Computer science: still a male domain? The industry has plenty of female role models, such as Yahoo! boss Marissa Mayer, but few women seem to be following them.
Wendy M. Grossman also features our panel at HOPE 9.
At last weekend’s HOPE 9 (Hackers on Planet Earth) in New York there
were the usual minimalist queues for the women’s lavatories – and a
panel to discuss how to get more women to participate in the hackspaces.
During the debate, a German woman recounted her experiences visiting
hackspaces wherever she travelled. Sometimes, she said, she could sit
for half an hour and no one would speak to her. The best advice from the
panel organisers, Johannes Grenzfurthner and Sean Bonner was: stop
complaining that there are no women around and just invite all your
friends to participate. This might work for Young Rewired State, too:
allow kids, male and female, to sign up in groups as well as
individually so that shy kids would be sure to turn up on the day. And
probably parents would be reassured if all the sponsoring locations made
sure there were women as well as men acting as leaders.