Tag: technology

The Issues and Barriers Facing Women in Technology

The Issues and Barriers Facing Women in Technology

by STEM Women ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

There is great interest in understanding why the technology industry and wider STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) fields have low participation by women. In this guest post, Lucy Wright summarizes some key studies that address this disparity and offer solutions to increase diversity. 

Much has been written about the dearth of women working in the technology industry. From an apparent low interest in technology-related subjects at school through to the small number of women employees in tech companies today, there is a serious and undeniable under-representation of women in the tech industry. This is despite the fact, that women have been some of the most innovative pioneers of technology historically.

Key statistics are below:

  • Women own only 5% of start-ups in the US
  • In the UK, only 5% of women are in a technology leadership role
  • Only 3% of British high school students say they would choose the technology sector as a career choice
  • Only 16% of women have had a career in tech suggested to them

What are the issues underlying this?

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Making Space History: Candy Torres, NASA Engineer & Latina Pioneer

Making Space History: Candy Torres, NASA Engineer & Latina Pioneer

by STEM Women ♥ 1 Comment

Rather auspiciously, we commemorated the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing through a Hangout on Air interview with engineer Candy Torres!  She gained a degree in astrophysics in the 1970s, where she was only one of seven women in her classes. Candy spoke about the challenges of following her career in science, which included gender exclusion and not having any women colleagues to support her education. Despite the gender and cultural barriers she faced, Candy walked into her dream job the day after graduating from university. Through networking, tenacity and a commitment to learning new skills, Candy went on to work on satellites, the NASA Space Shuttle & the International Space Station. She has been part of a team to make space exploration history. Watch the video or read more below!

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Women in Tech: From College to a Career with Google

Women in Tech: From College to a Career with Google

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We recently spoke to Erin Leverton and Samantha Schaevitz from Google’s Information Technology Residency Program (ITRP). We chose to highlight this program because it is an career opportunity that allows many new graduates the opportunity to get their ‘foot in the door’in a technology career. Watch the video below, or keep reading for a summary of our conversation!

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STEM Women Host #ScienceChat on Equality & Inclusion

STEM Women Host #ScienceChat on Equality & Inclusion

by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
[View the story “STEM Women Host #ScienceChat” on Storify]
From Legos to Robots: Annika O’Brien Brings Tech to Teens

From Legos to Robots: Annika O’Brien Brings Tech to Teens

by STEM Women ♥ 1 Comment

We spoke to Annika O’Brien as part of our ongoing In the Spotlight series. Annika is a roboticist with a background in computer science, software development and programming. Later, she acquired expertise in electronics and, more recently, she set up her own company. Annika has also been heavily involved in educational aspects of robotics, which she not only enjoys but also volunteers her time and resources. Watch the video or keep reading below for a summary!

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Making an Impact With Behavioural Science: Clarissa Silva

Making an Impact With Behavioural Science: Clarissa Silva

by STEM Women ♥ 1 Comment

Last month we had our very first Hangout from our In The Spotlight series. This series will focus on individual interviews with women who are active in STEM fields. We will talk to them about their inspiration and motivation for embarking on their chosen career path. We kicked off this series by talking to Clarissa Silva, a behavioural psychologist.

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STEM Women: How Men Can Help, with Dr Yonatan Zunger

STEM Women: How Men Can Help, with Dr Yonatan Zunger

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Last week we had our second STEM Women Hangout, from the series How Men Can Help.

Our guest was Dr Yonatan Zunger who spoke to us about how leaders can work to be more inclusive of women in their teams. Yonatan is the chief architect of social at Google, and he is in charge of everything ‘social’ at the company. He has an academic background, with a PhD in string theory from Stanford University. He was kind enough to join our discussion as himself, and not in an official capacity representing Google. This is a topic he is very clearly passionate about, as you can see from the video below.

Software Engineering Made a Woman Outta Me

Software Engineering Made a Woman Outta Me

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By Jennifer Gilbert

This article was originally published on Medium, and is reposted here with permission from the author. 

Jennifer Gilbert
Jennifer Gilbert

When I decided to learn to code, I knew I was entering a male-dominated field. But I considered that challenge far less worrisome than, say, taming the black magic of recursion.

Yes, there would be sexist, disrespectful jerks. Of course there would.

But I’ve dealt with jerks before: I’m no stranger to their stomping grounds, also known as “sidewalks” and “grocery stores” and “schools” and “offices” and “every last form of public transportation.” You can tell that completely avoiding jerks isn’t a big goal for me because I don’t live in a hermit cave that I singlehandedly scraped out of the side of a mountain with a spoon, unwilling to let an amorous construction crew ruin my no-hitter.

Plus, my company, which I am sure you could identify without much trouble and whom I certainly do not seek to represent here in any official capacity, is a pretty great place for women to work: an internal organization dedicated to the career development of women, generous maternity leave, flexible scheduling, and waaay fewer leering creeps than your average train car. Train cars are like Jerk Church, aren’t they.

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For the Love of Linux: How I Became a STEM Woman

For the Love of Linux: How I Became a STEM Woman

by STEM Women ♥ 6 Comments

Our blog will be bringing you stories from women working in STEM as part of our “Role Models” series. We kick things off with our STEM Women team reflecting on how and why they became interested in STEM. First up is Liz Quilty, who shares her personal journey from being a single mother teaching herself to code to becoming a Linux professional.

This is a long story, it may take some time. I would suggest perhaps getting a cup of tea and getting comfortable.

Growing up, I was a tomboy and hung about with my brothers. Days were spent climbing trees, wrestling, and doing ‘boy’ stuff. My mother tried to make me more ‘girly’, but since most of her time was taken up with my disabled sister, I was rather wild. I never did particularly well in school, not learning to read until I was 8 years old, and having issues throughout school (later realizing I have some dyslexia).

In my early teens, we moved from one end of the country to the other, and I had to suddenly go to a girls only school. This was a bit of a culture shock, I had no real way of relating to girls so much. I kind of got along with some, but for the most part I was a loner. After getting fairly sick and taking 6 months off school when I was 16, I ended up dropping out of school. I met a guy not long after that, and left home.

For the next 7 to 8 years I had 4 kids, and changed partner a couple of times. By the time I was 25 I was a high school drop out, single mother of 4 with no real skills at all to speak of. I did not stay in contact with most of my family and was pretty much a train wreck waiting to happen. Living on government handouts life sucked, and I was fairly sick of it and wanting to turn things around. Having no skills at all really was the killer though – who would hire somebody with 4 kids who couldn’t even afford childcare to work? Read more ›