Women Women Blah Blah Blah

[eleddy]

Just a little note of encouragement...

http://www.horsepigcow.com/2009/12/women-women-blah-blah-blah

This article reminded me that its SUPER important to get your face out
there ladies. Its important for your career as well as the careers of
young women who don't even know about the tech world yet. The best
thing of being present (and better yet speaking) at conferences is
that its completely selfish and inspirational to others at the same
time. Just being there makes a difference.

The other best thing about conferences is that lately, women in tech
is a sensitive topic. There are many [mostly male] champions in all
these conferences who are purposely creating speaker spots and grants
specifically for women at conferences. You may call it pity, but I
call it freaking awesome. Nervous about speaking? You would be
surprised how easy it is and people will run to your talk, if only to
check out who this "chick" is. Don't think you can afford that
conference? Poo! There are grants all over these days - apply and see
what happens. I think you will be surprised :)

So, take this moment and think about where you would like to go in
2010 and how to get there (cough... pycon... cough..).

Liz

[Trish Ang]

I totally agree. I've only been to a handful of tech conferences, but the presence of women there always makes a difference. At one Plone symposium, it was less than 20% women, and as nice as some of the guys are it wasn't the most welcoming thing to see. 

Most recently, at An Event Apart this week, I was really excited and surprised to find that the crowd was way more diverse - across sex, gender, age group, etc. Plus, three of the speakers were women. It made such a huge difference towards the feel of the conference: personally I felt way more comfortable networking, asking questions of the speakers, meeting people, etc. =)