Becca Bailey
@becca.is
✨Musician and bored tech worker. I write about feminism and the politics of work. she/her. 📍Seattle
Even on my corner of the internet, there is an entirely inappropriate number of think pieces showing up in my feed about Kate Middleton’s hair.
September 18, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Even on my corner of the internet, there is an entirely inappropriate number of think pieces showing up in my feed about Kate Middleton’s hair.
Reposted by Becca Bailey
The tech job market sucks right now, but ever since I announced I was job searching my LinkedIn inbox has been full of women I have worked with in the past sending me tips and job postings. I don’t always love being a woman in tech, but I love the way we have learned to look out for one another. 🤝
August 21, 2025 at 9:13 PM
The tech job market sucks right now, but ever since I announced I was job searching my LinkedIn inbox has been full of women I have worked with in the past sending me tips and job postings. I don’t always love being a woman in tech, but I love the way we have learned to look out for one another. 🤝
I am saddened to learn that one of my tech heroes died today at the age of 91. She was a founder, an advocate for women, and a remote work pioneer in a day when we had no idea such a thing was even possible.
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
Stop Asking Women to Work Like Men
A Case for Matriarchy
open.substack.com
August 13, 2025 at 4:18 AM
I am saddened to learn that one of my tech heroes died today at the age of 91. She was a founder, an advocate for women, and a remote work pioneer in a day when we had no idea such a thing was even possible.
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
Reposted by Becca Bailey
Stephanie Shirley is perhaps one of the lesser known tech pioneers, but she shouldn't be. Back in the 60s she saw the potential for women in tech, setting up a company for them to code from home, going by the name Steve because it was a man's world. RIP Dame Shirley
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley, technology pioneer, dies aged 91
She founded the software company Freelance Programmers in 1962, which almost exclusively hired women, and in later life donated almost £70m of her fortune.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 12, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Stephanie Shirley is perhaps one of the lesser known tech pioneers, but she shouldn't be. Back in the 60s she saw the potential for women in tech, setting up a company for them to code from home, going by the name Steve because it was a man's world. RIP Dame Shirley
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
When we talk about pioneering women in software engineering, Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper usually get a mention, but I’m always surprised by how few people know the story of Dame Stephanie (a.k.a. Steve) Shirley. It’s one of my favorites!
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
Stop Asking Women to Work Like Men
A Case for Matriarchy
open.substack.com
July 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
When we talk about pioneering women in software engineering, Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper usually get a mention, but I’m always surprised by how few people know the story of Dame Stephanie (a.k.a. Steve) Shirley. It’s one of my favorites!
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
Rest in peace, Andrea Gibson. I’m not sure I ever really loved poetry until I heard it from you. youtu.be/wnRT12TQMG0?...
Andrea Gibson - Royal Heart
YouTube video by Button Poetry
youtu.be
July 16, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Rest in peace, Andrea Gibson. I’m not sure I ever really loved poetry until I heard it from you. youtu.be/wnRT12TQMG0?...
If you want to understand the mental load of being the default parent, consider how much of our time is spent doing work (coordination, scheduling, planning) so that other people can take over our work (child care, house work, etc.) so that we can do other work.
June 25, 2025 at 4:44 PM
If you want to understand the mental load of being the default parent, consider how much of our time is spent doing work (coordination, scheduling, planning) so that other people can take over our work (child care, house work, etc.) so that we can do other work.
Stop telling women to just be more confident or apply to more jobs when what we are up against is so much bigger than imposter syndrome. I wrote this week about my experience job searching, and what it feels like to prove your worthiness over and over again. open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
Stop Telling Women to Be More Confident. Start Hiring Them Instead.
I remember the feeling of applying for a job and finding someone on the other end of that application process who genuinely believed in me.
open.substack.com
June 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Stop telling women to just be more confident or apply to more jobs when what we are up against is so much bigger than imposter syndrome. I wrote this week about my experience job searching, and what it feels like to prove your worthiness over and over again. open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
All these writers are talking about how they don’t use AI for research and they are 100% human-powered, but seriously have you tried to do research on google recently? It’s all AI-generated slop but with ads. I use AI for research not because I want to cheat, but because everything else sucks.
