Image: Creative Commons licence – https://www.flickr.com/photos/wocintechchat
This is a curated content feature, designed to serve as a record of the state of ‘Tech’.
(Content last updated: Jan.2020)
How women are making progress in shaping, challenging and surmounting the social, cultural and collaborative barriers to progress.
UN Women – News Latest news from UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
- Tackling femicide in South Africa through laws, policies, and better policingby UN Women on November 22, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Globally, every 10 minutes, a woman was intentionally killed by her partner or family in 2023. In South Africa, with 5.5 women killed by intimate partners per 100,000 women between 2020 and 2021, femicide rates have remained high, according to the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).
- Tackling femicide in South Africa through laws, policies, and better policingby UN Women on November 22, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Globally, every 10 minutes, a woman was intentionally killed by her partner or family in 2023. In South Africa, with 5.5 women killed by intimate partners per 100,000 women between 2020 and 2021, femicide rates have remained high, according to the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).
- Tackling femicide in South Africa through laws, policies, and better policingby UN Women on November 22, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Globally, every 10 minutes, a woman was intentionally killed by her partner or family in 2023. In South Africa, with 5.5 women killed by intimate partners per 100,000 women between 2020 and 2021, femicide rates have remained high, according to the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).
- One too many – how a femicide case sparked activism and change in Kazakhstanby UN Women on November 22, 2024 at 5:42 pm
One year ago, the femicide of Saltanat Nukenova shook Kazakhstan. The case received unprecedented national attention when her husband, a former minister, was accused. Aitbek Amangeldi, 37, an activist and human rights defender from Kazakhstan, shared with UN Women how the murder of his sister Saltanat changed his life. He founded the Saltanat Nukenova Memorial Foundation and a volunteers’ network to help survivors of gender-based violence, uniting activists, bloggers and influencers across Central Asia.
- One too many – how a femicide case sparked activism and change in Kazakhstanby UN Women on November 22, 2024 at 5:42 pm
One year ago, the femicide of Saltanat Nukenova shook Kazakhstan. The case received unprecedented national attention when her husband, a former minister, was accused. Aitbek Amangeldi, 37, an activist and human rights defender from Kazakhstan, shared with UN Women how the murder of his sister Saltanat changed his life. He founded the Saltanat Nukenova Memorial Foundation and a volunteers’ network to help survivors of gender-based violence, uniting activists, bloggers and influencers across Central Asia.
- One too many – how a femicide case sparked activism and change in Kazakhstanby UN Women on November 22, 2024 at 5:42 pm
One year ago, the femicide of Saltanat Nukenova shook Kazakhstan. The case received unprecedented national attention when her husband, a former minister, was accused. Aitbek Amangeldi, 37, an activist and human rights defender from Kazakhstan, shared with UN Women how the murder of his sister Saltanat changed his life. He founded the Saltanat Nukenova Memorial Foundation and a volunteers’ network to help survivors of gender-based violence, uniting activists, bloggers and influencers across Central Asia.
- ‘No time for grief or tears’ - The conflict in Lebanon, through the eyes of four womenby UN Women on November 21, 2024 at 5:46 pm
“I want to send a message of love and peace to all women,” says Fadia Jomaa, a journalist and an environmental activist from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
- COP29: What is at stake for gender equality as the second week of negotiations starts by UN Women on November 21, 2024 at 2:05 pm
As the COP29 climate conference enters its second week in Baku, Azerbaijan, global media have spotlighted it’s potential to become the second- largest COP on record with 65,000 registrations, Brazil’s bold emission-cutting commitments, and renewed calls from developing states for increased climate financing from wealthier countries for climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. But what has been said about gender equality? Not much. Yet, the outcomes of this COP are decisive for women and girls. Here are five critical processes to watch as the second week kicks-off.
- UN Women calls for increased gender-focused climate finance at COP29by UN Women on November 20, 2024 at 11:05 pm
Gender-responsive finance is crucial in climate action, as it ensures fair and just access to resources, opportunities, and decision-making for women, who often bear disproportionate impacts of climate change.
- On International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UN Women draws attention to femicidesby UN Women on November 19, 2024 at 9:57 am
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 25th November 2024, UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will launch the Femicides in 2023: Global Estimates of intimate partner/family member femicides. Globally, a woman was killed every 10 minutes in 2023.
We would argue that the thematic consideration of ‘Women in Technology’ can serve as a contemporary metaphor for the state of feminism. It’s a pitted landscape of brilliant energy, success, the deepest disenfranchisement and endless looping contradictions.
The regularly updated content and opinions expressed in the links below are the sole domain of their creators, but we would be very interested to hear your take on the debate too.
Historical updates, the context…
Update: June 2018:
Google publish much about equality and diversity, but are they hitting their targets? You can find a recent article from The Guardian below, informing the debate by their acceptance of discriminatory pay within the company, still.
