Building Gender Equality From the Inside Out and the Outside In

As part of a Forbes ongoing series about women leaders in technology, Amy Blankson shares insights from Jayne Groll, CEO of the DevOps Institute and tech expert, as she discusses moving beyond stereotypes and assumptions if we want to attract more girls and women to technology. Instead of seeing women as less capable in tech fields and in need of special accommodations, we need to work on giving women a voice and many seats at the table; eliminating gender bias in the workplace; and truly making the field inviting, safe, and navigable for women. It's an approach that will help women, men, and workplaces in general, as more opportunities for women mean a better balance for everyone—and the opportunity to make the most of women's talents and ideas.

By Amy Blankson

This is the sixth article in the "Women Execs in Tech Series," an ongoing conversation about current challenges in the industry and best practices for increasing gender parity in the workplace.

Jayne Groll is co-founder and CEO of the DevOps Institute and has accumulated a wealth of IT credentials throughout her career. Her 25 years in senior IT management have positioned her as a sounding board for individuals hoping to delve deeper into the many issues in tech. Recently, she was asked how to recruit more girls for a robotics team. A male participant in the conversation suggested they should “make the robots pink or something?”

Despite over two decades in the tech sector, Jayne is still dumbfounded by these types of suggestion. In her mind, it’s not about making the tech industry more appealing to women by “pinkifying it,” but rather it's about making the sector a fair and safe place for women.

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Data doesn't lie: Tech firms need to hire more women to succeed

By SARAH LACY, Wired

The year 2017 put gender bias in focus again. Firms must study the numbers if they want to thrive, writes entrepreneur and author Sarah Lacy. In this extract from her new book, Lacy makes the case that hiring women isn't just the right thing to do - it makes business sense too

Silicon Valley prides itself on being a place that breaks the mold, embracing misfits, disrupting business as usual. We're so radical that we fund college dropouts who've never held down jobs before to build companies. That is pretty radical. Or it was. The first time it was done. Once it becomes the new template for the only thing you fund, you aren't disrupting anything.

The industry's top VCs have actually copped to this. During a 2008 keynote at the National Venture Capital Association, John Doerr (one of the top VCs in the history of Silicon Valley) said to Mike Moritz (another one), "If you look at [Amazon founder Jeff] Bezos, or [Netscape founder Marc] Andreessen, [Yahoo! co-founder] David Filo, the founders of Google, they all seem to be white, male nerds who've dropped out of Harvard or Stanford, and they absolutely have no social life." Doerr took it further, saying, "That correlates more with any other success factor that I've seen in the world's greatest entrepreneurs."

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Startup Accelerators Hold The Keys To Gender Equity In Tech

When I quit my job on Wall Street to launch Invibed, I heard every reason why my idea wasn't going to work. Millennials don't care about money. Really smart people have already tried to solve this problem and failed. And of course, only 3 percent of venture capital goes to female founders.

A few months ago, my co-founder and I were on a business trip when we received a call. We were one of 12 startups accepted into the NYU Steinhardt EdTech Accelerator powered by StartEd. Being accepted meant we would participate in a three-month immersive program in New York City and that we were eligible for up to $170,000 in investment, funded by Rethink Education. We had just become part of the 3 percent.

An Accelerator That Is The Exception Not The Norm

Knowing "what is," we were prepared to be the only female founders in our cohort. But walking into the first day at StartEd, we forgot ‘what is’ and were reminded of "what could be."

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Three FinTech CEOS Share Keys To Startup Success For Women Leaders

Within the first few minutes, you must establish your credibility.

That is keen advice from Krista Morgan, CEO of P2Binvestor since 2012 and co-host of “Women Who Startup” radio podcasts.

“I often just emphasize my degree, my portfolio growth and put my expertise in context,” says Morgan, whose company deals in access to lines of credit from $250,000 to $10 million.

