Tech bro

"Tech bro" or "brogrammer" are slang terms for stereotypically masculine individuals working in the technology industry, particularly programming and Silicon Valley companies. Brogrammer is a portmanteau of bro and programmer.

While originally used to describe a specific cultural phenomenon in the San Francisco Bay Area's tech scene, the term "tech bro" has evolved to become a broader criticism of the tech industry's culture and power dynamics. The terms are often used pejoratively to describe toxic masculinity and sexism in the technology industry. Some programmers self-describe themselves as a brogrammer positively as a word for "sociable or outgoing programmer", and it also represents a subculture within the greater tech industry.^[1][2]

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a tech bro is "someone, usually a man, who works in the digital technology industry, especially in the United States, and is sometimes thought to not have good social skills and to be too confident about their own ability."^[3]

Origin and evolution

The term emerged in the early 2010s to describe a specific archetype in San Francisco's technology sector: typically a young, white male employee working at a tech company, wearing distinctive attire often including a Patagonia fleece vest branded with his company's logo.^[4] An example sometimes cited of targeted advertising toward "brogrammers" is an early (before 2012) Klout hiring advert posted at a Stanford University career fair as "Want to bro down and crush some code? Klout is hiring." The company later described it as a joke and as an unfortunate misstep.^[1][5]

By the 2020s, the term had expanded to encompass a wider range of tech industry figures, including billionaire executives like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. Critics have noted that this expansion of the term has diluted its meaning, as it began to be applied to any male figure in tech who merited criticism, regardless of whether they displayed stereotypical "bro" characteristics.^[4]

Brogrammer culture has been said to have created an entry barrier based on adherence to the image presented by its participants, rather than ability.^[6] It is often viewed as antithetical to geek culture, which traditionally emphasized ability and passion for the field over image.^[7]

Cultural impact

The "Bro Code"

See also: Bro culture

The concept of a "Bro Code" has emerged to describe the values and behaviors that characterize tech bro culture. According to researchers, these values include "precision questioning, abstraction, aggression, sexism and a disdain for altruism" that create and perpetuate a hostile work environment, particularly for women and minorities.^[8]

The "Bro Code" is said to contribute to high tolerance of sexual harassment and the field's stark gender and racial segregation. For example, only 21 percent of computer programming positions are held by women, with even lower representation among African American women (2 percent) and Latina women (1 percent).^[8]

Criticism

Critics argue that using "tech bro" as an all-purpose epithet for problems in the technology industry can trivialize more systemic issues. Edelman notes that "the term tends to obscure and even trivialize more important concerns. It implies that the harms caused by technology platforms are attributable somehow to a character flaw, a certain level of personal impishness or immaturity, when in fact they are much more systemic."^[4]

In a 2012 article in Gizmodo, Sam Biddle argued that the sexist effect of brogrammer culture had been overblown by the press.^[9] He did not deny that there are "brogrammers", rather he argued that "the brogrammer as phenomenon is mythology, a fairytale figure conjured up by the confused and outmoded to explain progress in an old and stodgy industry."

Effects on diversity in technology

In a 2015 interview, Megan Smith, top policy advisor on technology to U.S. President Barack Obama, identified brogrammer culture as a contributing factor to the lack of diversity in tech companies. Smith noted that despite promises from tech companies to improve their hiring of women, "only those that make it a top priority will see progress."^[10]

Research has shown that women are disproportionately affected during industry downsizing, with nearly 70 percent of those laid off in the 2022 tech layoffs being women. According to one researcher's experience, "As soon as the company went public, stockholders demanded annual layoffs. For the first two years, the only people terminated in my department were women."^[8]

Activism and resistance

Worker activism against tech bro culture has increased since the late 2010s. In 2018, more than 20,000 Google employees across the globe staged a walkout against sexual harassment and systemic racism in the company. Industry observers predict that "activism against the militarization, racism, sexism and economic exploitation in the tech industry will skyrocket" as coalitions form between feminist movements, minorities, and labor activists.^[8]

In 2023, tech bros were reported to have "mobbed" the Grace Hopper Celebration, the world's largest conference for women and nonbinary tech workers. Women attendees described men at the career expo "simply barging in front of them in lines," with some reporting verbal harassment and assault.^[8]