recruiting campaign at her office.
Isis Anchalee was shocked that the hashtag became a call to arms overnight.
"I had no idea that my second tweet ever would break the internet," Isis Anchalee told KPIX 5's Wilson Walker. "I chose 'I look like an engineer' because it's intentionally inclusive."
The hashtag has taken on a symbol of inclusivity for anyone that feels excluded by an industry that is predominantly male, and white.
"I think that this is something that every minority, or someone who does not fit a standard cookie cutter of what someone in this industry should look like, has to go through," Anchalee said.
The scale of that problem can be measured in the internet's response to her hashtag.
"I really wasn't ready for how much it blew up, to be honest. Now it's being heard by the nuclear physicists, and scientists, and engineers of every gender and every shape and color," Anchalee said.
With every tweet using the hashtag, new pictures from schools, construction sites, oil rigs, and beyond have been pouring in.
"I wanted to join the movement, share my story. Look, engineers are not all males, they're women too, and we're also athletes," Engineer and Web Developer Michelle Johnson said.