“I walk into a room of people in finance and they don’t expect you to be a CEO of a finance company. So I overcome that bias.” She adds, “I also try to be a slightly more serious and less friendly version of myself.”

Morgan’s company, P2Binvestor (that stands for People to Business), “is a financial technology company providing large lines of credit to growing companies who are too big for small business loans but cannot yet access a traditional bank line of credit. We partner with private investors and banks to provide our clients with competitively priced, flexible, and scalable capital. We also build amazing technology that makes it easy to manage large, asset-based lines of credit,” according to the company site.

Morgan is a leader in FinTech, the growing field merging finance and technology with a startling lack of gender diversity.

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Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective backs edtech startup

Bizwomen

By: Kelly J. O'Brien

(Photo: Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg)

Emerson Collective, an organization started by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, has led a $16 million investment into Boston edtech startup Panorama Education.

Jobs isn't the only tech luminary to take an interest in Panorama, which went through the West Coast startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2013 before moving to Boston. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg contributed to a $4 million round via his Startup:Education fund. The startup tacked on a $12 million Series A round in 2015.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative participated in the latest round, as did other previous investors Spark Capital, Owl Ventures, and SoftTechVC.

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Lego launching set featuring women stars of NASA

Representation matters in all forms -- even when that form is less than two inches tall. Women's history in STEM professions has long gone underappreciated, but with a newly unveiled Lego minifigure set and more, that is starting to change. The new set sheds light on women's contributions to the U.S. space program. Read more, and keep an eye out for celebrations of women who have led the way in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. cnet.com - Lego fans want to see brick versions of women in the sciences, and the toy company has heard them.

In 2016, 10,000 supporters on the Lego Ideas fan-created projects site backed a Women of NASA set. Lego announced on Tuesday it will produce the set, which was proposed by Lego fan and science writer and editor Maia Weinstock.

The approval of the set comes on the heels of popular 2016 movie "Hidden Figures," which explores the contributions of black women to the space agency and the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit in the early 1960s. Katherine Johnson, one of the scientists featured in the film, appears in the Lego minifig set.

The project also includes computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, astronaut Sally Ride, astronomer Nancy Grace Roman and astronaut Mae Jemison.

Weinstock's vision for the set includes minifig representations of each woman and a group of vignettes that feature mini versions of the space shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Lego previously delved into the world of NASA with the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover set, which is now retired.

by Amanda Kooser

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Africa must bust the myth that girls aren't good at maths and science

In Africa, as throughout the world, societies are recognizing that girls and women have just as much to offer scientific and mathematical fields as boys and men. Still, the stigma and the mindset that "girls just aren't that good at science and math" persists. If we want to see more women in careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; we have to start at the beginning of the pipeline -- when those women are girls, being influenced by the representations they see and the ideas that surround them. This article from CNBC Africa explores how education and communication play a part, as well as specific obstacles faces by black women, the role of history, how to address the gender imbalance, and how to encourage exploration of math and science by girls, opening minds -- and expanding horizons.  cnbcafrica.com - Africa must bust the myth that girls aren't good at maths and science

Children’s ideas about what their gender means for their intellectual capacity are formed before they have even turned six. One idea that’s particularly pervasive and dangerous is that, only boys are good at maths and science.

Popular media only exacerbates the problem. Research has shown that girls hardly ever see adult women doing jobs that involve science, technology, engineering and maths on television programmes. Children’s programmes also rarely feature women doing anything scientific.

These early stereotypes may lead to young girls developing a “fear” of these subjects throughout their schooling. This ultimately limits their career aspirations. They become afraid to enter into fields that are based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Statistics compiled by UNESCO reveal that, globally, women make up less than 30% of the people working in STEM careers. The situation is worse in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

In South Africa, where I live and work, the problem is worsened by the country’s apartheid history. Today, black women are still struggling to access scientific careers at all. Those who do may fall victim to the “leaky pipeline” syndrome: they start degrees in science, but don’t continue to postgraduate level or go on to work in STEM fields. There are many reasons for this, including gender bias.

by Nox Makunga, Stellenbosch University

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India’s rocket women

Women really are making their mark around the world -- and even out of it. We were so excited to see "India's rocket women" celebrating the country putting a satellite in orbit around Mars. Not only were the women involved with and leading the Mars orbiter mission, the Indian Space Research Organization has several women scientists in key positions helping the country explore space. The Deccan Chronicle got to know a few of these remarkable women. deccanchronicle.com - The overwhelming success of India’s space missions has highlighted the role of the country’s women scientists.

