This Woman Created an App to End Hunger in America
MAKERS brings us this story of Komal Ahmad, who was astounded by the dichotomy between those who go hungry and the excess food businesses throw out every day. She founded Copia as a way to make it easier for companies to share extra food. The app "technology enables businesses to receive a tax write-off and a reduction in disposal costs for providing meals to communities in need," according to the company's website.Click through to read more.
makers.com - "It shouldn't be this hard to do the right thing."
That's what Komal Ahmad said after offering to buy lunch for a homeless veteran while she was an undergraduate at University of California Berkeley. The encounter allowed her to compare two stark realities: just across the street the university was throwing away thousands of pounds of food while the veteran sitting across from her was having his first meal in three days.
What became a mission to feed the hungry with the university’s leftovers blossomed into an app to end hunger in America.
Today, Ahmad is the founder and CEO of Copia, an app that she describes as "an Uber for food-recovery," matching non-profits serving veterans, children, women, and those in need to companies with leftover gourmet food. This past Super Bowl weekend, Copia organized numerous pickups of food throughout the San Francisco Bay Area that ended up feeding more than 41,000 people.
"It is the sexiest thing that you could solve instantly," she said in an interview later adding, "We use technology to optimize every other portion of our life, why can't we use it to optimize the most unnecessary problem of our time?"
Read more here.
Intel: Connecting People to Their Potential
Education is the single most powerful tool we have for unlocking economic opportunity and building a foundation for a successful future.
Technology plays an increasingly critical role in that equation, improving options for and the quality of education for millions around the world.
Empowering Girls and Women Through Education and Technology
Expanding technology access is a crucial early step in empowering underserved populations, including girls and women.
The educational benefits made possible by technology can be powerful no matter if a person wishes to learn how to speak English, increase crop yield or become an entrepreneur. Click here for more information.
Through the Intel Global Girls and Women Initiative, Intel is working to empower millions of girls and women around the world by closing the gender gap in education access, inspiring more girls and women to become creators of technology, and connecting girls and women to opportunity through technology access.
Internet Access: A Global Example
Internet access differs dramatically around the world. Notably left behind are girls and women. On average, nearly 25 percent fewer women than men are online in developing countries. This represents 200 million fewer women than men who are online today.
- In Sub-Saharan Africa, the size of the gap is nearly 45 percent.
- The gap is nearly 35 percent in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
- It is nearly 30 percent in parts of Europe and across Central Asia.
- In most higher-income countries, women’s Internet access only minimally lags that of men’s and in countries such as France and the United States, in fact exceeds it.
- As a comparison, the gender gap in China is about 20 percent.
Statistics from Women and the Web Report by Intel Corporation
Educate a Girl, Change the World
Girl Rising is a global action campaign for girls' education. It started with a groundbreaking, inspirational flm. Now it’s a movement to lift barriers to girls' education, to drive change and motivate leaders to take action.
Intel is a founding strategic partner of the Girl Rising campaign as well as supporter of the digital distribution of the film.
Girl Rising
From Academy Award-nominated director Richard E. Robbins, "Girl Rising" journeys around the globe to witness the strength of the human spirit and the power of education to change the world.
Viewers get to know nine unforgettable girls living in the developing world: ordinary girls who confront tremendous challenges and overcome nearly impossible odds to pursue their dreams. Prize-winning authors put the girls’ remarkable stories into words, and renowned actors give them voice.
Join the Campaign
Want to show the film at your school, company or community organization? Millions have experienced Girl Rising around the world. Bring the flm to your community by hosting a screening. A story can inspire. A story can deliver powerful truths. A story can change lives. Click here to learn how to get involved with Girl Rising.
Connecting Women to Opportunity Through Technology
Intel She Will Connect
The Intel She Will Connect program aims to close the Internet gender gap by connecting millions of girls and women to opportunity through technology. The Internet in particular, has transformed the lives of billions of people. It functions as a gateway to ideas, resources, and opportunities that never could have been realized before.know how to use the Internet, but we don’t know how to use it to benefit our lives.”
Women and the Web
Technology, the Internet in particular, has transformed the lives of billions of people. It functions as a gateway to ideas, resources and opportunities that never could have been realized before. All around the world, the Internet is helping people to imagine new possibilities. But girls and women are being left behind.
As the Internet can provide enormous economic, social and professional value, the Internet gender gap has very serious consequences for women and for society more broadly.
Learn more about the Women and the Web Report.
