Women and Tech

Neat project. I like the focus on the positive. IMO this will be a good resource. I really hope this succeeds and takes off in a big way. I like to encourage the women I know in tech to participate in stuff like this, but many times they don't want to because a lot of times "women in tech" issues focus too much on the negative, or the sexism issue rather than the positive or even just the tech.<p>I don't know <i>anyone</i> in Toronto, but I have several nominations around the US, should your scope expansion work out :)<p>(Completely aside: is there any good advice for men who want to further the role of women in tech -- because balance is always a good idea -- to help and encourage without being overbearing or accidentally patronizing? I worry about furthering the problem accidentally so I very rarely bring up this topic, even though I feel strongly about it).

I'd prefer a slightly different slogan. I like "We're not endorsing the obvious," but I feel like "We're really not complaining" is a bit insulting to those who really are highlighting the problems with sexism in technology fields. That's valuable work too, and I don't think it's a positive step to position yourself as, "We're not complainers, like those other women, gosh, am I right?"<p>I love the idea, and I'll be keeping an eye on the site. I just wish the slogan was more like, "We're not endorsing the obvious. We're celebrating the hidden." Or something like that. You can resolve not to focus on (often well deserved and important) "complaining", and I think that's a valuable focus for someone to take, but please don't cast aspersions by implication on those that do speak up about active issues.

&#62; "Let's make the issue of women in tech a thing of the past"<p>Really? By creating a whole website around it? I think it'd be really good to sum up what issue you consider there to be with women in tech...<p><pre><code> * Are there specific instances of sexism that occur? * Are there "not enough" women in tech? * Is tech uninteresting to most women? </code></pre> You're suggesting there's an "issue" that needs solving, but I can't find any description on the website of what you consider that issue to be.<p>Sharing stories from startup women is great, although I'm not a fan of the reverse sexism.

I love it. I think projects like this can play a strong role in addressing the issue of sexism in technology. I also think that conditions can change radically for the better, once there is a critical mass of projects focused on supporting women in tech, and people who really understand the issue. It doesn't have to be a gradual change over 20 years.<p>The focus of the project sounds quite meaningful, and it is well said in the first couple lines: "We're going to share stories about smart women doing important things." That is perfect; I want to read those stories!<p>The copy gets off track a bit after that, like others here are already saying. "We're simply going to hound some clever women in tech..." does not sound good. Part of the problem is women in tech getting hounded. I know the intention here is good, but there is language that doesn't bring to mind the problems. This project is strong enough that you can just say, "We're going to invite clever women in tech..." People will understand the project, and want to be part of it.<p>Others are talking about the "We're really not complaining" slogan, but I have no idea what "We're not endorsing the obvious" means. What's obvious to me is that telling smart women's stories is a good thing. I'm not sure what you are referring to here.<p>A small design note: the top banner is huge, and takes up a lot of screen real estate, which distracts from your message.<p>Again, I love it. I teach high school math and science, and I can say anecdotally that when I show this kind of project to the young women in my classes, I can see a change in them immediately. Most young women I see in school have no idea that people care to support them specifically. When they learn about projects like this, they become more confident that they could be successful in tech-related fields. Thank you for what you are doing.

It's discouraging when women look up in the tech world and see mostly men. It's discouraging when blacks look up in the entreprenuer world and see mostly whites. It's discouraging when gentiles look up in the entertainment industry and see mostly jews (All Major Hollywood studios founded by jews or men of jewish descent).<p>It's discouraging and painful because everyone wants to know that they can succeed. They want to know that "someone like me can make it in this industry". So it's important for people who are minorities in industries to support each other and encourage themselves.<p>Get mad if you want, my problem with "Women in Tech" is that many times (not all) women don't add to the tech conversation and instead focus on showing themselves as victims. When men speak about tech it's about TECH, when women speak about tech it's about "The Lack of Women in Tech".<p>So a site like this is a step in the right direction.

That's a neat idea. You can post stories, work samples, a podcast, but...<p>If you already know whom you want to interview, the site would benefit from having a story or two already there, on launch.<p>If you're targeting the tech crowd, add an rss feed in addition to the e-mail newsletter.<p>And lose this bar at the top, it's completely unnecessarily wasting vertical space.

Seeing projects like this come to the surface makes me love living in Toronto.

Years ago, I belonged to a gifted homeschoolers list. It turns out a lot of gifted kids who get homeschooled are "problem kids". Very often, they are twice exceptional: both gifted and disabled in some way. It meant that this gifted homeschoolers list was one of the most positive, pro-active environments for getting effective help for a child with a serious disability. Lists aimed at providing support for a particular disability are often fairly negative environments where assumptions about how much you must suffer subtly keep real solutions from being discussed. Folks pursuing real solutions get a lot of flack if they dare speak up and many of them just quietly go away after a while.<p>I don't know what would create the same thing for women in tech, but I think if someone could find that, it would be a more effective and resilient means to get support to women in tech. It would need to be a project which just so happened to attract a high percentage of women without the name or stated goal having anything to do with gender and which also in no way excluded men.

Kudos for doing this! Raising the visibility of role models for women in tech is noble work.<p>I hope you find an easy way to make the site grow past Toronto, perhaps with submitted stories from people in other cities that follow your standard style.<p>Have you thought about sometimes making (edited?) video recordings of the interviews? I can see how this would make many interviewees nervous, but I think it would also increase the effectiveness of the interviews for people who are comfortable with it. It would help make it easier to "put a face" to women in tech.<p>Hm, photos could work pretty well for that, too. Have you thought about getting a good photographer to take photos of the women whose stories are being told, perhaps with photos of them both "at work" and at your interview?

This'll be good for all the event/ conference organisers in Toronto as well. It's always tough getting women to speak at those sorts of things!

I like this. I'm not too sure about the slogan as others have mentioned, but something that focuses on the positive achievements of women in industry to me is far better than focusing on the negative like the terrible link from last week.<p>The only disappointing thing was the link to Toronto, I have two women in the UK that I'd nominate straight from the get go and a possible third (although I'd need to clear it with her first).

Peopleandtech.com? If they are celebrating awesomeness?

"We highlight them not for their gender, but because they are awesome by any kind of measure."<p>Just curious if you really mean gender, or if you actually mean sex.

Where's the RSS feed? I don't know you well enough to give you my email, but I'd put you in my feed reader and enjoy articles as they come out.

Great concept, LOVE the website design and typography.

You missed the crucial step 4 :<p>Get these published in teen girl and cosmo magazines, because the women who read it on the internet are probably already in tech.

I'd love to see this expand outside Toronto. If I can offer any help/contacts in SoCal, feel free to ping me.

So, who is the intended audience?

We are looking for fullstack Rails devs, would love to even out the gender ratio :)

I think "We're really not complaining" is taking it a bit far. Sometimes the best way to handle an issue is to ignore the issue - why can't this site just be about the accomplishments of women in STEM? The allusions are a detractor.