Trajectory guarding
I was interviewed about my experience as a woman in tech back in 2017 or 2018. In March of 2021 I got an update on the research with a copy of a paper in the American Sociological Review titled: Trajectory Guarding: Managing Unwanted, Ambiguously Sexual Interactions at Work. The questions I got in my conversation with the researcher were not related to sexual advances so I was slightly surprised about that part of the paper. Most of them were about what is holding women in tech back in advancing in their careers. It is my opinion that women have contoured themselves, continuously perform, and do so much to fit in an industry that is very hostile to them in many subtle and no so subtle ways. Most experienced (particularly underrepresented) women in tech I relate with know that they have to present certain face at work. Others come asking for advice on how to advance their careers ignoring the issue altogether, which just keeps them stuck for longer that they should on a level because they are not acknowledging the forces at play besides their technical output.
In that interview, I said what women need to advance in tech is a shift in men, particularly in how men see women and URM in the workplace, and the place of masculinity and power dynamics play in women advancing in their careers in tech.
To see these power dynamics you only need to observe who needs to conform to which other’s comfort. That’s where power lies, and that’s what it does: it alienates those who do not conform to their demands of how things should be.
I have in the past engaged in “trajectory guarding”. The article defines it as: the labor of anticipating, and proactively defending against, sexual harassment. I mean, who wouldn’t? Even knowing the cost it has in professional trajectory, not to mention psychological health, why wouldn’t I try to anticipate and proactively defend myself to the detriment of said career trajectory? The study concludes that this disproportionally affects women. And although the article recognizes that Gender disparities in sexual harassment are not coincidental: sexual harassment is often marshalled as a means to exclude and belittle marginalized groups and reify existing power structures that privilege hegemonically masculine men in the workplace it goes to conclude that Because women learn to anticipate sexual harassment in their daily lives (Hlavka 2014), it is not surprising that they are also more likely to engage in trajectory guarding to defend against it. Trajectory guarding strategies may be costly in that they are labor intensive, distracting, and can undermine the way a person is perceived at work.
All that data and research to put the labor back into the people affected by the behaviors that are wrong, not those doing the behavior. It is true that we can only expect change from ourselves, but we can rightly point out where the root of the issues are. Stop asking what prevents the advancement of women’s career to then come back with a response that put the onus on the women. It’s tiring and frankly, at this point, lazy. In the 90s we could afford to pretend, but in this internet, let’s not.
Many leaders expect URM to be grateful for having a place at the table and condemn them when they ask for advance, raises or both. This condemnation can come in the form of offers rescinded, demotions, or even firing. Career progression it is not a result of only the person, the environment plays a major role. Yes, most likely getting distracted to defend yourself is not going to help in advancing your career. But people don’t get distracted only by potential sexual harassment or ambiguous encounters. The effort in defending yourself permeates every part of the experience of being URM in tech, from the interview process, assignment of projects, to feedback received. Even the implicit assumption of fixedness from leaders that URM will not grow so they are assigned roles according to the level they are at, whereas others are assigned and rewarded for potential.
All of the effort that goes into defending yourself to others, the whole company, the internet or the worst of all, to yourself, is effort you are not putting in your job. It is effort that is taking away from solving other meaningful problems. This is another reason why we need to talk more about emotions in our industry. The emotional labor that goes into this industry is as discarded as the impact it has on the people going through it. But the thing we really don’t discuss as industry is the impact it has in the work itself. If a group of individuals have to engage in trajectory guarding I hope we are clear that is taking away from something else. It is in the interest of every company that wants the best from their workforce to reduce the ways in which people are involved in trajectory guarding of any type (the paper was focused on sexual harassment, but there are other ways in which people incur in trajectory guarding). If, for nothing else, so they can focus that energy into solving the company’s problems, discovering new problems and coming up with new solutions. This, of course, is easier to write that it is to even align on a plan. But we need to start with awareness.
In Being glue, Tanya Reilly said getting promoted is diversity work. And so acknowledging and actively removing what prevents you from getting promoted is also of diversity work.
