“It is not enough to have seven panels on “women’s issues” during Advertising Week and drone on that women control 80% of consumer spending. The challenge is complex — and largely cultural.”—Ana Andjelic via LinkedIn
We are very proud to announce, exclusively for our members, our next event with the inspiring Martha Lane Fox on 12th November from 4-6pm at IDEO London! We are going to discuss the future of tech, capital, democracy – and how we can shape it together.
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Themes for our conversation
Disruption: Martha is currently thinking about the ways the UK can strengthen its tech sector – while also making sure that those leading these efforts come from a variety of backgrounds and aren’t just the usual suspects. How might we disrupt our existing tech scene? What role could government play in this?
Capital: The venture capital scene is still difficult to access and dominated by men. How might we add more diversity to this equation and what role can government play?
Institutions and democracy: Digital expertise is still lacking at the top of corporate and non-corporate structures. How can digital continue to disrupt the UK’s largest and most powerful institutions?
We will be identifying potential approaches for change, so come prepared with your thoughts on how to help bring positive disruption to the aforementioned themes. We’re interested in examples of positive action in the UK and where it can learn from other parts of the world.
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Martha Lane Fox co-founded Europe’s largest travel and leisure website lastminute.com with Brent Hoberman in 1998, they took it public in 2000 and sold it in 2005. From 2010-2013 she was the government’s digital champion and launched the Government Digital Service (GDS) in 2011. Martha was appointed a crossbench peer in the House of Lords in March 2013. She is currently chair of Go On UK, a coalition of public and private sector partners that are helping millions more people and organisations online. In March 2014 she was appointed Chancellor of the Open University. Martha co-founded and chairs LuckyVoice, revolutionising the karaoke industry. She chairs MakieLab and Founders Forum for Good. She is a Non-Executive Director at Marks & Spencer and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. In 2007 Martha founded her own charitable foundation Antigone.org.uk and also serves as a Patron of AbilityNet, Reprieve, Camfed and Just for Kids Law. In 2013 Martha was awarded a CBE.
A huge Thank You to our host, IDEO – an award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow.
If you’re an Ada’s List member, go get your tickets HERE!
Satya Nadella is that rare person who got far in life – indeed to the very top of Microsoft – without apparently ever having to ask for a raise.
Not me.
I’ve asked for raises or other changes to my compensation many times in my past and I’m glad I did.
As an employer, I’ve also been asked…
For decades, the share of women majoring in computer science was rising. Then, in the 1980s, something changed.
Women and girls fighting against sexism, one smart quip at a time.
Not often we have Buzzfeed links here, but this one has earned it 🙂
The ultimate scenario, of course, would be gender parity or, more preferable to me, true gender blindness. Our goal is a world where women leaders come easily to the mind of data scientists of both genders, and I no longer have to wonder whether I have been invited primarily because I am a woman. Obviously, we have a long way to go. But if those of us who have blazed the trail for women in data science continue to recruit and guide new members to our ranks, we can get there.
A story about applying to Y Combinator as a mom
communityred:
Anita Sarkeesian, the feminist and culture critic who created the Tropes vs. Women video series, is the target of more death threats this week, but this time it seems to actually be making it all the way to mainstream media, even getting calls to name it terrorism.
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As we celebrate Ada Lovelace day, award-winning structural engineer Roma Agrawal, 30, explains what it’s really like to be a woman working in STEM
Instead find a new term to describe the people responsible for this trend. Regardless of whether they played football in high school or sat on the chess club might I suggest that term be sexists.
The harassment of prominent video game critics and producers, as well as ordinary citizens, exacts an extremely high toll in exchange for free speech.
Pay raises are in the news – how to ask, when to ask and even whether to ask.
Business secretary Vince Cable and Lord Davies are today naming and shaming the 28 FTSE 250 companies that still have all male boards.
According to Maxine Williams, Facebook’s head of global diversity, if tech companies want to be more diverse, it’s incumbent upon them to expand the size and scope of the applicant pool.
All male panels are from Mars and all female panels are only to discuss uniquely women’s issues. Unfortunately in the 21 Century, the misperception of who exactly is an expert occurs in equal measure with perceptions of what women when assembled together as a group, are capable of discussing.
Why are girls avoiding tech careers? Because we’re wasting time waiting for government to provide a big solution, when what we really need is grassroots action, says Belinda Parmar
Silicon Valley has an asshole problem, and it’s high time we owned up to it.
The first step is, throw out the hoodie-wearing boy-genius and build a new archetype.
Lovely writing from Ann Friedman.
“Congratulations, Betsy,” Mr. Isaacson recalls saying as they stood in the living room. “What did you write it about?”
“Ada Lovelace,” she replied. This was followed by a long, awkward silence. Mr. Isaacson, who was just beginning work on a biography of Steve Jobs, could not recall who Ms. Lovelace was.
“She’s one of the women who has been written out of the history of computing,” his daughter replied. While some in tech know of her, Ms. Lovelace, who lived from 1815 to 1852, is far from a household name.
”—The women tech forgot, by Nick Bilton in the New York Times