“Although I was aware of many issues, the Athena Swan process has also been a bit of an eye opener, and made us all think. Does this meeting really need to be after work? Are we actively pushing our women forwards for senior roles? Do we ensure a good mix of invited key-note speakers to the Institute? We are addressing these areas. And importantly, with the help of our new maternity mentors, we are learning how to deal with the “bump that dare not speak its name”; this is the awkward situation whereby no one knows quite what to say about a pregnancy, for fear of doing the wrong thing. This week we appointed our first part-time academic (many women go from full time to part time, but to actually appoint someone part time is quite rare); and the fact that she has barely returned from maternity leave makes it feel even more special.”—How to create a better future for women in science in The Guardian
“Without some boundaries for claiming the word feminist, it becomes meaningless. So once and for all: Can you be an anti-choice feminist? No. A Republican feminist? Unlikely. A feminist who thinks that the issues of importance to women of color or gay women or trans women or disabled women aren’t “feminist issues”? To quote Flavia Dzodan, “My feminism will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit” – and I’m not interested in bullshit.”—Ada’s List is an action-oriented group, so we agree with this – from the Guardian.
“There are shit loads of female DJs. Open your eyes. And your ears. They are coming through like wildfire. When you meet them, please for the love of God don’t ask them about being female.”—Annie Mac: Stop asking me questions about being a woman via Ada’s Lister Leila Johnston
“It’s also a Big Data-driven specialty that’s almost half (48%) female, a sharp contrast from other tech fields, where women are still a beleaguered minority. And that’s not all. Many female privacy mavens are senior managers who out-earn their male peers.”—Data Privacy: A fast-growing tech field that welcomes women, in Fortune
“…WAM! will escalate validated reports to Twitter and track Twitter’s responses to different kinds of gendered harassment. At the end of the pilot test period, WAM! will analyze the data collected and use it to work with Twitter to better understand how gendered harassment intersects with other types of harassment, how those attacks function on their platform, and to improve Twitter’s responses to it.”—Harassment of women on Twitter? We’re on it!
“I know this: I am not my job. I am not my industry or its stereotypes. I am a black woman who happens to work in the tech industry. I don’t need to change to fit within my industry. My industry needs to change to make everyone feel included and accepted.”—Erica Joy on Medium: The Other Side of Diversity
“..I wasn’t offered any opportunities to code earlier than high school, or outside of high school. My parents didn’t ask if I wanted to learn to code over a summer or after school. However, I’ve never been a “STEM student,” so I understand why they might not have thought about it.”—Fascinating interview between Professor Jay Rosen from NYU and his teenage daughter who is currently taking lessons in coding.
