This post was the “about” page for a blog about Women in IT. Posts from that blog now carry the tag “women”.
What is this about? In short, it’s about the question “where are the women?” This blog is about the search for significant representation of women in key roles in technology companies, and in educational technology in particular.
When did it start? The idea of creating a blog about this is recent, but my idea of looking for women who are playing key tech roles started about 15 years ago. When I worked at the NH Department of Education, I used to receive lots of calls and emails from educational technology companies about their products and services. When a company came to my attention, I would want to know more about them and what they offered. When looking at an “about” page, I would very often notice that there were few, if any, women in key positions of the company.
Why? At some point, I recall being quite annoyed and disappointed that the women were missing. A few decades years later, I am equally disappointed to see that women are still under represented in key positions. I started this blog to explore why this is still the case and what might have an impact to change this situation. You can see a short list of articles on this topic, although by now there are surely many more articles that could be added to the list.
Articles to Ponder:
Edwards, D. (2013, November 18). Fox Business host: Maybe “something about the female brain” makes women bad tech CEOs. Raw Story. Retrieved from http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/18/fox-business-host-maybe-something-about-the-female-brain-makes-women-bad-tech-ceos/
Field Museum. (2013, August 8). The Brain Scoop’s Emily Graslie talks with Chicago Tonight. About Us. The Field Museum. Retrieved from http://fieldmuseum.org/about/brain-scoop%E2%80%99s-emily-graslie-talks-chicago-tonight
Flood, A. (2011, May 6). Study finds huge gender imbalance in children’s literature: New research reveals male characters far outnumber females, pointing to “symbolic annihilation of women and girls”. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/06/gender-imbalance-children-s-literature
Friedman, A. (2014, January 8). Tech women are busy building their own networks. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/tech-women-are-busy-building-their-own-networks/2014/01/08/60e356f2-7874-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html
Holmes, R. (2013, November 6). Why the tech industry is (still) failing women. Ryan Holmes. LinkedIn. Retrieved from http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131106191227-2967511-why-the-tech-industry-is-still-failing-women?_mSplash=1
Krulwich, R. (2013, November 30). Science Reporter Emily Graslie Reads Her Mail — And It’s Not So Nice. Krulwich Wonders. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/11/30/247842138/science-reporter-emily-graslie-reads-her-mail-and-it-s-not-so-nice
Lanir, L. (2013, November 25). Joss Whedon answers: “Why use strong female characters?” Digital Journal. Retrieved from http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/360882
Lepi, K. (2013, October 12). Why Are Girls Not Pursuing Computer Science Degrees? Trends. Edudemic. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/girls-computer-science-degrees/
Nijhuis, M. (2013, December 18). One weird old trick to undermine the patriarchy. The Last Word on Nothing. Retrieved from http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/12/18/one-weird-old-trick/
Saujani, R. (2014, May 13). Get to girls before negative stereotyping starts. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/05/12/teaching-code-in-the-classroom/teach-coding-to-girls-before-negative-stereotyping-starts
Schwartz, K. (2013, April 24). Giving good praise to girls: What messages stick. Mind/Shift: How we will learn. KQED. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/04/giving-good-praise-to-girls-what-messages-stick/