Think Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), think Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, G. Madhavan Nair, Rodham Narsimha and a host of geniuses. They build on an earlier generation of scientists who worked to push India’s space frontiers, men who came to define the contours of the country’s scientific rediscovery — C.V. Raman and Meghnad Saha. But times are changing.

Two years ago, as Indian scientists successfully put a satellite Mangalyaan into orbit around Mars, history was scripted. Away from the dour image of spectacled and formally suited nerds working on complex diagrams and theories, this snapshot of Indian scientists, who achieved the feat in a record 15 months, was warmly refreshing — women dressed in resplendent saris, chatting gaily as they went about their work. Given that they have to work hard at home as well, faced as they are with societal discrimination, the Isro story remains a landmark not just for Indian science, but the women behind it.

Ritu Karidhal — from sky watcher to scientist

Ritu Karidhal is the Lucknow-born deputy operations director of the Mars Orbiter Mission. As a little girl growing up in Lucknow, Ritu was an avid sky watcher who “used to wonder about the size of the moon, why it increases and decreases. I wanted to know what lay behind the dark spaces,” she says.

A student of science, she scoured newspapers for information about NASA and ISRO projects, collected news clippings and read every detail about anything related to space science. After getting her PG degree, “I applied for a job at ISRO and that’s how I became a space scientist,” she says.

Eighteen years later, she has worked on several projects at ISRO, including the prestigious Mars mission, which thrust her and her colleagues into the limelight. She told a news portal in 2015 that she had to conceptualise and ensure the execution of the craft’s autonomous brain so that it could function on its own and even overcome malfunctions.

Manoj Joshi and B. R. Srikanth, Deccan Chronicle

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Adjusting the frequency: Women on the airwaves

unwomen.org - Adjusting the frequency: Women on the airwaves As World Radio Day is observed globally, we highlight how UN Women and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters are raising awareness of critical issues through a series of co-productions for the Beijing+20 anniversary.

An intruder breaks into a mechanical engineering class at Montreal’s École Polytechnique…

He orders the men to leave the room and asks the women if they know why they are here…

These women are future engineers…

But to the killer, these are feminists who need to be fought…

He pulls out his rifle and kills 14 women...”

This mournful and gruesome scene pulls the audience into the radio podcast Feminisme d’hier, égalité d’aujourd’hui? (Yesterday’s feminism, today’s equality?), aired in French on Montreal radio station CIBL 101.5. Three high-ranking professional women in construction, politics and the business secto) discuss that question and assess Quebec’s societal progress 25 years after the massacre. The discussion revolves around key questions: how has the women’s causes changed; are women accessing decision-making roles; are they more equal today?

Read more here.

Fighting the STEM gender gap with stories of trailblazing female scientists

pri.org - For writer and illustrator Rachel Ignotofsky, the idea to profile 50 pioneering female scientists in her recent book, “Women in Science,” was spurred by conversations with educator friends. As they talked about the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math fields, Ignotofsky realized women aren’t just underrepresented in STEM, itself — the stories about their contributions don't get much play, either. This story is based on a radio interview. Listen to the full interview.

“I just kept saying over and over again, we ... only talk about female scientists during women's history month,” she says. “We're not taught about them in school. We're not taught about them in history class, and the only one that we do talk about is Marie Curie.”

“So, what happens to young girls and boys when you're not introduced to these strong female role models, who all throughout history have made an immense impact on the sciences?”

