Fixers

Advice for Female Fixers from the Women of iFixit

March is Women’s History Month and today is International Women’s Day—a day to celebrate the achievements of women all over the world. This year’s theme, #BreakTheBias, is a reminder to challenge the systems and biases that hold back women and marginalized communities, making the technology industry a more equal and diverse space.

At iFixit, our goal is to teach everyone to fix everything—and we mean everyone. Anybody can learn to replace a screen, swap a battery, or even do board-level repairs. All it takes is someone to show you how. 

The reality is, though, that the tech world isn’t completely equal yet. At iFixit, 26% of our employees are women, so we’ve definitely got room for improvement. Help us change that by applying to one of our open positions!

As the e-waste stream continues to grow, we can’t afford to cut anyone out of the conversation.  Everyone deserves to have access to the parts, tools, and knowledge they need to fix their stuff. Here are some of the women at iFixit who are making repair—and the tech industry—more equal.

Sarah Westberg: Education Aide

Hobbies: Walking miles and miles! Also, binge watching House Hunters

Advice for other female fixers: Try to face your fears if you have them. We need you and would be less of an industry without you.

Latest fix: Replacing the hard drive cable on my work MacBook Pro 13″ Unibody Mid 2012 computer. I felt very proud of myself and my MacBook Pro is as good as new!

Midori Doi: Japanese Localization Lead

Superpower: A bridge builder between iFixit and Japan

Advice for other female fixers: If you are a mother, try doing simple fix with your kids!

Favorite repair:  Replaced tattered chair pads by sewing it back into new fabric.

Annika Marthaler: Associate Product Manager

Superpower: Being positive. I try to see the good in every situation.

Hobbies: I’ve always been a major foodie and quarantine has given me more time to experiment in the kitchen

Advice for other female fixers: If you love what you’re doing nothing will stop you. That being said, try to find a team you trust at a company that is supportive and that will make a big difference.

Jackie Parker: Customer Service Lead

A skill you’d like to learn: I would love to improve on solar skills and running electrical wiring!

Advice for other female fixers: You will always come across people who feel they are better than you or more deserving than you. You just have to believe in yourself, trust that you got this, and stand your ground.

Favorite repair you’ve done: This is a slightly wild story but the short version is my wife’s car got stolen found and repaired all in the same day. When we found the car we saw that they stole the battery by cutting the leads. I bought a new battery spliced the leads and got the car up and running and my wife off to work on time!

Kristen Gismondi: Education Facilitator

Latest fix: I recently replaced a dying battery in my 13″ MacBook Air (Early 2015).

A skill you want to learn or improve: How to build a native wildlife habitat for birds and pollinators

Advice for other female fixers: STEM needs to be inclusive at an early age. If young girls and children of color are taught that tech is a welcoming place to be, we’d have a lot more representation in the field to inspire future generations!

Hillary Trout: Chief Financial Officer

Hobbies: I love creating things and making things better. There are no limits. I work on my house, my truck, my garden, my stuff, all of it.

Skills you want to learn or improve: I have a persistent diagnostic code on my truck. I really need to learn how to get it to be fixed forever. Everytime I think I’ve fixed it, the diagnostic code comes back a few weeks later.

Advice for other female fixers: You do belong. You have the same interests, the desire to engage, so just do it. Just engage.

Olivia Webb: Social Media and Content Manager

Superpower: Crossing off to-do lists

Barriers you’ve faced as a woman in tech: A lot of internalized barriers—deferring to others when I should have confidence in myself

Favorite fix: I replaced the joystick in my Switch Joycon!

Raven McDaniel: Code poke-with-stick-er

Superpower: Paying attention to lots and lots of thing at the same time.

Advice for other female fixers: Ada King Lovelace was the first software engineer. Hedy Lamarr created the tech that lead to wifi and bluetooth. Grace Hopper devised the theory of machine-independent programming languages, created link editors, and created the FLOW-MATIC programming language which was later extended to COBOL (as well as many other amazing achievement). Without these women, you wouldn’t be reading this article.

Favorite repair: My most recent fix was my cat’s sleeping situation. He is huge (Maine Coon mix), so regular cat beds are too small. I build him one that fits him.

Sam Lionheart: Opinion-Haver in Chief

Superpower: Having an approximate knowledge of many things

Advice for other female fixers: “Fake it til you make it” has been really helpful for me in terms of faking confidence

Favorite repair: Fixed the strap on our (very, very used) BOB stroller

Mem Rogers: Warehouse Lead and Shipping Helper

Superpower: Baking delicious treats for my teams!

Advice for other female fixers: Don’t be afraid to work hard. Also, be yourself! Make sure you are standing up for the things you believe in. Advocating for yourself is important for any career.

Megan Costello: Parts Testing Supervisor

Barriers you’ve encountered as a woman in tech: I think people tend to doubt your abilities or your understanding of a concept. There have been many times I’ve been spoken to as if I’m just the messenger, when I’m actually the one doing the repair.

Advice for other female fixers: Stand up for yourself. No one else is going to advocate for you; you need to be confident in yourself (or at least fake it) if you’re going to be taken seriously.

Favorite repair: I’m more of a builder than a fixer, but my most recent project was building two sections of a couch from scratch.

Katie Peña: I ship things!

Barriers you’ve encountered as a woman in tech: Mansplaining, or women thinking they can’t do tech or repair because it’s “for men”. It’s not. Keep doing it.

Advice for other female fixers:  Just keep doing it! The stigmatism, and stereotypes of women not knowing, or not wanting to know how to fix stuff can be eradicated.

Tiffani Vela: Inventory associate in the Kitting Department

Superpower: Compassion

Advice for other female fixers: Don’t over think and ask questions

Favorite repair: I can fix an iPhone XR screens in about 15 min without a guide

Kelly Boss: HR/Office Manager

Hobbies: Mountainbiking and taking my kids on adventures

Advice for other female fixers: Don’t be afraid to speak up.

Favorite repair:  Fixed my tubeless bike tires

Amber Taus: Community Manager

A skill you’d like to learn or improve: I’m working on learning Spanish!

Barriers you’ve encountered as a woman in tech: Ugh, the mansplaining.

Recent repair: My most recent was resurrecting an automatic soap dispenser. I took it apart, cleaned all of its components, fixed the clog, and now it looks (and works) like the day it was bought!

Elise Barsch: Email Manager

Superpower: Editing—lowkey if you email me an essay or a resume I will edit it for you.

Hobbies: Hiking and playing tennis in between doomscrolling sessions (someone recently introduced me to Today In Tabs)