Gonna go out on a limb and say that it is in part because AI is nowhere near as infested with ads.
Yes.
June 18, 2025 at 3:28 AM
All these writers are talking about how they don’t use AI for research and they are 100% human-powered, but seriously have you tried to do research on google recently? It’s all AI-generated slop but with ads. I use AI for research not because I want to cheat, but because everything else sucks.
I wrote about my family’s difficult experience trying to balance work and care work, and the imperfect systems we are currently stuck with. We need a system that looks more like matriarchy, that values care work as a default for everyone, not just mothers.
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
Did I Accidentally Become a Tradwife?
How Workplace Power Dynamics Pushed Us Into Traditional Gender Roles
open.substack.com
June 17, 2025 at 1:57 AM
I wrote about my family’s difficult experience trying to balance work and care work, and the imperfect systems we are currently stuck with. We need a system that looks more like matriarchy, that values care work as a default for everyone, not just mothers.
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
Reposted by Becca Bailey
The radicalization of the American right is THE story of US politics over the last four decades and political reporters are still not allowed to talk about it
I am wondering why Lisa Leher from the @nytimes.com did not discuss the data that suggests political violence in the US in the current era mostly comes from the right. Seems like a strange fact to ignore. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/u...
Like School Shootings, Political Violence Is Becoming Almost Routine
www.nytimes.com
June 15, 2025 at 1:39 PM
The radicalization of the American right is THE story of US politics over the last four decades and political reporters are still not allowed to talk about it
Reposted by Becca Bailey
Posting this 1967 Birmingham News editorial cartoon for all the people who don't realize that this is how MLK was viewed by a big chunk of white America.
June 10, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Posting this 1967 Birmingham News editorial cartoon for all the people who don't realize that this is how MLK was viewed by a big chunk of white America.
Reposted by Becca Bailey
Newsletter: I want my damn tech industry back. I'm sick of these sociopathic and directionless freaks wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on AI and ruining products in search of perpetual growth.
It has never been more urgent to hold them accountable.
www.wheresyoured.at/never-forget...
It has never been more urgent to hold them accountable.
www.wheresyoured.at/never-forget...
Never Forget What They've Done
Soundtrack: Queens of the Stone Age - Villains of Circumstance
Listen to my podcast Better Offline if you haven't already.
I want my fucking tech industry back.
Maybe you think I sound insane, bu...
www.wheresyoured.at
June 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Newsletter: I want my damn tech industry back. I'm sick of these sociopathic and directionless freaks wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on AI and ruining products in search of perpetual growth.
It has never been more urgent to hold them accountable.
www.wheresyoured.at/never-forget...
It has never been more urgent to hold them accountable.
www.wheresyoured.at/never-forget...
It’s not about equal rights, because they already have the same rights. It’s not about equal protection, because they are already more protected. It’s not about equal funding, because they are already well-funded and tax exempt. It’s about establishing dominance.
Jenny Donnelly speaking at The Collective Church in Tigard, OR. She claims Seattle didn't hold up their end of the deal and provide them security for their permitted rally. She implies she's going to sue.
In their own videos they show lots of police (security) hurting and arresting protesters.
In their own videos they show lots of police (security) hurting and arresting protesters.
June 9, 2025 at 11:09 PM
It’s not about equal rights, because they already have the same rights. It’s not about equal protection, because they are already more protected. It’s not about equal funding, because they are already well-funded and tax exempt. It’s about establishing dominance.
I wrote this week about the two-dimensional bind that tech workers are in right now. There are fewer jobs in the industry, and fewer viable fields outside of it. open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
The Two-Dimensional Trap: How Tech's Rise Created a New Kind of Worker Powerlessness
This is part two of my series on power dynamics at work.
open.substack.com
June 9, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I wrote this week about the two-dimensional bind that tech workers are in right now. There are fewer jobs in the industry, and fewer viable fields outside of it. open.substack.com/pub/beccabai...