The answer to that question is evident by the numbers: There’s a 22 percent gender gap among science and engineering grads, and a 52 percent gender gap among the entire STEM workforce, according to 2011 data from the United States Census Bureau. “I think when people close their eyes and think of who a scientist is, they don't see a woman,” Ignotofsky says.

6 ways to include more women of color in tech - TechRepublic

techrepublic.com - Tech company efforts to diversify by hiring more women are falling short in a key way: Leaving out women of color. "You see this in most large-scale initiatives built to create equality," said Aubrey Blanche, global head of diversity and inclusion at software company Atlassian. "When you focus on the larger group we call women, which is itself very diverse, you end up in a program that serves the needs of the majority in that group, which are white women."

Affirmative action programs have primarily benefited white women, a number of studies have shown. "We see that replicated in the tech industry, which is problematic, because we end up leaving women who don't fall into that camp behind," Blanche said. "You don't get as much diversity as you'd like."

Research shows that diverse teams are more innovative and creative, and that employees are happier. "As America becomes more diverse and globalized, it is smart to understand how to support greater diversity of your own workforce and of customers," Blanche said. "It's smart from a business perspective, and it has social impact."

From Nigeria to Kenya, TechInPink bridges digital divide - Vanguard News

vanguardngr.com - AT face value, Yetunde Sanni and Gertrude Nyenyeshi have nothing in common. Sanni is from Nigeria, Nyeyenshi from Kenya. They haven’t even met in person. At a deeper level however, their love for technology unites them. Both ladies founded, and now run TechInPink, an organisation that teaches women and girls coding and software development regardless of their background. According to Sanni, who is also a full time stack developer at Andela: “We started with blogging which involves teaching other people the craft of software development, we decided to do this because we found out we have very few tech based blogs that are run by women and we took the challenge upon ourselves to transform the false that women can’t write great code tutorials.”

Although the organisation is barely a year old, success stories abound from the ‘pink techies’ efforts. There are two students that readily come to mind when we’re asked about our success stories,” said Nyenyeshi, a full stack Javascript developer.

“One is Salma, an Architecture student in Kenya, and the other is Ruth a paramedical student in Nigeria who we mentored last year. They both had no prior experience but their transformation has been tremendous. We’d also list the two events that we held in both locations a success story as the ladies were introduced and taught about programming and it makes us smile to see some of them actively pursuing opportunities to learn more.”

Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering report released

phys.org - The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) today announced the release of the 2017 Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering (WMPD) report, the federal government's most comprehensive look at the participation of these three demographic groups in science and engineering education and employment. The report shows the degree to which women, people with disabilities and minorities from three racial and ethnic groups—black, Hispanic and American Indian or Alaska Native—are underrepresented in science and engineering (S&E;). Women have reached parity with men in educational attainment but not in S&E; employment. Underrepresented minorities account for disproportionately smaller percentages in both S&E; education and employment

Congress mandated the biennial report in the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act as part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) mission to encourage and strengthen the participation of underrepresented groups in S&E;.

Emirati girl hopes to be among the first astronauts to travel to Mars

thenational.ae - DUBAI // When Alia Al Mansouri grows up, she hopes to become one of the first Emirati astronauts of her generation to travel to Mars. The 14-year-old from Dubai was one of many pupils who attended the Project Space conference yesterday where female scientists and space experts discussed the need for more women in the industry.

Of the 537 people who have travelled into space so far, only 60 have been women. But the trend is changing, according to Dr Sara Al Maeeni, an expert in space communication and research at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, where 40 per cent of the employees are female.

"We’d like to increase that number," said Dr Al Maeeni, who joined the centre last year.

"The UAE has been very supportive of women. The leaders have always given tremendous support to women and established organisations to empower women, encouraging them to go into education in every possible way and we can see now that women are everywhere."

She said the country’s ministries were led by powerful female figures trying to empower youth to create their own future.

