Tech Ladies respond to election results with plans of action, support
Tech Ladies is a group of professional women who work in tech, we’re not a partisan group or even particularly political. Yet in the days since the election, our online community of thousands of women in tech has responded to the election results with plans of action and support.
Here’s a roundup of what members of Tech Ladies are working on and how you can get involved.
Product Releases and Launches
Maria Yuan is launched her new site, IssueVoter.org “The time between elections is when the work that impacts our lives gets done — and you can have a say year-round,” Yuan wrote in our online community, “Sign up to make your voice heard in Washington with just one click, and track how often your elected officials vote your way. Let’s get out there and make sure our reps are working for us. After all — we’re paying their salaries with our tax dollars.”
Sasha Perigo launched a Twitter feed called Tech Jobs for Good that collects tech jobs for good, focusing on nonprofits and civic tech.
Cat Perez launched Project Forward with her wife Aja Blue which will be a portrait project that brings visibility to those impacted by the outcome of the 2016 election. “Ultimately, the project focuses on how we can move forward, support one another, and highlight diversity and difference in our America,” wrote Perez in the group.
Maya Prohovnik is working on a project to help more people get involved in local government. “If you have experience in local politics, civil rights, the US political system, or even volunteering in general, I’d love to talk to you about it and get your advice on the best way we can help each other move forward and do something productive,” wrote Prohovnik in the group. She also wrote this Medium post about her new daily newsletter of action.
Ana Rocha published a side project to help girls stop wrong generalizations about women that are mentioned as facts in everyday conversation such as “women are bad at math”, “women can’t lead”, and more. “It’s a search filled with facts, studies and scientific articles that prove those myths wrong,” wrote Rocha,“The idea is to pull this amidst conversation and not let people get away with that sort of speech. It’s in Portuguese because I live in São Paulo, Brazil but I had the idea because the way Trump talks about women makes me terrified.”
Katie Wilson is expanding the offerings of Prosperity Co + Lab to include training for women to run the operational side of local election campaigns, which include startup skills like product management (citizen listening), data science (analysis), and communication strategy. “I live in rural Oregon (hello, from the other side), wrote Wilson, “There is a shortage of women with startup skills, especially in rural areas (only 18% of rural America has college degrees). We’ve been trying to address this by bringing skills based training, but it’s been an uphill battle to secure funding. We are now creating a platform for local candidates across the US to create “campaign in a box” (think what canva did for design) to make it easier for rural areas to run effective campaigns.” she wrote.
Meetups + Activism
Jess Lee hosted an impromptu meetup in NYC to brainstorm plans of action and used the group to recruit attendees. They hosted 80+ technologists to discuss how to leverage tech for change. Here’s the roundup from their meeting.
Michelle Matthews started a Facebook group called Disrupt Trump to galvanize folks in the tech community who want to use tech for civic change.
Several Tech Ladies have mentioned joining the She Should Run incubator, which helps support women who are considering a future run for office.
Writing
Nicole A. Meyerson wrote: 11 Ways to Spread Equality and Respect in Your Workplace.
Dani Beecham wrote: Let’s Get To Work: 5 Ways to Form Resistance.
Meg Bartelt wrote: How can Women in Tech Help.
Relocation Resources
Margarethe Steffens and Christina Gudat from University of Bayreuth, Germany, have offered free informational webinars and a 30-min free personal consultation over Skype for those considering a move abroad. “Germany is a great alternative to Canada,” wrote Steffens, “Like a ‘German bestie on the ground’, we advise students, professionals and families alike to find the best personalized solution for health care, housing, city and connect to an expat network.” Interested parties can get in touch by emailing them here.
Action from Tech Ladies
For the next month we’re offering free job postings to nonprofits who do work for women, LGBTQ, and people of color and are looking to hire women in tech.
Tech Ladies connects women with the best jobs + opportunities in tech. We connect companies with the best women techmakers. Learn more: www.hiretechladies.com