Inspiring Girls to Become Technology Creators
MakeHers Report: Engaging Girls and Women in Technology through Making, Creating, and Inventing.
Our world needs more female innovators to tackle its toughest challenges.
The Maker movement has the potential to engage more girls and women in creating technology: Learn how Making can inspire more women to be technology innovators.
Six ways to engage more girls and women in making
- Build: Build more girl- and women-inclusive maker environments in public places like libraries and schools.
- Encourage: Encourage parents to "embrace the mess" and engage in making with their sons and daughters.
- Design: Design maker spaces that enable open-ended investigation of projects meaningful to girls and women.
- Align: Align with current fads to attract girls to activities such as coding and making hardware.
- Develop: Develop initiatives that five girls more access to female mentors and makers of their own age.
- Include: Include facilitators in maker spaces to create a safe, supportive, inclusive environment for girls and women.
Intel supports a range of programs, competitions, and resources that seek to inspire and empower more girls and women to create and build the technology of the future.
Intel focuses on programs that feature hands-on activities such as "Maker" projects and coding, involve peer mentors and role models and connect technology and engineering careers to positive social impact.
Yes, Girls Do Code
From creating apps that teach coding to inventing umbrellas that light up when hit with raindrops, girls show they have the skills and vision to excel in technology careers.
The Girls Who Code program teaches girls coding skills through computer and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) projects to inspire and prepare them for college and to close the gender gap in technology-related companies. Watch the video.
Intel Science Talent Search (STS)
Intel STS finalists demonstrate vision, creativity and determination to make the world better using science. Projects range from seeking better ways to locate cancer cells, to using computer science to find distant galaxies. Five female semifinalists and finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search share their groundbreaking discoveries in medicine, astronomy and biology, breaking down gender stereotypes in STEM to show that girls can change the world. Explore their projects.
Exposing Girls to Technology
The CompuGirls program offers girls from under-resourced school districts the opportunity to attend summer and after-school classes to learn the latest in digital media, games and virtual worlds.
It’s not often people have the opportunity to connect professional skills with their personal passions. Eshe Pickett, a design automation engineer at Intel, believes that volunteering with CompuGirls is an opportunity to change the world, "one girl at a time." Pickett not only enjoys her job, she enjoys the unique opportunity to combine her professional skills with her passion for impacting the lives of young women. Read more...
Click here for more information about Intel’s initiatives to inspire girls and young women to pursue studies and careers in technology, engineering and computer science and to see all the ways Intel is collaborating to connect people to their potential and advance economic empowerment.
Article by Suzanne Fallender, Intel Corporation
All photos courtesy of Intel Corporation
© 2015 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
A new study says “digital fluency” can help women close the workplace gender gap by 2040
Gaining knowledge and confidence when it comes to technology may help women close the gender gap in the workplace by 2040, according to a new study. Whether it's perceived lack of expertise or an actual lack of education, we're certainly planning to follow these studies as they help paint a complex picture of pay inequity--and what we can do to resolve it. qz.com - A lack of digital prowess is hindering women in the workplace, according to a new study.
Women lag behind men in the workplace in many respects, from pay to leadership roles to opportunities in science, technology, and other fast-growing industries. They are also falling behind in the use of digital skills, the study found. It argues that helping women become more digitally savvy will help level the playing field for them in other areas in the near future.
Doubling the rate at which women use digital skills to learn, connect, and become more efficient can help close the workplace gender gap in the developed world by 2040, according to consultancy Accenture.
Accenture’s report focuses on what it calls “digital fluency.” It’s less about doing things like learning to code, and more about using technology to become more “knowledgeable, connected and effective” via taking remote courses, teleworking, or looking for jobs online. Men around the world overwhelmingly rely on technology more than women do, Accenture found, and that’s partly what’s getting them ahead in terms of pay, promotions, and the like.
Read more here.
For women in tech, feminism is in the details
techcrunch.com - The topic of women in tech can take on different forms. It is about women‘s positions and promotions (or the lack thereof) in the tech industry, with initiatives meant to help women network, find opportunities or hold discriminating industry leaders accountable.
It is also about developing technology that can help us make this world kinder to women, by offering solutions to problems that have to do with women’s health, safety and career dilemmas. And not last nor least, it is about how the information we consume and are exposed to influences the representation (or, once again, the lack thereof) of women everywhere.
The tech world is an arena where discoveries are made every day, and the responsibility to lead others in new directions is all around. Today’s human society learns via Wikipedia, blogs and social networks, which is why so-called insignificant changes are in fact quite dramatic. The following is a set of stories that have taken place over the past year; they may not be earth-shattering, but they absolutely symbolize the winds of feminist change.
