Ada's List: Archive

How one college went from 10% female computer-science majors to 40%qz.com

Yes, we know there aren’€™t enough women in tech. Yes, we know we need to change the ratio. One college has found the answer. With a three-step method, Harvey Mudd College in California quadrupled its female computer science majors. The experiment started in 2006 when Maria Klawe, a computer scientist and mathematician herself, was appointed college president.

Mar 27, 2014

More female directors are advising companies, but few female executives are running themqz.com

The UK report notes a “particularly encouraging” relationship between gender diversity on boards and women in executive roles, but the numbers show that this link isn’t particularly strong. There may be more women than ever in the boardroom, but there remain very few female faces in the executive suite.

Mar 26, 2014

“Regardless, it seems one of the goals for the organization, or at least for newly appointed President Sam Altman, is to promote more female entrepreneurs into the program. According to Altman, the most recent class of Y Combinator participants is 24% female, which is higher than what the tech industry at large can claim.”—Changes are a-coming.

Mar 25, 2014

Play

Mar 24, 2014

To a Future Woman In Tech | @bitchwhocodesfuturewomanintech.com

I hope that being a female developer will cease to be a novelty.

Mar 24, 2014

“

Women in tech often:

– end up representing not just themselves but womanhood in general (the way black people wind up representing all black people, whereas white people can screw up without besmirching their whole race).
– put up with gendered insults and either pretend to not notice, or take no offense (to be one of the “guys”.)
endure sexist jokes and pretend to find them funny, or ignore them.
– enter social spaces that are constructed around interests that were fostered in earlier, mostly-male environments in which business was also done, and from which women aren’t excluded by decree but resisted through cultural norms.

”—Excellent piece on tech’s gender blind spots by Zeynep Tufecki.

Mar 21, 2014

“It is deeply disappointing that you thought it acceptable to print an article drawing attention to the gender and race of scientific experts, suggesting that non-white, non-male scientists are somehow incapable of speaking on the basis of their qualifications and expertise.”—UCL open letter to Paul Dacre, Editor of the Daily Mail

Mar 20, 2014

“Granted, the source is “Priceonomics Data Crawling,” which is a little opaque. Still, if accurate, this data shows that the gender-wage gap penetrates even the most feminine of feminized professions. It’s not just babysitting: One study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, for example, showed that even female administrative assistants, teachers, and nurses—three fields that are dominated by women—still make less than their male colleagues by about 10 percent.”—Even as babysitters, American men make more than women

Mar 18, 2014

“

It’s not clear from the data why women might be more sensitive to grades than men are.

“Maybe women just don’t want to get things wrong,” Goldin hypothesized. “They don’t want to walk around being a B-minus student in something. They want to find something they can be an A student in. They want something where the professor will pat them on the back and say ‘You’re doing so well!’ ”

“Guys,” she added, “don’t seem to give two damns.”

So maybe the better question is: Why aren’t men scared off by rigid grading curves?

Male students could be more overconfident — effectively, college bros shrug off gentleman’s C’s (or, more often today, gentleman’s B’s) as unrepresentative of their true brilliance.

Or maybe men have their “eyes on the prize,” in Goldin’s phrasing.

”—Women should embrace the B’s in college to make more later

Mar 17, 2014

Entrepreneur Academe: A 12-month Mentoring Programme for Female Entrepreneurs

Applications for Entrepreneur Academe are now open, and close on 28th March.

Entrepreneur Academe is a venture of Angel Academe, sponsored by the City of London, and will give 15-20 talented female entrepreneurs access to 12 months of mentoring by a large network of very experienced business people.

There are two things you might like to be involved with: becoming a mentor yourself (please fill in this form here if so) or if you are an entrepreneur or know any female entrepreneurs, applying for the programme yourself (please fill in the form at the bottom of the page here if so). More details for prospective applicants:

Who should apply?

Ambitious, female entrepreneurs from any business sector. Applications will be accepted applications from up to 2 founders (both female) per company.

Applicants should have a commercial product or service, at least at prototype stage or in development, with good proof of concept or traction and excellent market potential. All products and services will be considered, both B2C and B2B.

