Women and the Future of Tech
By Jennifer Manry, MVP, Enterprise Technology, Capital One
“Engineers solve real problems and make the world a better place.”
Debbie Sterling, Founder and CEO of GoldieBlox, shared that encouragement with nearly 1,500 participants at the WIT Experience this week, an event powered by Capital One in partnership with Virginia Secretary of Technology Karen Jackson. The audience included professional women technologists and allies who joined the event for skill-building sessions, a workshop to learn how to host hackathons in their communities, and the opportunity to network with their peers.
Throughout the day, women in tech learned new skills and explored possibilities for their future in tech. After the success of Kaylyn Gibilterra’s talk about the Go language at the Grace Hopper Celebration, she expanded it to an in-depth tutorial for software engineers new to the language. Capital One’s Tech College taught participants how to build their own Amazon Alexa skill, highlighted the latest in Machine Learning, and showed how DevOps can drive better results.
Also in attendance were more than 100 middle-school girls who participated in day-long coding workshops called the Coders Experience. Winning teams from each site earned the opportunity to attend the WIT Experience to continue their STEM learning. Watching these girls interact with robots, learn how to hack, and see what their futures in tech could look like was inspiring for everyone involved.
One of the student’s mothers shared with us that before the Coders Experience, her daughter thought she was bad at math, and made average grades in her math class. After connecting with other girls who love STEM and learning from our volunteers, she showed renewed interest in math and started making A’s in her class. It not only encouraged the student to pursue math, it also showed her mother the types of tools and activities that could help her daughter excel.
In the same way that one discouraging force can change the trajectory of a person’s life, one positive experience can be the difference between thinking that you’re not good enough and having the confidence to succeed.
At the closing ceremony for the Coders Experience girls, I repeated a call-back exercise that our volunteers used throughout the event. When the volunteers asked these questions, we encouraged the girls to enthusiastically respond, “NONSENSE!” We asked:
Have you been told that computers aren’t for girls? Nonsense!
Do you think girls aren’t good at math? Nonsense!
Have you heard that girls shouldn’t be engineers? Nonsense!
Seeing the love of technology take hold in these girls and watching their confidence soar is my favorite part of Coders and why I’m so passionate about elevating women technologists as role models for young girls. The looks on their faces as they entered a room with more than 1,000 women in tech — very real role models right in front of them — was a proud moment.
The girls saw themselves and their future in tech through the women there at the WIT Experience,
and they didn’t hold back with their questions. “What kind of code do you write?” “Can you tell me more about cyber security?” “How old do I have to be to work in tech?” Their energy was boundless, and they promised to take that curiosity back to their friends and schools to show other girls how much fun you can have in STEM.
Think girls and women aren’t the future of tech?
Nonsense.
These opinions are those of the author. Unless noted otherwise in this post, Capital One is not affiliated with, nor is it endorsed by, any of the companies mentioned. All trademarks and other intellectual property used or displayed are the ownership of their respective owners. This article is © 2017 Capital One.