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NSF launches long-awaited diversity initiative
STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have had a problem with diversity since long before the term "STEM" was en vogue. Even with women and people of color studying in STEM fields, white men still make up the majority of the workforce at 51 percent--far greater than their share of the general population. It's refreshing, then, to see the National Science Foundation encouraging diversity through a program calling for projects designed to increase the participation of women, racial minorities, disabled individual and other underserved groups in STEM fields. Greater diversity will not only help combat inequality like the wage gap, it will benefit companies. It will ensure the inclusion of additional, missing perspectives and will ensure that the best people will fill the positions, no matter who they are.
Preliminary proposals are due April 15. Click through to read more.
sciencemag.org - The National Science Foundation (NSF) wants to make the U.S. scientific community more inclusive. And the more ideas, the better.
NSF announced its intention to hand out small grants later this year to dozens of institutions to test novel ways of broadening participation in science and engineering. Winners of the 2-year, $300,000 pilot grants will be eligible to compete next year for up to five, $12.5 million awards over 5 years. NSF is calling the program INCLUDES. (The acronym stands for a real jaw-breaker: inclusion across the nation of communities of learners of underrepresented discoverers in engineering and science.)
The underrepresentation of women and minorities in the scientific workforce is a problem that has persisted for decades despite many well-meaning federal initiatives. NSF Director France Cordova has spoken repeatedly about her intention of moving the needle on the issue since taking office in March 2014. And this initiative, totaling roughly $75 million, could well be the signature program of her 6-year term.
Read more here.
Featured Act: Empowering girls with tech and science in Ghana
The Melton Foundation is a network of citizens around the world that promotes global citizenship to address issues around the world, as well as to encourage individuals and organizations to reach across boundaries and work together. Last month they started featuring philanthropic efforts in their 100 Acts of Global Citizenship program. The first Featured Act is the work of Melton Fellow Vladimir Fomene, who encourages young students--especially girls--to learn coding and computer science starting at an early age.
meltonfoundation.org - This post is the first Featured Act from our 100 Acts of Global Citizenship program. To discover more acts, visit our campaign page!
Vladimir Fomene, a Melton Fellow from Cameroon, studies computer science at Ashesi University. When he started thinking about his Act of Global Citizenship, Vladimir wanted to address a social cause in his own field of study. That's how he came up with the idea to empower young people, especially girls, with technology skills.
"When I started coding, I realized that things would have been easier if I had started when I was very young," Vladimir said. "I thought it would give people more opportunities if they start coding at a very early age."
Vladimir organized a workshop for junior high students at Christ the King International College in Accra which included teamwork activities, a graphic design session and scratch programming session. Although the session was open for both boys and girls, Vladimir especially encouraged the girls to participate actively.
"In STEM fields, there is a gender balance problem because they are dominated by men," Vladimir says. "Many more girls are interested in going for technology fields, but they are not introduced to these things early on."
Read more here.
Photos: Girls rule at Ocean Science conference
We're always happy to see girls encouraged to get their hands on some science—literally. So we loved discovering the Girls in Ocean Science Conference. As part of its ongoing effort to get girls excited about ocean science and involved with hands-on reserach, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography welcomed more than 100 middle school girls to an ocean science conference. Women scientists from UCLA, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Algalita Marine Research and Education and more teach workshops and discuss careers in areas like oceanography, marine ecology, biochemistry and deep sea science. Learn more about the workshop, and the Institute's ongoing effort, by reading the full article.
ocregister.com - DANA POINT – Serena Chuc couldn’t get enough of looking at the bright green and blue species of coral on the ocean floor.
Thanks to special software from a researcher at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the 13-year-old Capistrano Beach girl could see the different types of coral and find out why they look the way they do. She also learned about key components of reef habitats and why coral can be found in so many spots in the world’s oceans.
“I thought it was really interesting because coral is so beautiful and it can adapt to live in all different waters,” Chuc said.
Chuc, a student at Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente, was among more than 100 middle school girls from Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties who took advantage of a girls-only ocean science conference Saturday at the Ocean Institute.
The event was part the institute’s 11-year effort to get girls in middle and high school interested in all types of ocean sciences with hands-on training and workshops. Presentations were held aboard the institute’s research vessel, the Sea Explorer, and at the institute’s labs.
