Comments
Proof that we Need More Girls in Technology
Early voice recognition systems were calibrated to male voices. Women were ignored.
Early video conferencing systems were calibrated to a male voice, so even if a woman was speaking, the video didn’t even know she existed and instead focused on a man.
The first artificial heart valves were modeled on a mans heart and didn’t FIT in women.
None of these technological advances involved women in the design process. If you’re a male technology entrepreneur and don’t currently have any women in your team, listen to the SXSW talk on how to attract girls into technology or else, you too may find yourself in the embarrassing position of quite literally ignoring half your market.
If you are a female, listen anyway, they are quite good at putting into words EXACTLY why up until the age of 20 I didn’t even like computers and it really makes you think how different technology will be once there are more of us contributing to it.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
You are spot on Nat. It ia crazy to think that when I started in telecommunications and technology 22 years ago (wow that’s a whole lifetime) industry meetings I was at would start by saying “good afternoon gentlemen and Leah. There was no need to say “ladies and gentlemen” as I was the only lady in the room.
Even though things have changed a lot since then, there is still a long way to go. One thing that I have learned from dealing with my target market of small business women is that female technologists in general make themselves more easily understood to female clients than our male counterparts do.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
FutureInTech is a programme run by the Institute of Professional Engineers to get more school students to pursue careers in science, technology, and engineering. They get young technology professionals to head along to schools and give talks about what they do, work on projects with the kids, and discuss careers.
http://futureintech.co.nz/inschools.cfm
In the ICT arena there are virtually no women involved as ambassadors, which sucks. Get in touch with the facilitator in your region and get involved if you’re interested.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I’m in two minds about this topic. I’d love to see more women in hardcore programming and other technical fields (there already seem to be quite a few in your area of web development, which is great), but I don’t think we should try to drag in people (male or female) who simply won’t enjoy the work. That’s not doing anyone any favours.
If the aim is to find women who *will* enjoy it but just don’t think they will, or that they’re not good enough (*huge* problem in my experience), and show them that they’re wrong then that’s great. How can I help?
Along with the Summer of Code interns this year, I managed to get us to take on a young woman I know who is not a programmer, but has a maths major (and nearly completed economics and sociology majors). I figure that if you can do maths proofs then you can figure out why cell phones aren’t working too. Being a heavily programming place we weren’t sure if we could keep her busy all summer. I’d only initially thought of a couple of weeks of stuff for her to do, but I was pretty confident once she was on board more would show up. And that’s just what happens.
I don’t think we’ve convinced her to switch to a programming career, but I hope she now realizes that it’s at least an option for her, if the other prospects don’t work out.