If you’re a regular user of CSS (and hey, if you’re reading this you probably are) you should definitely complete the State of CSS survey, an annual survey of CSS features. Registering your opinion of CSS features, frameworks, tools and resources is helpful to the CSS world as it helps browsers and working groups figure out what to prioritise. If enough people shout loudly enough about a particular feature then it increases the chance that we’ll get to be able to use that feature a bit sooner.
Rightly or wrongly, I often think there’s a bit of intrinsic bias built into tools like surveys. The people most enthusiastic about taking the survey are often the ones who pride themselves in keeping up with the latest CSS news, and are more likely to have experimented with new features. (I include myself here.) In my experience speaking at conferences and working with other developers, I come across a far larger proportion of front end and full-stack developers whose knowledge of CSS is sufficient to do their job, but which doesn’t extend to the latest and greatest features. This is purely anecdotal, of course. But my hunch is that with the lay-offs and cut-backs we’ve seen in the past year or so, CSS is becoming further deprioritised in the jobs market, and companies are favouring “full-stack” candidates for new roles. It means that even while the development of new CSS features is accelerating, the depth of knowledge in the wider community of developers is declining. Paradoxically, the people who already view CSS as “hard” are the ones who might benefit the most from the new CSS features designed to make developers’ lives easier. But being less involved with the CSS community, they are perhaps less likely to take the survey, and therefore their views aren’t represented.
A survey isn’t the only way to register your interest in CSS, of course. You could comment on Github issues (or raise your own), or write or speak about CSS in the community. But if you’re a member of an under-represented group, there’s all the more reason to take the survey. We need more than the opinions of straight white men in order for technology to thrive and to ensure it serves the needs of a diverse population.
Where Are All the Not-men of CSS?
Speaking of diversity...in last question of the survey participants are encouraged to list individuals whose work they follow in the community. I usually list a bunch of people here, there are so many individuals doing great work writing blogs, publishing demos and making videos. One thing I noticed this time around is the number of men I’m aware of doing this stuff has increased, while the proportion of women, non-binary, or non-gender conforming people has declined. Maybe I’m just not following the right people? Or has the ratio of men to others become more skewed? Perhaps all the women and NB folk are burnt out by work, life and the state of the world in general to care too much about CSS right now, or to spend time waxing lyrical about it? (I know I am.) Honestly, being able to spend large amounts of time exploring CSS feels like a luxury as the moment, when the job market is so hostile towards anything other than JS and “full-stack” development.
It could well be just my perception that’s changed. But it’s a far cry from 2019, when I spoke at a CSS conference that featured six out of seven female speakers. It feels a little like we’re going backwards.
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@adactio @michelle I was actually musing something along these lines while doing the very dull drive from Bristol to London today. I think several of the high profile women of CSS are still doing this stuff but we all got jobs. When I was independent, making a noise about things was quite literally how I got my next gig, so I got to talk a lot about CSS and get paid.
- Rachel Andrew -
@adactio @michelle These days I feel as if my CSS work is a side project, it's definitely valued at work but it isn't actually in my job description. I'm in Chrome DevRel so I get away with doing it, but it's not my everyday focus.
- Rachel Andrew -
@rachelandrew @adactio @michelle Given that ... certain conferences ... are working on their 2025 line-up,
... and that this thread made certain parties realise that their Long List contains relatively few women ...
... and that those women that are on the list are mostly tried and true names who've been working in CSS for ages ...
... certain parties were wondering about NEW women in CSS ...
Hot tips?
- ppk ???????? -
@adactio @michelle It really is very hard to do standards work as a fulltime gig. I love my job, there couldn't really have been a more perfect fit for me than what I do at Google, but I do miss just being able to go deep down the rabbit hole on some CSS stuff.
- Rachel Andrew -
@ppk @rachelandrew @adactio @michelle
As someone who also runs meetups and conferences we are in a fortunate space where we are a not focused on 1 topic so it is a bit easier to find a more diverse list of speakers.although when we do get proposals they are ver much slanted on a male direction.
It's much easier with meetups to be more diverse as we like to encourage new speakers and they are much more willing to do so on a smaller stage infront of a smaller audience.
- Dave Letorey -
@ppk @rachelandrew @adactio @michelle
I don't know either what the answer is other than to persist and keep trying and have principles that you work towards, as a group.
- Dave Letorey -
@ppk @rachelandrew @adactio @michelle
So I’d love to do sponsored tickets for my speaker workshops for underrepresented folks who can’t cover it normally themselves. But still trying to figure out the logistics for this.
I’d love to widen the pool of speakers cause I really think everyone has something worth sharing. But I also know how scary it is to create your first talk!
- mseckington -
@ppk @rachelandrew @adactio @michelle
@JaneOri and https://codepen.io/RockStarwind are two people I’ve been excited about recently.
Rock Starwind on CodePen - Scott Kellum :typetura: -
@adactio @michelle as an enby working primarily in CSS, I am burnt out. There are tons of new features I want to use, but our team is so overwhelmed I can barely make a dent in our backlog, let alone learn all the cool new stuff.
- Reed