Eight female scientists from institutions including UCLA, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Algalita Marine Research and Education were on hand to help the girls explore careers in such areas as oceanography, marine ecology, biochemistry and deep sea science.
Read more here.
Priceless feminist archive goes digital
Turkey's only women's library is marking its 25th anniversary with an ambitious plan: Expand and digitize its archive. Click through to read more about the vision behind preserving this priceless academic resource. hurriyetdailynews.com - ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency
Turkey’s only women’s library celebrates its 25th anniversary with ambitious plans to expand and digitize
It is a quiet afternoon in Turkey’s only women’s library and Professor Fatmagül Berktay, a renowned feminist academic and activist, is, as usual, hunched over a pile of books.
However, she is not grading papers or doing research; she is signing books from her personal archive to donate to this unique and venerable institution, while also drafting plans to fully digitalize the center’s archive.
Berktay, a professor of political science at Istanbul University and the writer of many books on women’s issues in Turkey, is chair of the executive board of Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı (Women’s Library and Information Center Foundation).
A renovated Byzantine-era building closely linked to the Fener district’s Greek community, the library was once a female school connected to a nearby monastery on the banks of Istanbul’s Golden Horn.
After going into decline, the building is now home to this special library founded in 1990 by five Turkish women.
Read more here.
Tech: An Opportunity For Black Women and Investors
Forbes Woman highlights a recent report showing how tech provides great opportunities for black women to found or invest in tech startups—even if they're not techies. Get the details at the full article. Black women are underrepresented in tech, but they're the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States, so their successes—and further opportunities for black women in tech entrepreneurship—are trends worth following for founders and investors. Read the full article at the link. Forbes - Technology represents a huge opportunity for black women. You don’t need to be a techie to spot an opportunity in the market. You also don’t need to be a techie to start a technology company. You can find a techie cofounder by getting referrals, attending tech events or using a service, such as CoFoundersLab. You can also hire or outsource the development of your technology. Some developers will even defer payment until you are making money.
Black women represent a mere 4 percent of all women-led tech startups in the U.S., according to #ProjectDiane. Black women represent 18 percent of all women in the U.S., according to BlackDemographics.com. I’ve highlighted three women mentioned in the report.
- Angie of The Shade Room provides celebrity news and juicy gossip 24/7. She has been at the forefront of developing a model to monetize her huge following on Instagram. As a result, she has been named one of 18 of TechCrunch’s females founders who killed it in 2015.
- Kellee James of Mercaris started a market data and auctions site to help companies that sell organic and non-GMO agricultural products in the U.S.. She was a White House Fellow and worked at an electronic trading platform for spot, futures and options on carbon, sulfur, clean energy and other environmental derivatives.
- Nicole Sanchez founded eCreditHero, a five-minute credit fix app. She has a Harvard undergraduate and MBA degree.
Read the rest here.
The Incredible NASA Astrophysicist Teaching Kids All About Science
Amy Mainzer; an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the host of "Ready Jet Go!," a new 3-D animated series on PBS; is a great example of what girls--or any kids--can accomplish when they dream and aim big. And she's aiming to help kids reach their goals and explore the universe. Mainzer discusses her own childhood fascination with space, kids' curiosity and how it can drive the next generation of scientists, and the importance of kids having up-to-date and engaging information about the ongoing journey of science.
Her focus on exploration, engagement, and changing perceptions is inspirational. Learn more at the link!
forbes.com - NASA’s Dr. Amy Mainzer is on a new mission – but it’s not into space, yet.
Having developed a young curiosity for space science into a phenomenal career in the field – including as the principal investigator on a major project to study asteroids – Dr. Mainzer has a new goal of educating children in the field and creating the scientists of the future.
As the host and science consultant of PBS’ new TV series, Ready Jet Go!, Dr. Mainzer tells me she is determined to help nurture the natural curiosity of kids around science, technology and space.
“A lot of science and engineering professionals made the decision to work in these fields when they were younger than ten – meaning that small children are making big life decisions,” she explains.
“By making a science show for very young kids, I hope we can foster a love for learning about the universe that stays with them as they hit middle school.”
The series is currently airing on PBS Kids and is aimed at children aged three to eight, with games and further resources online. Marvelously, it follows three kids, one of whose family includes aliens from another planet. They all decide to explore the solar system together, and find out about space science along the way.