Previously published: The Google ‘Manifesto’ 2017
Living in a bubble, inside a house with frosted windows, talking only to your colleagues, who hold entirely similar views – all drawn from a similar, deeply conservative, exclusive mind-set. Amazing really.
This doesn’t sound like the organisation that claims to be at the cutting edge of world-changing, inclusive techology. At least we think not.
The 2017 internal ‘Manifesto’ is all over the net by now. The sensible, measured and balanced reflection on this deeply unbalanced viewpoint may not be.
We recommend our readers to the article by Yonatan Zunger. (Himself, now, an ex-Googler). Read more here…
In a recent article in VOX, Cynthia Lee, a woman who has led coders, developed start-ups and is now a lecturer in the Computing Science department at Stanford, sets out to ‘ladysplain’ the issues in the Damore ‘manifesto’.
You can see the Vox article in full here. Lee makes five key points in her rebuttal.
- Fatigue. The feeling engendered by constantly justifying the female presence.
- Resistance to divide and conquer. ‘Speaking for myself, it doesn’t matter to me how soothingly a man coos that I’m not like most women, when those coos are accompanied by misogyny against most women’
- The science of averages. Google hires less than one percent of all applicants. They cannot be an ‘average community’.
- The use of race in the Damore exposition.
- Open-ness to diversity? A position explicitly denied in the manifesto’s attempt to end ‘diversity enhancing’ stratoogle.egies at Google.
J. Doe in a long read from the pages of Medium, tells a very detailed story about the Damore document. She lists, if it is a she, nine deeply sexist assumptions at the heart of this misguided narrative from Google?
- A meritocracy would have more men than women in tech, because men are inherently better/more valuable than women.
- Women’s issues are not relevant to men at all.
- Women are not fulfilled by leadership positions.
- Housework and childcare are enjoyable leisure activities, not real work.
- Diversity efforts are only to make the company look good, because women’s work does not contribute to the company’s success or bottom line.
- Gender bias is not a real issue. Anyone who thinks so is blinded by political bias.
- The left values diversity because they like to to take care of and protect weak and helpless victims, like women.
- Women don’t actually want to get ahead in the workplace.
- Men should be able to promote sexist views with impunity.
A world of assumption we do not recognise. Read more here…
Peter Singer is a professor of bioethics at Princeton University. His most recent book is “Ethics in the Real World.”
He argues, included for balance here, that Damore should not have been dismissed from his post at Google. In the pages of the New York Daily News he cites Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, claiming that the manifesto ‘promotes harmful gender steroetypes in the workplace‘.
‘Each Googler (is) to do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias and unlawful discrimination’ says the Google Code of Conduct.
By sacking Damore, goes the Singer argument, Google are creating the very place where those, of a narrow, exclusive and rightist view of the world, will be intimidated into silence.
It didn’t stop the publication of this notorius document in the first place, though.
…plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Nothing more to say.
The Women In Tech List
A growing list of Women in Tech groups across the globe. Why not add your group or country to the list?
Below, some of our favourites for content, relevance and reach.
UK: Women Who Code – https://www.womenwhocode.com/london
Switzerland: Duchess – http://jduchess.ch/
Netherlands: Bitches & Bytes – http://www.meetup.com/Bitches-and-Bytes/
(Look out for those groups that make male coders welcome to events too! Ed.)
Science, Technology, Innovation, Women And Youth Key To Driving Agriculture’s Transformation In Africa…
Samuel Otieno writes about the importance of women and youth in agri-tech, developing key drivers for food production and security across the continent.
Samuel derives his insights from the 6th African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) held in Kenya, 5-9 September 2016. (The AGRF web site is an important information and policy locus for the emerging pan-African Green Movement regardless of gender…Ed.)
Accessed: 23.09.2016
Girl Geek Academy: Global Scholarship worth $15,500
The Girl Geek Academy writes to a global audience…
”Our amazingly incredible friends at General Assembly are giving you the chance to earn a Source: scholarship towards the Web Development Immersive program, launching this 26 September and 7 November at General Assembly Melbourne.
You can apply from ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD — you just need to make your way to Melbourne to participate in the course.
One individual will receive a full scholarship for this full-time, 12-week program and learn the skills needed to become a junior web developer. Applications close Monday, 12 September”.
Source: https://medium.com/girl-geeks/girl-geek-academy-global-scholarship-valued-at-15-500-1c8412266d7c#.t3681dnd0 Accessed: 23.08.2016
Editor’s Note: ‘General Assembly is an educational institution that transforms thinkers into creators through education in technology, business and design at nine campuses across three continents‘. Check out the simple application form here.
See you in Australia?
Jane Silber of Canonical interviewed
‘Silber has been running Canonical (maker of Ubuntu, among a great many other software products) in one form or another for well over a decade at this point, first as COO and now CEO.’
