When your computer breaks, they first thing you do is go call the tech guys, right? As one of the women in tech out there, I am getting tired of the sexist stereotypes about the gender of technology professionals. We are not all male!
While there have been notable women in technology from the beginning, women are often overlooked unless we make a place for ourselves.
In the recent Fast Company blog, Who’s to Blame for Creating the Digital Ceiling?, Allyson Kapin talks about how overt the sexism is in the tech industry. Women often outnumber men on Web 2.0 technologies like Twitter and Facebook — yet we make up less than 20 percent of speakers at major technology conferences. That’s why there is a need for women’s networks like BlogHer, Fem2.0, and Women Who Tech, who held their second annual TeleSummit on May 12. I logged on to a few of the workshops, including one on breaking through the digital ceiling.
The expert panel talked about their experiences with sexism in the industry. They also offered the following advice for breaking through barriers in the tech industry:
- Take risks — no one ever got ahead by asking permission.
- Put yourself out there — join speaker bureaus or wikis; promote yourself.
- Don’t be afraid of name calling — women don’t get ahead if they are afraid of what others are saying about them.
- Build bridges with other women — building a strong, supportive community can help you succeed.
- If you are not heard, keep talking — you may have to say things more often or louder than your male co-workers, but if you keep talking, you will eventually be heard.
- Know what areas you excel in — those are the areas in which to become a natural leader.
- When all else fails in your attempts to break through that digital ceiling, don’t be afraid to work around it. Many women have found that starting their own business was the way to find success in the technology industry.
Change can also start sooner. Women need to be encouraged to join the field; technology offers rewarding career potential. But right now women make up less than a quarter of computer science majors. Programs like the National Girls Collaborative Project and GEMS are working hard to get girls involved in STEM fields.
As women become greater consumers of technology, it’s important that women are also part of the development of those technologies. Women have already revolutionized technology; we have broken through barriers, but it’s not over. Just as technology is an ever-changing field, women have to continue the fight to break through barriers.
A bipartisan group of 15 representatives led by Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) proposed the National STEM Education Tax Incentive for Teachers Act of 2009 (H.R.705) in January. The legislation would give certain elementary and secondary school teachers of science, technology, engineering, and math a tax credit on their undergraduate tuition of up to $1,000 per year, or up to $1,500 for teachers at schools with students with disabilities.
If students start learning technology and science skills before they start getting tracked into “science” and “humanities” groups by gender, girls and women might just get a better chance to fill up the tech industry. It’s worth a try, and seems like a great piece of legislation, but it’s sitting at the bottom of the pile in the House Ways and Means committee right now. So call your representative and get it moving for women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and math!
The “ceilings”, glass, digital and otherwise, that women are continuing to smash through will be one of the key themes explored at the National Council for Research on Women’s annual conference June 10-12 at SUNY Graduate Center, NYC. Don’t miss out, register today at http://www.ncrw.org!