Thanks to Beth Clarke’s excellent blog post, I’ve been reading a great book this week. “She’s in CTRL” by Anne-Marie Imafidon talks about how women can and should use tech to change their lives for the better. How approaching existing tech from your perspective might find a use case for it that others aren’t considering.
And that got me thinking.
In the rush to form our impressions of ChatGPT, have we considered the use cases of women enough? Are there some circumstances which would mean this tool could be help more women at work if they knew about it?
*Disclaimer* – the generalisations I make in this post will absolutely not apply to every woman, and by woman I am generally referring to non-man. I have used statistics to back up my assertions where possible and intend to update this as I learn more.
Here are a few different ways that I see ChatGPT in particular being put to work to help resolve some common issues experienced by working women, particularly in tech.
1. To Reduce Glue Work
In the instantly relatable talk by Tanya Reilly called “Being Glue”(2019), she spoke about an experience which isn’t unique to, but is commonly felt most by, women within a team. If I can gently encourage you to do one thing if you haven’t already, read that blog post. Glue work can be defined as the tasks essential to keep the team moving forward, but for which there isn’t any recognition (at least not in any material or career-enhancing way).
According to a study cited by Tanya, women are not only 48% more likely to volunteer when there is non-promotable work to be done, but their managers are 44% more likely to ask a woman to do a thankless task than a man.
Your glue work might be getting folk past the email back and forth by arranging a group meeting and being a temporary project manager. It might be writing up that documentation that everyone wants but noone wants to do. It might even be the thankless task of reviewing documentation – which women are more likely to be thorough about and take more time over than men. I recently received a whole slew of 5 or 6 word responses to a CfP I did when I’d carefully written at least 100 word responses, crafted and then edited to ensure I didn’t offend, was even handed and generally positive in tone. OFC the reviewers were as anonymous as I was, but there was a lesson in glue work for me that I learned then and there.
So, put ChatGPT to work for you. If you’re not in the lucky position to be able to share out the glue work equitably, then see if ChatGPT can be leveraged to do some of that “womans work” for you.
Random: “Can someone review this document for me?
OK ChatGPT ….
“Please return the following text after reviewing for formatting, spelling and grammar, making any amendments required”
“Please suggest 5 ways this document could be improved using examples” (then you can pick the most appropriate).
“Provide detailed feedback on this text, indicating any errors or places to improve”
Email “Here you go – great work, but a few comments. Remember you can pay me in coffee!”
2. To Have A More Positive Relationship With Tech
The first time I posted a question on Stack Overflow I was shocked by what came back. I signed in with my own (clearly female sounding) name, and made it clear that I was a noob who was looking for some advice. Within 5 minutes, I had 3 replies. Two were pretty much eye rolls at my stupidity and lack of awareness. The other was a patronising mansplain. All male profiles. Way to go make someone feel good for asking a question lads! It really put me off being an active user of online platforms, and I can totally see why women would be looking for an anonymous way to get around this issue.
Pass-agg aside, there is a darker side to all of this. The fact is, women remain more likely to be trolled, harassed and suffer abuse online. Who wouldn’t want to avoid that if they can?
But here’s the good news. ChatGPT has no idea if you are a man or a woman asking the question. At least I don’t *think* it can tell. Importantly, especially for young women navigating their way around the tech landscape, it won’t be creepy and say it can get you a speaking slot at a conference if you meet it for drinks first, it won’t try sliding into your DM’s, and it won’t send you inappropriate pics.
3. To Help With Technical Tasks When Those Around You Can’t (or Won’t) Find Time To Support
Imagine the scenario, when the one person with all the knowledge in the team to help you get over that blocking issue you’re having is also the one person who is never there, being pulled in a million different directions by people more senior than you or simply never available to talk to *you*.
There may be perfectly legitimate reasons for being unable to help, but they won’t help you get unstuck. Especially if you’re made to feel like you’re wasting someone’s valuable time by asking them to help you. You’re simply seen as glue work for someone that has the agency to say no.
We all know that this shouldn’t have to be something that we suffer through, and I’ve been lucky to work in mostly supportive teams where we can raise this at retro and come up with strategies to evolve it, but every workplace isn’t always that psychologically safe – and as we’ve discussed, this can disproportionally affect women.
Try ChatGPT first. It might not have all the answers, but at least it should give you some direction or threads to go on – so if you do need to have that conversation, you can shape it with the things you’ve tried and ask for their second opinion, rather than taxing someone to come up with the full answer.
People like to critique way more than they do ideate, and it also has the added benefit of taking up less of their time.
4. To Have An Actual Conversation
Speaking of ideation, did you know that your conversation with ChatGPT isn’t just one and done? You can back and forth, just like you would if you were having a convo IRL.
Get inspired by what it comes back with, refine your idea, and ask for something more akin to what you want. We often don’t know what we want (or what we don’t want!) until we see it in front of us, so I think its a very human thing to be able to develop your thinking live like this – with someone who isn’t going to judge you, or try and mansplain to you, or start looking at their phone while you’re talking, or even ignore what you say altogether because they *actually* want to talk about something else at you.
Example:
ChatGPT, can you tell me some names for a blog post about women using chatGPT?
ChatGPT: Sure, here are three examples…
Now can you make them funnier and more engaging
ChatGPT: Here you go
And give me tips for improving the SEO of this blog content <Paste>
You can ramble, wander, rant, be imaginative and creative. You can combine interests, and look for intersections that give you uniquely what you want. You can explore with impunity – at least until your free credits run out.
Summary
I’d love to hear your perspective and unique takes on how ChatGPT and the likes can do you a favour – drop me a message in the contact me section.
Til next time!