A thoughtful interview (July 2016) by Seth Colaner for anyone interested in Women in Tech. Jane Silber has a view on career trajectories for women, but is also reflective about STEM enagagement and where operating systems may go in the future.
Source: US site tomshardware.com See http://www.tomshardware.com/news/women-tech-jane-silber-canonical,32265.html Accessed 30.07.2016
Diversity at Google
We liked this short video pitch about diversity at Google. We felt the tone and ambition expressed by this global tech giant, whilst recognising a journey still to be finished, expressed empathetic concern for their workforforce, actual and potential.
If the filmic content translates into company culture, then women in tech can secure their place at the global tech table.
You can read the full Google blog on diversity, and see their company diversity stats here. Google have also made their diversity awareness and un-biasing the workplace training materials openly available on the re:Work web pages. See more here.
Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/focusing-on-diversity30.html Accessed: 20.07.2016
Women included in the Civil Rights Act as a joke.
A powerful telling of the story of how the US 1964 Civil Rights Act came to include both religion and sex into the equality of employment section of this pivotal Act.
Debated and voted upon by a predominantly male House of Representatives with now shocking sexist attitudes, this ‘long read’ from the pages of Medium, is a telling abstract from Because of Sex by Gillan Thomas, looks at the consequences of this ‘incidental’ inclusion in statute.
Source: https://blog.longreads.com/2016/07/07/women-were-included-in-the-civil-rights-act-as-a-joke/ Accessed 13.07.2016
Buy or review the book from Amazon.co.uk here…
Seven grants to close the gender gap in STEM
‘Women are a minority when it comes to technology. Aware of the gender gap in the sector, companies, schools and nonprofit organisations are partnering to offer scholarships to women as a way to boost diversity and female representation in the STEM industry’.
Source: http://www.projectada.co.uk/scholarships-grants-women-tech/ Accessed: 01.07.2016
(Project Ada is a UK based web site and team, delivering news, opinion and resources for women in tech in the UK. A great antidote to the notion that women, keyboards and servers only coalesce in California…Ed.)
Code with Veni
‘After watching the documentary CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap, I was inspired to share my experience as a software developer with other women. I started mentoring women who are getting started in tech. With this website, I want to reach more women and encourage them to explore the world of tech’.
Source: http://www.codewithveni.com Accessed 01.07.2016
This is a great site to help broaden the Women in Tech emancipation agenda. Not only that, but you also have available an interactive global map of women coders. Advice and support for the aspirant female coder only one click away. Find the map here.
See Veni’s stylish and comprehensive site here.
The United State of Women, White House Summit, USA. June 14th 2016.
If we wanted the Obama administration to do one thing well, and create a lasting legacy across a broad spectrum of thematic emancipation and women led development issues…(this would be it…Ed.) Accessed: 13.06.2016
Read more about the summit themes and challenges here…
Female academics: don’t power dress, forget heels – and no flowing hair allowed
‘Jonathan Wolff’s column about the way academics dress caused uproar on my Twitter and Facebook feeds this week. And rightly so. Despite occasionally acknowledging that some academics might be women, his comments betrayed his assumption that academics are male, for apparently their default uniform comprises trousers, a jacket, a shirt and a tie’.
( Francesca Stavrakopoulou, The Guardian – Accessed 13.06.2016)
The Pie is Rotten: Re-evaluating Tech Feminism in 2016
‘Feminism is multi-faceted: to reduce it to “believing in equality for men and women” is to strip it of much of its meaningful, actionable, critical thought. We must ask ourselves which groups are helped by our advocacy and which are undermined. A feminism that upholds the toxic, oppressive practices of the tech industry and only uplifts privileged women is not one that will bring about true equality’. (MODEL VIEW CULTURE: A magazine about technology, culture and diversity. Accessed: 10.06.2016)
Want More Money? You Need More Women.
‘Over the last few months, we’ve seen amazing headlines about how female leadership makes companies more profitable, from the New York Times, to the Wall Street Journal, to Quartz, to Forbes, to the Harvard Business Review.
This research provides evidence of better financial outcomes for doing the right thing: putting more women in C-Level jobs. More money and doing the right thing? That’s an amazing combination…’ (codelikeagirl on Medium.com 10.06.2016)
Younger women are more likely to be paid less than men in tech
‘The pay gap may close with age, but women entering the tech workforce are finding themselves being paid way less than their male counterparts, a new survey by Comparably shows’. (Businessinsider.co.uk)
How These Women Became the Most Powerful in the World with Money, Media and More
‘What does it take to become one of the most powerful women in the world? … celebrate the women who have fought against wage discrimination, a lack of representation at the top and our unconscious biases to make it to the top.