Selected entrepreneurs are likely to have:

– Small but experienced teams (approx. 2-10 employees) behind them with a strong vision for the future of their business

– An innovative product or service with the potential to address a large global market

– A clean capital structure and the ambition (at some point) to attract external finance, eg government funding or angel investment

– The ability to work with external advisors

Overall, selected entrepreneurs will be those who we believe will gain the most from participation in Entrepreneur Academe.

Mar 16, 2014

“Campus for Mums is a baby-friendly* start-up school aimed at entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. Last year, we helped 35 mums and dads** develop their skills on everything from product and development to branding and pitching investors for funding to helped them make their dreams come true and launch their businesses, and this year we’re back and bigger than ever!”—

Applications open for Campus for Mums in London, with an application deadline of March 21st for this batch.

Read about the success of the programme in Tel Aviv.

Mar 16, 2014

#tech #women #mums #google

Mar 16, 2014

“Although the Graphic Design department at RISD, where this project began, is 71% female, only 6% of the designers students learn about in Graphic Design history are women. This is a severe imbalance in the curriculum, and it’s not the problem of just one institution. Though there were and are many men to impact the history and world of graphic design, there have been great female designers right along side them. In fact, the National Education Association reports that 54% of working designers are women. But why is a whole group being ignored in institutionalized design history?”—Women of Graphic Design

Mar 16, 2014

#graphic design #women

“Investors prefer pitches presented by male entrepreneurs compared with pitches made by female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitch is the same. This effect is moderated by male physical attractiveness: attractive males were particularly persuasive, whereas physical attractiveness did not matter among female entrepreneurs.”—Harvard, Wharton, MIT research on entrepreneurship by Alison Wood Brooks, Laura Huang, Sarah Wood Kearney and Fiona E. Murray

Mar 13, 2014

Ada’s List at SXSWi 2014

A number of Ada’s Listers are going to be at SXSW Interactive 2014 over the next few days. We wanted to highlight a few of the talks and events that our members will be participating in. If you’re going to SXSW, try and go to as many of them as you can! Feel free to share the love on Twitter or any other social network of your choice, hashtags and handles below for convenience:

Andreea Nastase won’t be in Austin but is involved with Here East at Hackney House – March 7 to 10 – 721 Congress Ave, Austin. #MadeHere @hereeast @diemkay

Laura Jordan-Bambach will be a judge & Nadya Powell is part of the organising team at the Hackney House Transatlantic Millennial Mentoring Grand Finale and Awards – Monday March 10 – 4pm-5.30pm – Hackney House, 721 Congress Ave. #millennial #HHA14 @hackneyhouse14 @laurajaybee @nadsbads

Laura Jordan-Bambach will chair Whose Idea Was It Anyway – Saturday March 8 – 2.30-3.30pm – Hackney House, 721 Congress Ave. #HHA14 @dandad @hackneyhouse14 @laurajaybee

Merici Vinton will be a panelist at Getting S#$! Done: Online Organizers Making Change – Tuesday March 11 – 3.30-4.30pm – Austin Convention Center, Room 10AB. #orglessons merici @merici

Nadya Powell is organising the Millennial vs. brand meetup – Monday March 10 – 9.30-10.30am – Hotel Driskill, 604 Brazos St. #millennial @nadsbads

Dr. Sue Black will be part of a women in tech panel organised by Kelly Hoey – Friday March 7 – 2-3.30pm – go.co Austin, corner of Guadalupe & W 3rd Street, next to the W Hotel. @Dr_Black @dotco

Happy SXSW 2014!

Photo Credit: alexdecarvalho via Compfight cc

Mar 5, 2014

“

The “why” in all of this is quite clear and inarguable, but the “how” remains elusive.

This is where Foreign Policy Interrupted comes in.

FPI fills the void from the ground up through a cohesive fellowship program, including media training and meaningful mentoring at partnering media institutions. We’re helping women break both internal and external barriers.

”—Wishing Elmira Bayrasli & Lauren Bohn all the best with Foreign Policy Interrupted. Thanks Ada’s Lister Sara Williams for the heads up!

Mar 5, 2014