Our May 2009 Meetings were held May 12-14 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
We live in a global community, and IT is a particularly global discipline: what does this mean for women and technology? What might we learn from other countries that we could apply here in the U.S.? How do we prepare women to compete – to study, publish, innovate, and start-up – on a global level?
At these meetings we explored different approaches to technology education and employment, learned about the interaction of culture and gender stereotypes, and discovered how a cross-national perspective can help identify opportunities for intervention and reform within our own institutions. Our May 2009 workshop speakers showed us the bigger picture of issues related to women in computing: how educational structure and cultural beliefs about gender affect women’s representation.
In addition, Google helped us celebrate our 5th birthday!
Our speakers included:
- Jessica Jackley, Cofounder of Kiva
- Claudia Morrell, CEO, Multinational Development of Women in Technology (MDWIT)
- Vivian A. Lagesen, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
- Maria Charles, Department of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara
- Revi Sterling, PhD, Masters Program in Information and Communication Technology for Development, ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado
- Roli Varma, School of Public Administration, University of New Mexico at Albuquerque
- Janice Stockard, Cultural Anthropologist, Teacher, Author, Editor
- Joi Spencer, PhD, School of Leadership and Education Sciences, University of San Diego
- Bernardine Dias, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University; Founder, TechBridgeWorld
- Sophia Huyer, Executive Director, Women and Global Science and Technology (WIGSAT)
