Tag: Girl Geeks

Interviewed for a BBC Podcast about being in Technology

On Sunday I attended the first Geek Girl Meetup in London. see here

It was a great event, lovely to see such a vibrant and varied tech scene in London. There was a total cross section of people there too, from startup entrepreneurs to low latency Java devs to web developers.

I did a short version of my Altering the perception of the Software Developer talk and was also on a panel discussing whether or not, but having female only technical events are we creating a “girl ghetto”.

After the panel I was asked to be interviewed for a BBC 5 live podcast where I talked about why I became a software developer and about being a female in the tech industry.

This is the link to the article BBC 5 Live Outriders

And this to the Podcast

The Geek Girl Meetup section starts around minute 10 and I’m on at about 14.20. But listen to the whole thing!

Programming is for girls?

Over the last year, while researching and preparing for my talk on “What if we could alter the perception of the Software Developer?”, I came across, and people sent me, dozens of links to great articles. I’ve tried to categorize them into a few posts (more to come soon) so that it’s easier to find stuff. The ones below are mostly about the stereotypical developer, how it may not always be true, and also how once upon a time (in the 60s), females where the stereotypical developers.

Enjoy!

This is what a computer scientist looks like – A look at the industry

What A Computer Scientist Looks Like – Flickr group – What computer scientist women really look like!

Google Exec Marissa Mayer Explains Why There Aren’t More Girl Geeks  – Great article from a Google exec, on how she choose her employer and what she thinks is putting people off going into technology. (Very similar to my content)

Researcher reveals how “Computer Geeks” replace “Computer Girls” – Article from Standford.edu summarizing the work of Nathan Ensmenger and how the earliest computer programmers were women and that the programming field was once stereotyped as female.

The IBM Story and The Computer Girls? – From Nathan Ensmenger’s blog around his book The Computer Boys.

I’m A Barbie Girl in a CS World – Nice slide show (bear with the pink..) on one woman’s foray into the developer world, also featuring Computer Engineer Barbie.