At the Anita Borg Institute we are keenly aware that women considering or pursuing careers in science and technology need role models with whom they can identify. That’s why we make celebrating the contributions of technical women a key component of our work. And that’s why we are delighted to participate in Ada Lovelace Day on March 24, 2009, an international day of blogging designed to draw attention to women who excel in technology.
Ada Lovelace Day is the brainchild of Suw Charman-Anderson, a London-based social media consultant and digital rights activist. Recognizing that women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, she issued a challenge:
“I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same.”
— Suw Charman-Anderson
I’ve taken the pledge and so have more than 1,200 others. However, I’ve seen a few comments from those who are seeking ideas for which technical women to blog about. After all, if everyone blogs about Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, Hedy Lamarr or Anita Borg, then we miss a huge opportunity to increase awareness about the many women who are changing the face of technology. So I thought I would share a few places to look for more great technical women to blog about.
For example, here are just a handful of the inspiring women featured as award recipients here on our ABI website:
- Frances Allen, IBM Fellow Emerita, the first woman to win the Turing Award, the highest honor in computing (and a member of ABI’s Board of Trustees)
- Karen Banks, who pioneered the use of ICTs for the empowerment of women around the world, 2004 Anita Borg Social Impact Award
- Helen Greiner, whose iRobot products save lives and clean floors, 2008 Women of Vision Award for Innovation
- Susan Landau, whose work at Sun Microsystems on encryption, surveillance, and digital rights management has influenced both corporate and public policy, 2008 Women of Vision Award for Social Impact
- Duy-Loan T. Le, the first woman and first Asian to be named a Fellow at Texas Instruments, 2007 Women of Vision Award for Leadership, and whose inspiring acceptance speech has had thousands of viewings on YouTube
And that’s just a start! Browse our site and you’ll find many more inspiring technical women, winners of ABI’s Women of Vision, Systers Pass-It-On and other awards, not to mention the wonderful role models who support ABI as members of our Boards of Trustees and Advisors.
Fortunately, ABI is not alone in celebrating the achievements of technical women. Here are a few more places you’ll find blog-worthy technical woman:
- ACM’s Committee on Women in Computing
- National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
- O’Reilly Network Women in Technology Series
- Women in Technology International
So join us, and take the Ada Lovelace Day pledge. And if you’re trying to decide who to blog about, do a little exploring. Seek out new role models and share them with the world on March 24, 2009. Who am I going to blog about? Well, I have lots of ideas!
March 19th, 2009 at 3:29 am
I think Mary Lou Jepsen Founder and chief technology officer of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), could be another good woman to be blogged about.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Wonderful suggestion! Mary Lou Jepsen was a keynote speaker at last year’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (see http://gracehopper.org/2008/conference/keynote-speakers/). She is an inspirational example of a woman making important technical contributions while working to make the world a better place.
As Ada Lovelace Day draws closer I’ve been thinking about more role models who will make great blogging subjects on March 24. There are mentors, teachers, volunteers, and other technical women every day who are doing outstanding work or who are making time to support their sisters. Think about the technical women you admire, then take the pledge at http://www.pledgebank.com/AdaLovelaceDay