24 Mar 2009

I’m (not) everywoman

Author: will | Filed under: Ireland, Irish, creativity, irish blogers, opinion, programmer, programming, social change, software, stereotype, technology

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. Miss Lovelace,was the world’s first computer programmer, and the day is to promote women in technology.

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace.
Image via Wikipedia

Oddly for me, women have had a lot to do with my personal computing history.

I grew up with the low level grown and high pitched squeal of arcade machines. Computer games. So when the chance came to learn how to program a game on the old Commodore 64 I leapt at the chance.

The teacher in the classroom teaching Commodore basic, was a woman (whose name I simply cannot remember. Kineally or Keneally. Back then every teacher was either “Miss” or “Sir”). At this point I’m not going to name names unless she blogs, or at least tweets.

Later on, I watched the “video” games review TV show (or rather several, but all) hosted by Aleks Krotoski who still has a hand in the games world and quite possibly will never leave technology in particular how it impacts on people.

Later on came college (if the class wasn’t an odd number 50% of the class would have been women) and work in general.

Indirectly I worked under Padmasree Warrior, and female programmers were no different to the male programmers in the eyes of the code in Motorola.

Later the world of social media introduced me to Ellybabes, the first person I met at the first Irish Barcamp in Cork. To the coding evangelist (which might actually be part of her job title) that is Martha Rotter. To first Irish podcaster of either sex I met, and business guru Krishna De. To the promotional expert that is Maryrose Lyons. And to the best, and probably most fun, web designer; Sabrina Dent. To women who actually get thing done, like Laura Czajkowski and Alexia Golez.

So why isn’t there equality among the sexes for a job that normally requires communication, concentration and heavy thinking? It could be fictional role models and expectations as Naomi Alderton suggests.

Maybe.

But if you have a daughter, let her know that computers aren’t just for the boys. And if you are involved in technology yourself, take a look at the Geek Girl Dinners.

take care,

Will Knott

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3 Responses to “I’m (not) everywoman”

  1. Maryrose Lyons Says:
    March 24th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    Lovely post. Thanks for the mention! :-)

  2. Krishna De Says:
    March 24th, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    Will – it’s great you joined the Ada Lovelace day series of blog posts taking place all over the world.

    And what an honour to be mentioned amongst the women in technology that you’ve connected with over the years.

  3. will Says:
    March 25th, 2009 at 12:36 am

    Maryrose, you are very welcome. The questions you ask in your post are very important. I’d ask about the low female attendance at the TeenCamp event.

    It may have been because it was the first, and more talented technology minded girls and young women will attend the next one. And should be encouraged to attend.

    Krishna, you make podcasting seem easy. Anyone with that much ease shows either a natural skill or, more likely, a great deal of hard work getting it right.

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