This is a deeply personal talk where I share my experiences as a woman in tech. Even though I’d worked for NASA and co-founded my own successful company, rampant sexism in IT and bad experiences speaking in public nearly destroyed my career. That continued to have ripples in my life until I found the DevOps community and the safe spaces it creates. I will examine common constructs about diversity and propose ideas to bring productive change to continue to build upon the solid foundation of inclusion we have created.