New #ILookLikeAnEngineer movement trumpets diversity in STEM

A shy engineer from San Francisco sparked a revolt against industry stereotypes this week when she stood up to Internet harassers with a hashtag: #ILookLikeAnEngineer.

Isis Wenger, a platform engineer at identity management firm OneLogic, recently appeared in a recruiting ad for the company. In it, she wears a company T-shirt, glasses and little makeup, and she’s accompanied by the words “My team is great. Everyone is smart, creative and hilarious.”

Commenters across social media criticized the ad, calling the praise of coworkers disingenuous and Wenger’s appearance unrealistic — that she’s somehow not sporting the right look for a woman engineer.

“The negative opinions about this ad that strangers feel so compelled to share illustrate solid examples of the sexism that plagues tech,” Wegner wrote in a blog post.

Many have stepped up in support of her while others have joined the campaign simply because they relate to the sentiment. By Monday night, #ILookLikeAnEngineer was trending on Twitter in San Francisco. By Tuesday late morning, there were more than 22,000 tweets with that hashtag, including several in Chicago.

There were women who posted on their own:

And companies and supporters who posted pictures of others:

And some who took #ILookLikeAnEngineer a step further, to apply to racial diversity as well:

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