Reposted by Becca Bailey
See? If I simply *accurately describe* their behavior, I sound like an insane person. Anyway, here's the story www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-...
June 8, 2025 at 9:33 PM
See? If I simply *accurately describe* their behavior, I sound like an insane person. Anyway, here's the story www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-...
Reposted by Becca Bailey
As many of us people who study or work in tech tried to tell y’all, move fast & break things was always about POWER, not progress.
June 5, 2025 at 9:44 AM
As many of us people who study or work in tech tried to tell y’all, move fast & break things was always about POWER, not progress.
Reposted by Becca Bailey
angry-goose.png
WHAT IF THEY DON'T HAVE EMPLOYER-PROVIDED HEALTHCARE MOTHERFUCKER!!!
WHAT IF THEY DON'T HAVE EMPLOYER-PROVIDED HEALTHCARE MOTHERFUCKER!!!
Lankford: "People are screaming & saying, 'It's kicking people off Medicaid.' It's not kicking people off Medicaid. It's transitioning from Medicaid to employer-provided healthcare. So yes, we've got 10 mil ppl that are not gonna be on Medicaid, but they are gonna be on employer-provided healthcare"
June 5, 2025 at 1:19 PM
angry-goose.png
WHAT IF THEY DON'T HAVE EMPLOYER-PROVIDED HEALTHCARE MOTHERFUCKER!!!
WHAT IF THEY DON'T HAVE EMPLOYER-PROVIDED HEALTHCARE MOTHERFUCKER!!!
My baby is six months old, and I didn’t want to be the default parent. But when my husband was put on a PIP on his first day back from paternity leave and told he wasn’t allowed to take any more time off (from a job he has held for less than a year), I became one. 🧵
June 4, 2025 at 6:14 PM
My baby is six months old, and I didn’t want to be the default parent. But when my husband was put on a PIP on his first day back from paternity leave and told he wasn’t allowed to take any more time off (from a job he has held for less than a year), I became one. 🧵
The frustrating part is that tech leaders seem to believe that AI can replace their workers before AI can replace their workers. The hype is real, at least some of the layoffs are real, but there’s no real plan for how AI is going to replace humans and how humans are going to replace lost income.
This is one of the best mainstream pieces of A.I. criticism I've ever read, and it is somehow on CNN. @amorrow.bsky.social is far ahead
May 30, 2025 at 4:07 PM
The frustrating part is that tech leaders seem to believe that AI can replace their workers before AI can replace their workers. The hype is real, at least some of the layoffs are real, but there’s no real plan for how AI is going to replace humans and how humans are going to replace lost income.
Reposted by Becca Bailey
“They act like they’re innocent victims who are surprised by what happened on Saturday. But the violence this weekend in Seattle looks exactly like what they feature in their promo videos leading up to the events. That’s why they’re so excited it happened. The event delivered what they advertised.”
May 29, 2025 at 6:20 PM
“They act like they’re innocent victims who are surprised by what happened on Saturday. But the violence this weekend in Seattle looks exactly like what they feature in their promo videos leading up to the events. That’s why they’re so excited it happened. The event delivered what they advertised.”
Reposted by Becca Bailey
A huge thanks to @bradleyonishi.bsky.social and @straightwhitejc.bsky.social for having @matthewdtaylor.bsky.social and I on to talk all things MAYDAY and their recent Seattle stop. Who they are and why we are concerned about the current environment podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Special Episode: Militias, Mama Bears, and the New Apostolic Reformation
Podcast Episode · Straight White American Jesus · 05/29/2025 · 54m
podcasts.apple.com
May 29, 2025 at 4:05 PM
A huge thanks to @bradleyonishi.bsky.social and @straightwhitejc.bsky.social for having @matthewdtaylor.bsky.social and I on to talk all things MAYDAY and their recent Seattle stop. Who they are and why we are concerned about the current environment podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...