3 key ways India’s tech community is empowering women
Despite imbalances in many areas, India boasts higher levels of involvement of women in the tech industry than many countries, including the United States. While still outnumbered by men, numbers are going in the right direction for women in the tech industry in India. Mashable brings us this report of the country's receptiveness to women in tech careers in India, and the move to continue recognizing talented women in the field. mashable.com - Statistics can be depressing. Take these, for example: only 30 percent of India’s tech force is made up of women, with a meager 36 percent of this pool promoted to supervisory positions.
Statistics can also be uplifting. There are predictions that the country’s current male to female ratio in tech companies — 76 to 24 — will become 65 to 33 in the next year. In fact, India is still better off than other, more “progressive” countries like the United States, where only 21% of the tech workforce is made up of female employees
If there’s one thing that the tech industry has taught us, it’s to focus on the numbers and constantly look for new solutions. Here are some ways that the tech community is helping make a change in India.
Paypal’s “recharge”
While global payments giant PayPal hasn’t made much of a dent in India thanks to local regulations, it’s still got a large presence in the country, with a technology center set up in Chennai and another office in Bangalore.
Visit Mashable to read the rest of the article, including coverage of Sheroes, the Headstart Network Foundation and more.
Women in Science: Meet the Stemettes star inspiring more girls into STEM
Anne-Marie Imafidon, a child prodigy in math and science, has spent the past three years leading an organization dedicated to helping girls follow in her path. She spoke with International Business Times UK about her work championing the cause of women and girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). She's the co-founder of Stemettes, an organization working to get more girls and women into STEM careers by starting them early: If girls are encouraged to love and pursue science and math, it will pay off down the road.
Even as she received honors and invitations to speak, Imafidon came to realize that being a woman in tech was much more of an anomaly than it should be. She co-founded Stemettes (originally the Stemettes Project) in 2013, and the organization has already helped increase the number of girls taking STEM subjects and GCSE exams.
Imafidon discusses her organization, as well as why so few girls are pursuing STEM subjects—and why even fewer women stay in STEM careers. From stereotyping and culture to scheduling conflicts and internal biases, the deck can seem stacked against girls who want to pursue STEM subects. However, the benefits to doing so—for both girls and a world that needs educated girls—are too important to ignore.
Find out much more about Stemettes and Imafidon's insights in the article, excerpted here and in full at the link.
ibtimes.co.uk - If there was ever someone to inspire girls into science, Anne-Marie Imafidon is the woman for the job. Imafidon is the co-founder of Stemettes, an award-winning social enterprise encouraging girls into the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths, and she has an intimidating CV.
Having passed GCSEs in maths and ICT aged 10, she holds the current world record for the youngest girl ever to pass an A level in computing – she was 11. Two years later, she received a scholarship to study maths at a top US university. Imafidon then went on to become one of the youngest to be awarded a Masters degree in maths and computer science at Oxford.
Yet despite the incredible successes of the likes of Imafidon, women are still chronically underrepresented in the STEM workforce. The problem starts young: more boys take science subjects at school, and studies have shown the girls who do take them, and so often excel, lack the confidence to pursue the high-paid STEM careers. Too many talented young scientists, technicians, engineers and mathematicians are walking away from exciting, rewarding and well-paid jobs.
"I graduated, worked for two years and then it was only when I was sent to speak at a conference in the US that it hit me – I was a woman in tech," Imafidon tells IBTimes UK on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
Read the rest here.
Facebook looks at women's safety online at Kenya roundtable
Starting on World Internet Day on Feb. 9, Facebook introduced a global effort focusing on women's safety with a roundtable in Kenya. The meeting included non-governmental organizations, academics, activists and more from across Sub-Saharan Africa. The Internet connects us all--but it can also be a place where users, especially women, are harassed and violated. Everyone deserves privacy, respect and safety, online and off, so we're happy to see roundtables and like these emerging as part of a worldwide conversation on safety and respect.
Read the introduction here and click through for more information.
IT News Africa - Facebook has kicked off a global effort on women's safety in Kenya by hosting a Women's Safety roundtable in Kenya with participants from NGOs, academia, women's rights groups, and safety organisations from Kenya and across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The roundtable highlighted how the community can work together to create a harassment-free online environment where everyone can feel safe to share and interact. It coincided with Safer Internet Day 09 February, a 100-country effort to make the internet a better place for everyone who uses it.
The Kenyan roundtable was the first to be held around the world, with others to follow in Ireland, the Middle East, India and the US. The focus was on addressing the issues of online harassment of women.
Read the whole story here.
