Developer Champion
So, FOSDEM.
I've heard great things about this conference, so I was pretty exited to go
Now I know people talk about impostor syndrome whenever they mention the woeful lack of diversity at tech conferences. Interestingly, I felt like an impostor at FOSDEM - not because I'm a woman (there were quite a few techy women around at FOSDEM, more than I expected) but because I'm not an open source person.
I'm pleased to see that GM has hired the "best person for the job" as their new CEO - that does seem like a good idea. I'm happy her gender did not get in the way. What makes me uncomfortable is the international news coverage of the decision of this large manufacturer to hire a woman as their CEO - if she were a man (and/or black/gay/disabled) would the headline read "The camera loves her. So do employees."?
But at the root of that is probably the thing I'm most unhappy about. What I'm not happy about is that it is 2014, halfway through the second decade of the 21st century, and she's the first woman CEO of a car manufacturer.
I worked at Ford Motor Company as an undergraduate and, later, a graduate. I basically did my apprenticeship there. I know that over fifteen years ago they were hiring graduates from different disciplines (men and women), they had a women-in-leadership programme (or probably several, as I was only involved in the one for the IT organisation), they had a great maternity package (a great package for adoption too, but only the standard paternity package, ho-hum), on-site creches at the bigger locations, and were actively looking for ways to improve their diversity across the board. They had issues on the plant floor which they were actively working to address, but management did not have a culture of discrimination, to my knowledge. I remember the number of "real" techies in my IT graduate intake year, not the number of women, probably because the women were better represented than the coders.
So why has it taken so long for these old, old companies (Ford turned 100 while I was there) to put a woman into a position of leadership? Maybe all these actions are what has, finally, lead to this mold-breaking appointment. Or maybe decades of doing what is supposed to be the right thing is not having any impact at all - Mary Barra's father worked at GM for 39 years, she herself started there as an intern and engineer, and has worked in different areas of the company as she's risen through the ranks. In this day and age, it's probably more unusual to appoint a CEO who worked their way up to that position in that company than it is to appoint a woman - I'm not sure how many more there are out there when often it seems the best way to get a promotion now is to switch company.
I don't know why it took GM so long to appoint a female CEO, I don't know how they managed to be the first of the big automotives. And although I really hate all this "Oh wow, a woman CEO" news coverage (and I dare not read the comments because I know I'll get angry), I don't know if it's something we need to do, to hold up these positive female role models, or something we should stop doing because all it does is point out how unusual women in leadership are - how news-worthy it is that a big, old organisation has finally joined the 21st century. But the fact that I felt the need to blog about it I think means we still have a lot of work to do in this area.
As well as talking about, you know, actual work-type-stuff, I was encouraged to give my "Technical Approach to Women" presentation at Devoxx. This went so well at JavaOne that I thought it would be difficult to top. Also, I wasn't convinced it would work at Devoxx, because the theatres are not well suited to audience participation - the seats are warm and comfy, the room is dark, the speaker is on stage in front of a massive screen....
Continue reading "Devoxx: The Problem with Women – A Technical Approach"
Yesterday dawned, with a sense of foreboding (actually it dawned with me coughing my lungs out, but we've heard enough about the sub-optimal state of my respiratory system this week). On this day, I was giving the talk I was dreading when I got asked to do it. It's the talk I actually put more work into than any of the other sessions I was presenting at this JavaOne. It was the Women In IT talk.
Continue reading "JavaOne: The Problem With Women – A Technical Approach"
I attended (one way or another) two events last week that got me thinking
The first was Girl Developers will Save the World - a session that had me a little confused as to whether that referred to me, or actual girls, i.e. those that are not yet legally classed as adults. The second was the Remarkable Women Twitter party the following day.
I've been challenged to do a session at a very large conference around women in programming. Which leads to two reactions from me 1) wow, what an honour! and 2) sigh.
Continue reading "The subject of women programmers is boring"
I was flattered to be interviewed for InfoQ at QCon London. It was a fun interview actually, and didn't feel anything like the half an hour it actually took. In it, I get to talk about Agile at LMAX, the Disruptor (of course) and diversity in IT (again).
Just a quick note to say I was interviewed for another podcast (Update 2020: apparently no longer available), again to talk about all-female events. It's only a short one and there's probably not much in there that I haven't said before, either on here or in person.
From the 21st May, I'm at GOTO, both Copenhagen and Amsterdam. I'll be talking about code & the Disruptor, thank goodness, and will be trying not to rant about the subject of women in technology. If you see me there, come and say hello!
On Friday 25th May, after all the GOTO craziness, I'm going to repeat the Disruptor presentation in Rotterdam at 010DEV, an event rather fantastically called "The Disruptor and the Perfect Programmer", which someone on Twitter correct noted sounds like a fairy tale.
After all that, I'm hopefully going to take June off to play Diablo 3 and Prototype 2, and read the next Game of Thrones book. All these joys I have been denying myself to make sure I get everything sorted in time for next week.
This week's BBC Outriders podcast features yours truly venting about The Subject That Won't Go Away, Women in Technology. I was interviewed at Sunday's Girl Geek conference, and got a chance to voice my opinions once again. For those who can't be bothered to listen, they can probably be summarised as:
Today I was at the Girl Geek Meetup conference. I didn't advertise it much because I've said in the past I don't really agree with women-only events, and actually I felt quite uncomfortable telling you guys I was going to be there, knowing the majority of my readers weren't allowed to attend.
It's probably worth explaining why I went, so a) I can give you guys and excuse but b) conference organisers can see what people like me are looking for in a conference.
Continue reading "In which I defend the Male species at an all Female event"