It’s 2017 and the struggle is still real
Badge In Here is a multi-voice workplace drama about four women in the tech industry, their lives interweaving as they chase success in a male-dominated world. It’s a book that asks the questions: Why is women’s access to power still elusive? And what might real empowerment look like?
It begins with Mirabelle. She identifies as an optimistic young tech professional—with all the promise that the label entails. There’s only one issue: she’s a woman in the massive boys’ club known as Silicon Valley. Things start to look up when she befriends a small group of tech women at the FastStart conference: Brynn, an engineering star. Rikki, a seasoned product exec. Jenna, her anti-tech best friend. They form an alliance around their admiration for badass feminist CEO Gretchen Forte.
Female solidarity seems to be the antidote to any indignity that the tech bros throw their way. But when a devastating betrayal occurs at the hands of Gretchen herself, Mirabelle is forced to question her future in an industry that she still wants to love.
“Think LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY, set fifty years later in the tech industry. Has anything really changed? BADGE IN HERE is the hopeful, heartbreaking answer.”
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Mirabelle is a 26-year-old product designer, vying for a seat at the FastStart keynote. The speaker is CEO of the Silicon Valley company where Mirabelle aspires to build the product of her dreams. When she learns that her application has been rejected she rallies to find another Valley job, determined to transform her woman-centered concept into something real.
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Brynn is a mid-30s Latina engineer, at FastStart to talk about the technology that was announced at the keynote. But that tech contains just a fraction of the functionality that she’s invented with her team. She decides to risk an unauthorized demo to get the attention she deserves and breach the inner circle that surrounds the CEO.
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Rikki is a middle-aged product management executive, sent to FastStart by her brash new boss to recruit employees for their startup. She almost has a young woman signed up - when Rikki remembers that her boss is also a sexist tech bro and backs off the recruit. It’s vital that her legacy reflect the feminist values that she and her wife hold dear.
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Jenna is an artist. She only works in tech to pay her rent. And she’s only at FastStart because her bestie, Mirabelle, said it would be fun. It’s pretty cringe, though. Even worse, Jenna is blocked on how to depict the monster at the heart of her graphic novel, and it feels like her future is on hold until her creation is complete.
IT BEGINS AT A TECH CONFERENCE
“Mirabelle feels the sharp dig of an elbow in her back, one second before she slams into the person in front of her. Bodies are ricocheting off each other as they struggle to move forward. Mirabelle raises her arm, like a shield, and leans to the left. She’s up against a snarl of dogged fanboys, desperate to get into the auditorium before the keynote begins. Everyone knows that the keynote is where the excitement happens at a tech conference. Especially if the speaker is CEO of Volte, the Silicon Valley company that makes the most interesting products in the world.”