Friday, January 24, 2014

Why aren't there many men in tech? Why do women dominate in high-tech fields?

I had something all writerly scheduled to go live today, but then yesterday I came across YouTube videos promoting Gangly Sister, an animated TV series to encourage girls to love technology.

So of course I had to share. I can't help but cackle every time I watch this particular video.




One of the reasons it resonates with me so much is because I'm a former business IT journalist ( and science major at varsity level), and while I never experienced this kind of prejudice as a journalist, I could see it happenening in the companies I wrote about.


Anyhoo, I love what Gangly Sister is doing so much that I sent them an email to gush about it say so, and Rebecca Rachmany, Gangly Sister's CEO, emailed back and well, I'm going to interview her for this blog. The first post will go live on the 17th February (G is for Gangly Sister:-).

 I also hope to post some inspirational interviews that Gangly Sister did with executives of other women-led tech companies, because they are spreading a message that Baby and other children NEED to hear - that they can choose any career that they want to do and they can suceed doing it. (You know for me, it's all about Baby, right?)

So. Enjoy your weekend, and if you don't have a lot of reading to do, check out my essay
The First Time I Experienced Sexual Harassment, which is part of My First Time anthology published by Worldreader.org (ebook, December 2013) and Modjadji Books (print, September 2012).

3 comments:

Shawn said...

You put a smile on my face. That was a fun blog to watch. There was so much truth in it that I wonder why it hasn't been talked about before. I know my company has only women. My sister & I. :)

Rebecca Rachmany said...

Hey Shawn, we are out to get more women involved in tech... head on over to GanglySister.com for more.

Damaria Senne said...

@Shawn - In South Africa, we talk quite a lot about women going into IT and other "hard to get into" careers in August, which we designated as Women's Month. Still, it's not enough. We need to looking at the reasons why girls end up being reluctant to enter tech, address them at a very early stage, so they grow into confident young women who live in an environment that enables them to be whatever they want.
@Rebecca Rachmany - You guys are doing brilliant work, and I hope that some of my readers do head out to your site to check out what you do.

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