Women in the tech industry truly are beginning to come into their own this year. As an early member of the Florida tech scene, I’ve watched and experienced the ebb and flow of web culture among many unique team environments. In each of these teams, there has always been a one to many ratio when it comes to gender balance. With that there are always great challenges, but that’s a topic for another day.
It’s been exciting to watch the pace grow as more and more women embrace their geek side. What’s even more fantastic is that a shared understanding of the uphill battle we face in taking our place among the ranks of the tech elite is finally coming to light. Only through perseverance and by creating awareness can we begin to defeat our challenges.
I have attended several tech events the last year where I have still found myself to be one of very few women mixing with the Boy’s Club. First there was BarCamp Tampa. I am pretty certain that there were no more than 5 females in attendance, and one was tagging along with her boyfriend for moral support.
Photo by: Rasmussen College
FOWA Miami brought a few more of us out but overall, it was about the same ratio. In a well filled auditorium, I don’t believe there could have been more than 20 of us. This imbalance led to what was an unexpected and very welcome highlight to the event.
Kristina Halvorson of Brain Traffic took the stage and gave a fantastic presentation on web content strategy. She was very much on point and enjoyable to hear speak, but she didn’t leave us with just these insights. As she wrapped up her web copy discussion, she turned her attention to the matter of women in technology, and why at such a conference she was the only female panelist. Good question, and one the conference hosts took to heart. Ryan Carson and Chris Messina joined her in the discussion and urged more women to get involved. They invited everyone to help energize the talent pool with voices from women to watch by Tweeting to their attention via hashtag #FOWASPEAK. I’m always interested in what Carsonified brings to the table and found this to be another message that their head is in the game. My only concern is that this gesture is perhaps limited to speaking engagement resources, so I propose that we all step up and utilize the suggestions to fill the needs of our own projects, collaborations and action items. Just visit this hashtags link to hear the latest buzz and meet more women in the tech savvy set.
The take away here is be bold and drive your path. People are starting to pay attention.
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