do we need more women in tech?

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Problems. Solutions. What’s Next?

Do We Need More Women In Tech?

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WELCOME

LYNNE D JOHNSON

Dir. Digital & Social Brand Strategy & Marketing Waggener Edstrom @lynneluvah

3 DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS?

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DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS?

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THESE TWO WOMEN HAVE BECOME SYNONYMOUS WITH WOMEN IN TECH.

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56% of women in technology companies leave their organizations at the mid-level

BUT THEY ARE NOT THE ENTIRE STORY…

- National Center for Women & Information Technology

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HERE’S MY STORY

Grew up in the Bronx

Played w/short wave radio kits

Majored in math

Took a data processing course

Learned BASIC on C64

Played w/original Macintosh

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AND THEN…

Studied Information Systems

Fortran on punch cards

COBOL IBM XT

Pascal UNIX PC

Worked for US Army Corps

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BUT THEN I QUIT

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WHERE WERE THE MARISSA MAYER’S AND SHERYL SANDBERG’S THEN

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Teen Girls Have Access To Computers Later Than Teen Boys

Age of first computer use: Female: 14.5 Male: 12 Age of first computer possession: Female: 19 Male: 15

- FLOSSPOLS, 2004-2006

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PERCEIVED GENDER BARRIERS ARE STILL HIGH FOR GIRLS.

- Girl Scout Research Institute

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WE NEED TO TELL MORE STORIES.

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2009 THE GAMER: Morgan Romine, Frag Dolls

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2010 THE BRAINIAC: Amber Case, Cyborg Anthropologist

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2011 THE EXECUTIVE: Cher Wang, CEO, HTC

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WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

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WORKPLACE DIVERSITY LEADS TO BETTER PRODUCTS.

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WORKPLACE DIVERSITY LEADS TO HIGHER PROFITS.

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YET, WHILE 60% OF MEN AT STARTUPS BELIEVE DIVERSE TEAMS INNOVATE AND TROUBLESHOOT MORE OFTEN, ONLY 41% SUPPORT HIRING PRACTICES TO INCREASE DIVERSITY.

-  National Center For Women And Informational Technology

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THERE ARE MORE ENGINEERING JOBS, THAN PEOPLE TO FILL THEM.

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WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE

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DR. CYNTHIA BREAZEAL

Cynthia Breazeal is an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she founded and directs the Personal Robots Group at the Media Lab. She is a pioneer of social robotics and Human Robot Interaction. She has authored the book “Designing Sociable Robots”, has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in journals and conferences on the topics of autonomous robotics, artificial intelligence, human robot interaction, and robot learning.

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JANE McGONIGAL

Jane McGonigal, PhD is a world-renowned designer of alternate reality games — or, games that are designed to improve real lives and solve real problems. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change The World (Penguin Press, 2011) — and is the inventor and co-founder of SuperBetter, a game that has helped more than 120,000 players tackle real-life health challenges such as depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury.

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Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller

In 2010, Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller won the AT&T Big Mobile on Campus Challenge for creating a next-generation e-learning mobile application available on the iOS App Store called HBCU Buddy, that educates users about historically black colleges and universities. Today, Keels is an iOS software engineer at Apple and Miller is a computer software professional in Atlanta.

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OPPORTUNITIES