A Day With the Women Scientists Protesting Trump

theatlantic.com - “I’m so anti-protest, and so anti-demonstration,” she told me. “Growing up in the U.S.S.R., I always have that sense that protest is theater.” Even after she moved to the United States, she retained her suspicion of demonstrations large and small. They seemed to rarely achieve their goals, and they reminded her of the government-planned pageantry of her youth. As a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder, she attended a protest during the run-up to the Iraq War—only to leave before it ended out of personal unease. Since then, her research into community ecology has taken her to the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica and the high-elevation deserts of Utah. It let her spend months studying leafcutter ants, a colony-dwelling creature that grows fungus for its food; and it introduced her to Pseudobombax septenatum, a tree sheathed in photosynthetic bark that can store water in its trunk for months at a time. But her life as a scientist didn’t bring her to a mass protest until January 21, 2017, when she joined roughly 50 other female scientists—and hundreds of thousands of demonstrators—at the Women’s March on Washington. She marched as part of 500 Women Scientists, a new advocacy group for science and scientists that she and several of her friends established in the weeks after the election. Most of the women walked in white lab coats, on which they had written with Sharpie the names of their heroes, mentors, and friends who could not attend. They chanted “What do we want? Data! When do we want it? Forever!” and “When I say peer, you say review! Peer! Review! Peer! Review!” Someone held a sign saying, “MAR-A-LAGO (Trump’s Resort) WILL BE UNDER WATER BY 2045.” At the bottom, in tiny text, it cited a report from Coastal Risk Consulting, a private firm that uses climate data to project future sea-level rise. They marched together, but it was the first time many of the members had met each other in person. 500 Women Scientists first attracted attention in late November after its post-election pledge garnered more than more than 10,000 signatures in a week. Since then, its members have sat on panels together and plotted the group’s next steps. But many did not actually gather together until Saturday, when women scientists associated with the group marched in Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, and D.C.

Meet the Women Who Helped India Reach Mars On the First Try

thewire.in - A new video gives at times a worm’s eye view and at others the big picture of how ISRO pieced together a mission to Mars – narrated by three women who were a part of it all. “Based on the experience we had in growing the space science community within the country, ISRO decided that we could go farther out, and go into interplanetary space and go to Mars.” These words, of Seetha Somasundaram, the program director at the ISRO Space Science Program Office, kick off a thoughtful new video about the Indian space organisation’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), narrated by three women who led various parts of the enterprise.

[embed]https://youtu.be/k6E7qGhOGCA[/embed]

Directed by Emily Driscoll, the ten-minute video is at times a worm’s eye view and at others the big picture of how ISRO pieced together a mission to Mars in an astonishing 18 months, on a famously thin budget, on the back of the efforts of hundreds of scientists and engineers. At the time of the mission’s launch in November 2013, a now-famous image of a group of sari-clad female scientists embracing each other in celebration made the rounds online. It wasn’t simply an image of a group of jubilant mission scientists but a reminder of how few women there were in an organisation whose faces on television and in the news were almost always those of men.

Women in STEM and the legacy of Ada Lovelace

businessreviewcanada.ca - Women in STEM and the legacy of Ada Lovelace STEM – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – has long been a male-dominated sector. Historically, men and women have been steered to focus on different career paths, leaving a gap for female scientists and engineers – which, finally, is set to be increasingly filled.

More and more, programs tailor made for women aiming to enter the industry are being created, and multinational software corporation Autodesk has been vocal about supporting this. This year, on Ada Lovelace Day (which falls on the second Tuesday in October), Autodesk released a dedication to Lovelace which also highlighted the work it is doing to support women in STEM.

Ada Lovelace was an English analyst and metaphysician who is hailed as the founder of scientific computing. She was born in 1815, the product of a brief marriage between Romantic poet Lord Byron and Anna Isabelle Milbanke. Lady Byron raised Lovelace to be tutored in mathematics and science as a stark contrast to the creative leanings of her father (despite him having no influence over Lovelace, as she never knew him). In 1828, at just 13 years old, Lovelace created a design for a flying machine.

