Do you remember those 4 brave, little, black kindergarten girls who were the first to attend a desegregated school? This is one of those girls, Leona Tate. She went to kindergarten accompanied by US Marshalls. She said the first year and a half wasn’t bad. Her family never let her feel like they were afraid, […]
Meeting someone who made history as part of desegregation Read More »
How many hats do you wear? When I’m in a city and say I’m there for a software conference, I wear my “all technical people” hat. When I’m the only woman in a room of men, I wear my “the entire female gender†hat. When I’m the only American at a long table full of
Let others choose their own hats Read More »
Over the past couple of days I’ve had a number of conversations with women that have left me frustrated. And I realize I’ve heard a lot of stories like this. For the record each of these comments comes from a different woman who works for a different company, none of which I have worked at.
Don’t let them label you a demon kitty Read More »
Child care at conferences is awesome but not for the reason you think it is. We think it helps women who have no other options for kids to attend. Really it helps all parents be closer to their kids, helping people in technology build strong families, relationships and communities. Child care helps attendance for local
Why child care at conferences is great Read More »
Have you ever suffered from impostor syndrome? Most of us can relate to it. And it’s more prone during certain times of your life, like new jobs. Impostor syndrome[1] is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that
7 ways to know if you are suffering from impostor syndrome Read More »
When you hear that a 13 year old, black girl is giving a keynote at OSCON, what do you think? Wow, she must be a child prodigy, what did she do? Who are her parents? She got that keynote because she’s a 13 year old, black, girl. I’ve heard all three options and a few
What labels are applied to you every day? Read More »
There’s a Free and Open Source Software Track at Grace Hopper this year! Submit your proposal now and come join us. Grace Hopper is the largest gathering of women technologists and it’s a super energizing conference. They are expecting 11,000 people this year – which I find kind of scary. But my experience at Grace
Join the Open Source Track at Grace Hopper this year! Read More »
At Philly Emerging Tech some girls from TechGirlz came into meet with me and Molly Holzschlag. I think we were supposed to be role models for them but two minutes into the meeting, I realized the girls were the role models! One of the girls was already writing a game in Python and had already
Who’s helping who? Read More »
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks talking about why we have so few women in open source and web development and how to encourage more women to join. (I even got to spend an awesome afternoon with a bunch of girls. I was supposed to be mentoring them but they
The secret to my success in a field of men? All my friends. My guy friends. Read More »
If you have some time this Saturday, take half an hour or so to help show girls how cool a career in technology can be. Dare 2B Digital is a conference for girls to learn more about careers involving computers. What can you do? As part of the conference, the girls will be making videos.
Help girls discover how cool a career in technology could be! Read More »