Women In Tech: Alexandra Wilkis Wilson
Sava360 brought our attention to a powerful series highlighting leading women in technology by Shelly Kapoor Collins of ShellShockd, a community of women in tech who support one another and work together to form opportunities, foster innovation and work toward equality because they believe that “technology is the greatest equalizer of the 21st century, and without women in tech, there is no equality.” sava360.com - Original article by Shelly Kapoor Collins found here.
From startup to global enterprise, talking with the GLAMSQUAD and GILT co-founder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson
Through my Women in Tech series, I have interviewed awe inspiring female tech founders who through their collective success and willingness to be door openers for other women, are doing their part to plug the leaky bucket and build the Tech pipeline.
One such female Tech entrepreneur who I had the huge honor of interviewing is Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Co-Founder of the luxury flash sale site, The GILT Groupe (Gilt) and now CEO and Co-Founder of Glamsquad, an on demand beauty app. Whether or not Alexandra realizes it, she is becoming somewhat of a legend in the world of Technology startup founders. I was excited to gain insight into her secret sauce for success and pass along her insight to other women in Tech for whom Alexandra is a role model.
Visit Sava360 to read more about Wilson and to listen to Collins' radio interview with Wilson. Read more about ShellSchockd and women in tech here, or check out their website and full series here.
8 ways you can empower girls to learn coding
Make sure to check out this article, excerpted below, by Matt Petronzio of Mashable about how to invest in girls by empowering them to learn coding—the language of the future—so they will be part of a revolution in STEM careers. Petronzio discusses the progress we've made so far, hurdles we must still overcome, what the average person can do and much more. We've included just the first below. See the full article for the other seven points as well as statistics, inspiration and ideas about what you can do to help encourage and empower some of our brightest girls.
1. Know the specific barriers we need to overcome.
Before anything, you need to understand the systemic obstacles preventing girls from getting into coding. Both a culture that persistently ignores and discourages girls' abilities in computer science, and the lack of access to tools and education, play influential roles.
Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, says it's deeply ingrained in our culture to let it be OK for girls to say they don't like math and science.
"We almost sensationalize it in culture for girls to promote that," she tells Mashable. "You can walk into a Forever 21 and buy a T-shirt that says 'I'm allergic to algebra' ... You're always showcasing these really smart girls hiding their intelligence when it comes to math and science."
If girls can't see themselves in these professions, Saujani adds, they're not going to choose to pursue them. And that also extends to inside classrooms, where coding is rarely offered to students in general, much less focusing on girls — an obstacle Code.org founder and CEO Hadi Partovi says is equally as significant as culture.
"If you enter a classroom and you see 18 boys and two girls, you automatically think, 'I'm in the wrong place and I'm not welcome,'" Partovi says. "And that makes it harder."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eJYW4ew5eg[/embed]
Read the rest of the article here. Also check out CodeGirl, a documentary from award-winning filmmaker Lesley Chilcott that follows teams from the thousands of girls around the world taking part in the Global Technovation Challenge by building apps that help their communities.
Women Hackathons: A Gateway to the Evolution of a More Equal World
The Meera Kaul Foundation addresses gender bias and funds organizations led by women to help “eradicate inequality through education, programs, seminars and conferences.” Check out their post excerpted below and on Entrepreneur Middle East, about hackathons for women: a coding and computer science movement that's sweeping the world to foster cutting edge ideas and collaboration and help women innovators, developers, tech geeks and entrepreneurs form connections and pursue goals that can change the world.
entrepreneur.com - In a world where the rate of female computer science graduates is declining at an alarming rate, the number of women enrolling in technical courses at universities has also seen a dramatic decline—which further impacts the motivation of women already involved in STEM vocations. The end result is a microscopic pipeline of women in STEM careers, primarily computing and engineering. While opportunities in these vocations have evolved, women’s involvement in these domains has plummeted. This is not a pretty equation, both from the perspective of the social and economic status of women, and also from the standpoint of the progress and development of communities, as women are known to be active contributors to the capacity building of other women and their communities.
When I promote hackathons for women, I invariably get asked why such an inclusive program should exist. Our nonprofit organization, the Meera Kaul Foundation, has a program called Women in STEM, whose primary mission is to enable women to educate and build skills to enable careers in highly paid jobs of STEM. Holding hackathons all around the world has been an initiative that we have undertaken the world over, and thus proliferate our mission into regions that need our support the most.
Read more about the Meera Kaul Foundation, Women in STEM, hackathons, and the culture of bias and stereotype women in tech still face here. The second annual Women in STEM Hackathon in Dubai will be held February 19 through 20, welcoming women from across the MENA region.