Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The women behind the screens

https://www.sfu.ca/wwest/WWEST_blog/meet-the-women-of-silicon-valley.html


Growing up, I always thought technology was a field for only men to pursue. In middle school and high school, I only learned about scientists like Einstein, Darwin and Newton, which led me to assume that only men worked in technology. It was only until the movie "Hidden Figures" came out this year did I learn that women played a significant, if not larger role in technology than men did. The article I attached talks about the blog that was started by Lea Coligado called the "Women of Silicon Valley." Lea got this idea from the Instagram account "The Humans of New York," which documents pictures of people in New York City with captions about what they are doing or what they would like to say to the world. Lea interviews women that work for start up companies in the San Fransisco Bay Area, or large companies like Google and Facebook. One of her stories features a young woman named Adriana Gascoigne. Adriana has worked for over twenty start-ups and started a non-profit organization called "Girls in Tech." Girls in Tech strives to promote empowerment, engagement, and education for women in the technology industry. Adriana began it in San Fransisco, however Girls in Tech now has chapters in Australia and the Middle East. Girls in Tech have events such as hackathons where they sit in rooms together and try to hack servers and do not have to feel pressured by a male figure to finish their job on time. It gives women time to do the thing they love surrounded by other women. Women of Silicon Valley features many other impressive stories like Adriana's. The article broke the image that I had that only men could succeed in technology and was very empowering.

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