I am delighted that Technophobia is supporting Ada Lovelace Day!
Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.
We are in the final stages of design and build of the new Ada Lovelace Day website that allows supporters to pledge a blog or activity promoting the achievements of women in technology and science who have inspired them and will act as a mashup to follow the event on the day, 24th March 2010!
As a woman who established a digital agency back in 1995, it is very disappointing, 15 years later, to be working in an industry where women are still underrepresented. Whilst women’s use of web and social media is equal to that of our male counterparts we form only 20% of the digital workforce and even less so when it comes to opinion leaders and influencers on and offline media, on blogs, forums and at conferences.
Perhaps it is due to a general female tendency to nurture rather than more aggressive self-promotion or that our relatively new industry is still in some sense subconsciously seen as an extension of engineering that has typically been a male orientated domain? The role of women in senior positions within the workforce can be extended to any sector but I am delighted that Technophobia is able to support Ada Lovelace Day and in doing so address the balance of promoting women in technology.
I would encourage all women working in Technology and our male colleagues (where might your daughters be working in 10 years time?) to get involved, even if in a small way. Ladies, don’t be modest about our achievements, we deserve as much recognition, encouragement and support as our male colleagues and if we want the web and technology to reflect our influence it is up to us to be our own role models and make our voices heard!
