Rising Women in Tech: Developing Countries

“Today, most young women are exposed to technology at a very young age, with mobile phones, tablets, the Web or social media. They are much more proficient with technology than prior generations since they use it for all their school work, communication and entertainment.” — Susan Wojcicki

Pakistan, a developing country is no different. While technology did take its sweet time getting here, it is here to stay, and has made a mark on every woman’s life — driving many women into being a part of the tech revolution taking place.

This article explores the small changes that people who have direct contact with women in tech at universities can make to help foster the rising women in tech community. For context, In my class of around 60 Computer Science students, 17 were women. The numbers at my university — a private one — were better than the numbers at other public or private universities in the country. Women in conservative developing countries shy away from careers that depart from the feminine convention. We are repeatedly told to behave in a ladylike manner and to not question the norms and conventions. I do not deny that this is a common occurrence in the developed world as well, just that the pressure to give in to social norms is felt more strongly in developing countries. This makes being a women in tech difficult.

The tech world is based on the idea of disrupting the norm to succeed. Companies like Uber, Instacart, OpenTable, Birchbox, etc are disrupting industries that have been set in their ways for decades before the tech industry. Given this phenomenon how can those who surround the rising women in tech in academia help them succeed? How can professors, colleagues and mentors help women leverage their passion to disrupt industries?

Professors

Professors are in the ultimate position of influence since they can shape how their students treat rising women in tech. Women look up to professors as role models and mediators in situations that they find difficult to handle. As such when lecturing, professors should encourage the women in the class to speak up and think out loud. They should also reach out to the more shy students outside of class through email or invite them to office hours to discuss difficulties they may have with course materials or just to chat about interesting ideas and perspectives they may have. Some instructors tend to not have formal office hours and instead ask that students catch them when they are around campus to ask questions. While male students are more comfortable with walking up to instructors outside of classes this tends to not be the case with female students. So consider setting aside formal office hours at convenient times during the day. This allows women to have a formal avenue through which to converse with you and to help them overcome any hesitance they may have in approaching professors.

When forming project or research groups professors should encourage groups to take on women members who are talented and furthermore, ensure that these women are getting assigned technical tasks in the team as well. This is especially necessary when selecting groups that will represent universities in inter-university competitions or other such events. In fact, in the case of hackathons, encourage women to form and lead groups that address problems that women tend to suffer from. There is a reason why successful apps for women such as Clue, Birchbox and others were founded and led by women — because they were empowered to use Computer Science as a tool to solve problems around them. (Fun fact: Women led companies perform three times better than the collective pool of S&P 500.)

Male colleagues

Conservative countries tend to maintain a segregation between men and women. Since a majority of the students in Computer Science (irrespective of developing or developed countries) is male, that cuts women off from a majority of technical discourse, as women in developing countries feel awkward approaching the other gender while they are in the middle of a discussion. There have been countless occasions where I myself would not participate in a discussion if the people around the table were mainly males, even if I was well versed in the topic at hand. Male peers need to play an active role in disbarring the stereotype that women aren’t strong coders or cannot come up with technically sound designs to solve a problem. This can only be achieved by reaching out to women and inviting them to the discussion table to share their insights, especially if you know a woman to be more knowledgeable than you in the topic at hand.

Another frequent occurrence in mixed gender groups is that women get enlisted to do the documentation or to create ‘pretty slides.’ When in a project with women ensure that both the technical and non-technical tasks are equally split between genders. Furthermore, make your project collaboration hours accessible (not too late in the night or early in the morning) as many women from conservative countries must abide to certain social norms as well, especially if they commute to get to and from group meetings.

Other Women

The greatest resource that rising women in tech have is each other, so don’t alienate yourself from your female peers and mentors. If you are facing a problem, reach out to others since you are usually not alone in the suffering. If you spot another woman in tech who may be having a rough time offer your help whether it be through actions or moral support. Some of the best resources that a female Computer Science student have in this regard are women in senior positions (alumnae, professors, Teaching Assistants, tutors, etc) as as they would have probably faced the challenges their younger mentees are going through or know someone who has. In fact, one of the most pivotal moments for me was at the Grace Hopper Celebration — where I for the first time realized that while my experiences were unique to me, they were simultaneously part of a much larger pattern. It was also the first time I saw women unencumbered by social norms and pressures and free to express their passion for topics ranging from education to cryptography.

But most importantly, regardless of the position, the best thing one can do for a rising women in tech is be an ally, through one’s words and actions. This can range from sponsoring high performing women to encouraging shy ones. No action will go unnoticed and rest assured the woman in question will always appreciate the support.

P.S. I will be at the Grace Hopper Celebration this year — reach out if you want to say Hi! :)