Forbes’ Most Powerful Women List 2016 it lists the 100 women who have used their power, influence and money this year to change our world’. (Thememo.com 07.06.2016)
There’s an £8,000 coding scholarship for women in London
‘Makers Academy is offering six free spots on its coding course because “there are not nearly enough women working in technology”. In our new digital world, people are signing up in droves to learn new skills to fill the increasing number of jobs in the sector.
This is all great, but one thing is wrong, and it’s holding everyone back: There are not enough women in coding’. (Thememo.com 03.06.2016)
Woman Who’s Created the 21st Century Finance Model for Emerging Technologies
…an excerpt from the forthcoming book The Internet of Women: Accelerating Culture Change to be published on June 30th:
Riva-Melissa Tez is the CEO and co-founder of Permutation in San Francisco. A London native, she runs an artificial intelligence platform and incubator. In her spare time, she works on The Longevity Cookbook… (Medium.com 09.05.2016)
Twitter abuse – ‘50% of misogynistic tweets from women’
‘Half of all misogynistic tweets posted on Twitter come from women, a study suggests.
Over a three-week period, think tank counted the number of uses of two particular words as indicators of misogyny. It found evidence of large-scale misogyny, with 6,500 unique users targeted by 10,000 abusive tweets in the UK alone’. (BBC.co.uk 26.05.2016)
100 Awesome Women in the Open-Source Community You Should Know
‘There have been a lot of posts about gender in the development community, we realised that we were in a great position to contribute with data. It started with the question, how will we determine gender across 6 million developers. We took the approach of classifying names based on their statistically likelihood to be either male or female. We started with cleaning up the names used in commits: separating first names, last names and usernames’. (blog.sourced.tech 25.05.2016)
Silicon Valley’s reluctant housewives: immigration law bars women from work
‘…these are the wives of Silicon Valley: women who are integral to the continued success of the Valley’s multibillion-dollar computing industry – but also entirely invisible to it. Their husbands are the engineers who, headhunted from across the globe, emigrate to Silicon Valley as H1B “skilled workers”, helping to drive innovation in companies like Apple, Google and Facebook’. (theguardian.com 19.05.2016)
ELLE’s 2016 Women in Tech
‘…Marcela Sapone, 30, spent spring break of her first year at Harvard Business School in 2013 on “start-up lockdown,” a project she’d thought up that involved her and four other students testing five business ideas over five days. The concept that seemed least feasible, conceived by her classmate Jessica Beck, was a subscription service that allowed busy professionals to outsource household tasks such as grocery shopping and cleaning’. (Elle.com 13.05.2016)
Feminists encourage women into tech even when their interests lie elsewhere
”President of Harvard, Lawrence Summers, speaking informally in January at the National Bureau of Economic Research Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce, observed:
…it does appear that on many, many different human attributes-height, weight, propensity for criminality, overall IQ, mathematical ability, scientific ability-there is relatively clear evidence that whatever the difference in means-which can be debated-there is a difference in the standard deviation, and variability of a male and a female population. And that is true with respect to attributes that are and are not plausibly, culturally determined.” (lagriffedulion.f2s.com July 2005)
Women in tech are taking shorter lunch breaks than men
‘Over 3500 employees in Tech were polled and asked, “How Long Do You Take for Lunch Breaks”. The info-graphic breaks down the answers by Gender, Work Departments and Cities. The data was complied and visualized by Comparably, the online platform for transparency in workplace compensation and culture. Comparably lets employees see what people like them are making in base, bonus and equity, and provides deep insights around workplace culture’. (Comparably.com 17.05.2016)
Tech in Pink: First All-Women Coding Bootcamp in Nairobi
‘At Andela, we believe we are going to change the world and act accordingly. Here’s a glimpse of what Andela developers Gertrude and Yetunde are doing to inspire their local communities.
Last week, a group of 15 women with various levels of coding experience gathered at the Andela Kenya campus to begin a coding session led by Andela developers Gertrude Nyenyeshi, Margaret Ochieng , Collin Mutembei and Eric Gichuri. This is Start from Scratch – the first Tech in Pink event held in Kenya’. (Andela.com 17.05.2016)
How we taught women to code, built a CRM and helped an NGO
‘You never actually feel geeky doing geeky stuff, but there I was explaining to three women what we were about to precariously embark upon, building a web application on Ruby on Rails and all that. We only had 8 weeks to do this, and they’d have to learn HTML/CSS, a sprinkle of JavaScript, along with Ruby, the language, and Rails, the framework.
I felt pretty geeky then’. (Techinasia.com 11.05.2016)
Women in Tech Band Together to Track Diversity
Ellen Pao spent the last few years spotlighting the technology industry’s lack of diversity, in court and beyond. Erica Baker caused a stir at Google when she started a spreadsheet last year for employees to share their salaries, highlighting the pay disparities between those of different genders doing the same job. Laura I. Gomez founded a start-up focused on improving diversity in the hiring process… (newyorktimes.com 04.05.2016)