What Sets the Smart Heroines of Hidden Figures Apart

theatlantic.com - When it comes to historical movies about brilliant minds, especially in the realms of math or the sciences, audiences can all but expect a tale of ego. Films such as A Beautiful Mind, The Theory of Everything, and The Imitation Game all lean in some way on the idea of the inaccessible genius—a mathematician, computer scientist, and theoretical physicist all somehow removed from the world. Hidden Figures is not that kind of film: It’s a story of brilliance, but not of ego. It’s a story of struggle and willpower, but not of individual glory. Set in 1960s Virginia, the film centers on three pioneering African American women whose calculations for NASA were integral to several historic space missions, including John Glenn’s successful orbit of the Earth. These women—Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan—were superlative mathematicians and engineers despite starting their careers in segregation-era America and facing discrimination at home, at school, and at work. Queen of Katwe Is the Best Kind of Feel-Good Story And yet Hidden Figures pays tribute to its subjects by doing the opposite of what many biopics have done in the past—it looks closely at the remarkable person in the context of a community. Directed by Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent) and based on the nonfiction book of the same title by Margot Lee Shetterly, the film celebrates individual mettle, but also the way its characters consistently try to lift others up. They’re phenomenal at what they do, but they’re also generous with their time, their energy, and their patience in a way that feels humane, not saintly. By refracting the overlooked lives and accomplishments of Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson through this lens, Hidden Figures manages to be more than an inspiring history lesson with wonderful performances. From the start, Hidden Figures makes clear that it is about a trio, not a lone heroine. Katherine (played by a radiant Taraji P. Henson) is the film’s ostensible protagonist and gets the most screen time. But her story is woven tightly with those of Mary (Janelle Monáe) and Dorothy (Octavia Spencer); the former became NASA’s first black female engineer, the latter was a mathematician who became NASA’s first African American manager. (It’s worth noting that, as a dramatization, the film makes tweaks to the timeline, characters, and events of the books.)  

This Turkish materials engineer is changing the way docs operate on breast cancer

geektime.com - Producing unique models for doctors to practice breast surgery, Özge Akbulut pushes the frontiers of material science in a challenge to VR-simulated surgeries I met Özge Akbulut by chance when we were leaving the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport a couple days ahead of the European startup conference Slush. We were part of a group conversation about what we were all doing there. That’s when she asked me a very unusual question.

“Do you want to see a breast?”

Reaching into her luggage, she pulled out one of her synthetic breasts. She and co-founder Barkın Eldem, MD, launched Surgitate, a materials startup that develops synthetic models to train prospective surgeons for breast surgery. In contrast to new virtual reality training tools, they provide a more realistic feeling of incisions, suturing, dissection, and reconstruction. Ultimately, they utilize advances in material science to quite literally reshape the way surgeons prepare for operations by building individualized breast molds for different patients according to specific features.

Between Astronaut Jeanette Epps and Hidden Figures, Black Women in STEM Are in the Spotlight

slate.com - In 2018, astronaut Jeanette Epps will become the first black American astronaut to join the crew of the International Space Station. NASA announced the upcoming months-long mission last week; it will also be Epps’ first trip to space. In a NASA video, Epps said she was inspired to become an aerospace engineer as an elementary schooler by Sally Ride and other early female astronauts, as well as some words of encouragement from her brother. Ladies and gentlemen, female role models in action. Since that fateful early-1980s burst of motivation, Epps worked to build up the kind of unimpeachable résumé it takes to make it to NASA: After getting undergrad and master’s degrees, she earned a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland. She then spent a few years working for Ford and the CIA, and again with a little encouragement (this time from a friend and fellow astronaut), Epps landed in NASA’s astronaut class of 2009, one of just nine picks out of 3,500 applicants. (By the way, God, does astronaut school need to be a Shondaland show ASAP.)