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.
Showcasing Women in Tech
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 - This original article by Shelly Kapoor Collins can be found on ShellShockd.
In writing this series, I want to bring to life and highlight the positive experiences of women in technology and venture capital who have made it despite their struggles and are even thriving side-by-side with male counterparts who are supportive of their success. Through this series, I aspire to build a community of support so that we as women have our own good ol’boys network and access to resources that will guide and support us before we make the decision to leave the Tech industry. I want to mobilize new members into the world of girl geekdom because technology is the greatest equalizer of the 21st century and without Women in Technology, there is no such equality.
The number of women in the technology industry is marginal and declining. From the ongoing talk about gender pay inequality, women struggling to find balance between work and career, lack of startup capital, and lack of a level playing field with male counterparts, it well known that America has a Women in Tech problem. While it’s important to recognize the issue, over analysis and getting caught up in negativity is a slippery slope that does not result in a solution. In this case, we know we have a (lack) of women in tech but what are we doing about it? Is this a policy issue? A jobs issue? An education issue? A family issue? The answer: it’s all of it.
Read more about ShellSchockd and women in tech here, or check out their website and full series here.
Sava360 is a network that connects leading South Asian influencers with innovators and entrepreneurs for strategic business, education and mentoring opportunities. The connections made through Sava360 take advantage of the expertise South Asian professionals have to offer in business, science, technology, arts and more. The organization advises early to mid-stage companies and hosts workshops and startup competitions; as well as working through its philanthropic branch to combat and raise awareness about issues including gender equality. For more information, visit the Sava360 website, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.