{"id":11415,"date":"2024-09-16T02:48:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T02:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/women-in-tech-groups-cant-run-on-inspiration-alone\/"},"modified":"2024-09-16T02:48:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T02:48:12","slug":"women-in-tech-groups-cant-run-on-inspiration-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/women-in-tech-groups-cant-run-on-inspiration-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in tech groups ‘can\u2019t run on inspiration alone’"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"SuwSuw Charman-Anderson<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Suw Charman-Anderson warns that the annual event she organises may have to end<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Groups supporting women in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) fields are struggling to survive as corporations\u2019 shrinking budgets, and cultural changes, see diversity strategies take a back seat.<\/p>\n

Ada Lovelace Day \u2013 a global annual celebration of women working in Stem \u2013 is on borrowed time.<\/p>\n

Named after a 19th century female mathematician, the day came into being in 2009 when it was created by Suw Charman-Anderson.<\/p>\n

She had graduated with a science degree, but felt \u201cfundamentally unwelcome\u201d as one of just three women in her class. And she later grew tired of going to tech conferences and not seeing any women on stage.<\/p>\n

Ms Charman-Anderson says that the initiative is now running out of funds again, as almost happened two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve basically limped on since then,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I can\u2019t keep making the financial sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a high-budget operation. At its peak, Ms Charman-Anderson secured \u00a355,000 in sponsorship for 12 months. She says that in other years it has been less than half of that despite high attendance figures at events.<\/p>\n

Ms Charman-Anderson adds that she is often told by the tech community that Ada Lovelace Day is inspirational, but it rarely translates into a much-needed injection of cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrganisations can\u2019t run on inspiration alone,\u201d she says. \u201cEveryone in the Women in Stem sector is struggling for money. That\u2019s always been the case, but it seems to have got a lot worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A quick search online reveals a number of women in stem social media accounts that have not posted any content in several months.<\/p>\n

And this year saw the sudden closure of the charity Women Who Code, a US-based group with 145,000 members. In June it announced<\/a> that it was shutting down \u201cdue to factors that have materially impacted our funding sources”. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the US non-profit community Girls in Tech closed in July<\/a> after 17 years. Founder Adriana Gascoigne told the news site Venturebeat that lack of funding was \u201cthe main reason\u201d behind the decision.<\/p>\n

In addition, the UK initiative Tech Talent Charter, designed to encourage more diversity generally in the sector, shut in June, blaming tech companies for \u201cquietly quitting\u201d equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) commitments.<\/p>\n

This is something that\u2019s currently generating a lot of debate. There are many examples of reductions in EDI teams and budgets inside corporations great and small, and just as many unofficial anecdotes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"WomenWomen Who Code<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A number of support groups for women in the Stem sector have shut down this year<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

For some it\u2019s a result of belt-tightening, as even the biggest firms have been laying off thousands of workers, but for others it also signals a broader cultural shift away from prioritising diversity.<\/p>\n

High profile critics of EDI include Elon Musk, who bluntly posted in January that it was \u201cjust another word for racism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Apple chief executive Tim Cook completely disagrees. “Technology’s a great thing that will accomplish many things, but unless you have diverse views at the table that are working on it, you don’t wind up with great solutions,\u201d he told me<\/a> when I met him in 2022.<\/p>\n

He said there were \u201cno good excuses\u201d for the lack of women in tech.<\/p>\n

When you look at the data, the tech giants still skew predominantly male. Apple\u2019s most recent published diversity data<\/a> is from 2022, and lists 35% of its global workforce as being women, and 32% of its leadership teams.<\/p>\n

In 2023, 34% of Google\u2019s global workforce were women, and 32% of its leadership teams. At Microsoft, 29% of executive roles were occupied by women.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In the UK, while more young women than previously are opting to study computing science at university, four out of five applicants for entry this year were still male, according to the UK university admissions service UCAS, with just under 3,000 women and just over 12,000 men.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most poignant example I have heard lately about why the numbers game is still important came from MC Spano, a US tech firm boss who now mentors other women in the sector. She told me her own daughter requested to move down from her top set maths class at school because she was the only girl in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving camaraderie in Stem classes is as important as having the academic achievement,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"MCMC Spano<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

MC Spano says that female Stem students need other women for “camaraderie”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Caitlin Gould runs TecWomenCIC, based in Cornwall. The team recently ran a coding club project for 60 school girls. At the end of it 95% of them said they had enjoyed learning about tech and engineering, and 91% said they understood why the subjects were important to their everyday lives.<\/p>\n

However, only the pilot was funded.<\/p>\n

Ms Gould says she spends up to 60% of her time trying to figure out where to get funding from, describing the organisation\u2019s financing as \u201ca patchwork quilt\u201d. She told me that often funding comes in the form of a one-off payment, or is offered for a new idea, which makes it difficult to repeat successful campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really challenging because there\u2019s so much goodwill,\u201d she says. \u201cI get politicians and people in tech saying, \u2018what you\u2019re doing is amazing, how can we help?\u2019, but when I say, \u2018well, you can give me some money’ they ask if they can volunteer instead.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"CaitlinCaitlin Gould<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Caitlin Gould says she has to spend a majority of her time trying to secure funding<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

For the last 15 years, Maggie Philbin, former presenter of the BBC\u2019s science and tech show Tomorrow\u2019s World, has been involved in a scheme called TeenTech, which runs Stem activities in schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding is always an issue,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have some very loyal funders, but it can be very frustrating when you are working on a hand-to-mouth basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome funders will fund something over a 12-month period. If you\u2019re really, really lucky, three years, but it\u2019s very tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

TeenTech is aimed at children aged between eight and 19 and does not have a particular focus on girls – but sometimes their talents in this area still come as a surprise to their classmates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned so much about how to work well in a team,\u201d wrote one teenage boy on a feedback form. \u201cAnd also that girls are actually very good at tech.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suw Charman-Anderson Suw Charman-Anderson warns that the annual event she organises may have to end Groups supporting women in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) fields are struggling to survive as corporations\u2019 shrinking budgets, and cultural changes, see diversity strategies take a back seat. Ada Lovelace Day \u2013 a global annual celebration of women working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[1336,5389,114,459,838],"class_list":["post-11415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-groups","tag-inspiration","tag-run","tag-tech","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11417,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415\/revisions\/11417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}