womenintech
Latest
Women in tech: Success still hangs on relationships and privilege
March is Women's History Month and last Friday was International Women's Day. Many organizations, including tech companies, took the opportunity to celebrate the occasion in different ways. Google, for example, partnered with UN Women to share stories of women's rights defenders around the world, Facebook held an event that shone the spotlight on notable women in the community, and Twitter asked prominent users to tell tales of inspirational women in their lives.
Facebook employs five times more women than five years ago
Facebook is slowly but surely diversifying its staff, with more women and people of color filling the ranks, according to the company's annual diversity report. But the company admits it still has work to do in order to increase representation in certain areas.
In astronomy, women of color face the most discrimination
There's tons of evidence that women face a gender bias in the STEM fields. Last May, one report found that Facebook rejects female-authored code more often than code written by men. A female engineer who featured prominently in a recruiting advertisement faced a backlash for her gender alone. Even US governors are taking up the fight to get more girls interested in science and engineering because it's crucial to the field and the national economy. Unfortunately, a study by Girls Who Code found that the gender gap in computing is getting worse. The bad news continues with results from a new study that show women of color working in the astronomical and planetary fields experience "the highest rates of negative workplace experiences, including harassment and assault."
Melinda Gates' initiative is about getting more women into tech
Melinda Gates has been supporting the global fight against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS with her husband since 2000. And she'll continue to do so, but now she's also building her own office and dedicating resources to tackle gender inequality in the tech industry. In an interview with Backchannel, Gates said her new initiative's goal is to get more women working in technology and to get them to stay there. Gates is more than just the Microsoft founder's wife: she worked in Redmond for a decade after getting her undergrad and MBA in computer science from Duke.
Tor confirms sexual harassment claims against former developer
Jacob Appelbaum isn't going to get any sympathy from the Tor Project over allegations of sexual harassment. An internal investigation at Tor has determined that the claims against Appelbaum, who's accused of humiliating and intimidating women, are accurate. This doesn't mean that charges are forthcoming, but it makes Appelbaum's own denials (he portrays this as a conspiracy to slander his name) less plausible. Appelbaum quit Tor in May, right as the harassment accusations were coming to light.
More women accuse former Tor developer of sexual misconduct
Two more women have stepped forward to accuse former Tor project developer Jacob Appelbaum of sexual harassment. That brings the total accusations against Appelbaum to at least eight, as recorded on JacobAppelbaum.net, a website created to raise awareness of his behavior.
Apple and Facebook will cover the cost of freezing employees' eggs
Apparently, Facebook has been offering to cover the costs of egg freezing for female employees since January 1st this year, and you know who's following in its footsteps? Apple. The iPhone-maker plans to offer the same service to its employees starting in January 2015. According to NBCNews, these two might just be the first employers willing to pay for the entire cost of egg freezing for non-medical reasons, which means everyone qualifies for the benefit, not just cancer patients for whom the procedure was originally intended. Most likely, employers hope to encourage female staff members to stay with them even during the last few years most women can conceive (late 30's to early 40's), as those are also the years one typically takes on senior positions. They're probably also betting on the move to save them recruiting and hiring costs in the long run, while keeping top talent around and promoting gender diversity at the same time.
Facebook, Box and Pinterest want to mentor young women in tech
You won't see as many women as there are men when you walk down the halls of tech company HQs -- not even eBay's, which has one of the most diverse workplaces in the industry. In an effort to change that and promote gender diversity, Facebook, Box and Pinterest have launched a mentorship program called Women Entering and Staying in Tech or WEST, for short. It puts interns and up-and-coming professionals in several one-on-one and group meetings with women holding technical roles in the three companies over the course of a year. These meet-ups will happen both in person and online, but for now, the program will focus on engineering, operations, product, design and web development roles, in particular.
Who should I follow on Twitter? Women in tech
We're back with our second "Who should I follow?" post and this time we're listing our favorite tech women on Twitter, starting with Engadget's own female contingent. There's plenty of writers, scientists, presenters and entrepreneurs worth following, so remember skip after the break for the full list. Have we missed someone that our readers should be listening to? If so, we'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.
