7. Celebrating Women in Computing
In 2002, I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Vancouver, BC. In those days it was still a pretty small event, with a few hundred attendees. Actually it was just a little bigger than OCWiC is now.?
It was there, in Vancouver, that I saw the answer to the question (the virus) that had been waiting in my brain for 25 years.? What would it look like, a world without men?
Here’s a thing I wrote about it, afterwards:?
[It felt] so liberating to get swept along by a group of women like that. I suppose for many of us who are in computing, most of our lives are spent in the company of men. I like men, and I’m comfortable working with men, but I think that there’s always an undercurrent of physical anxiety that comes with being smaller and weaker. (I’m pretty small so I feel this way a lot.) Being with a mob of women didn’t create the same sensation. Wow. [Geek Girl Invasion]
No physical anxiety. That’s what a world without men is like.?
Why do so many common rules of success talk about fighting your way to the top? What happens to the broken people -- your erstwhile colleagues -- that you leave behind you after you win those battles?
What if we had a system that wasn't modeled on physical fear and aggression?
Yes I know. "Competition is important to incentivise people to work, and leads to innovation." This is what I was taught in economics anyway.
But what if everyone could innovate? What if we didn't have corporate ladders and hierarchies? What if we had mosaics and quilts and tapestries?? What if your professional development and networking retreat looked like this:
An idea is a virus.
I wanted to re-experience the feeling of community from the Grace Hopper Celebration. So, for the next GHC, I volunteered to co-chair the poster session. That’s where I met Ellen Walker. And I learned about ACM-W. And I started to think about maybe growing a smaller GHC in Ohio.?
Then in 2004, I got a phone call from Gloria Townsend. She was on the ACM-W executive committee.? She asked me if I wanted to join the ACMW committee (yes), and if so, would I be willing to create a local GHC-type event in Ohio? (YES. Absolutely.)
And for real, it’s kind of magical when this serendipity happens. When a seed falls in exactly the right garden at exactly the right time. Because I was absolutely ready to create a community of women in computing and to celebrate, advocate and support the heck out of them.?
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I loved this idea of a place where women in computing could create a different kind of community. A little parallel universe where everyone could take risks and feel accepted.?
After that I’m not so sure of the timeline, because it seems like that first planning committee got a lot done in a very short amount of time. Because, in 2005, a very small planning committee launched the first Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing.
Then, after Gloria and her team did MidWIC in 2004, and the Ohio team did OCWiC in 2005, Gloria and I developed a workshop and a set of processes. We taught others how to create their own local celebrations.?
An idea is a virus.
And while the Grace Hopper Celebration has evolved into the world’s biggest job fair for women in computing, ACM-W’s Regional Celebrations of Computing have remained small, local and low-cost. They root and grow organically in places like NY, Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota. Globally there have been Celebrations in Thessalonki Greece, Belgrade Serbia; Kyiv Ukraine, Karachi Pakistan, and even a virtual Celebration in Africa. And all around the globe, in all these places, women are seeing women doing cutting edge research, talking about their careers and their kids, and all while they’re building professional networks, eating delicious food and dancing.?
And this is where I started forking the rules. Because to me, these Regional Celebrations felt like a way to change the world. A world that ran on different rules than the ones I learned in business. Forked Rules said success can happen without crushing competition, dominating markets or seizing territory – but with good food, shared interests, and dancing.? By planting hundreds of seeds in hundreds of organizations making technology for the world.? A new world with new rules.?
So let me be clear. I am not saying that I invented Celebrations.? It was a good idea. A great idea that I helped repackage a little bit, along with a LOT of other really smart and effective women: Ellen Walker , Valerie Cross , Rachelle Kristof Hippler , Gloria Townsend , Deanna Kosaraju , and Jodi Tims .? (And honorary women in computing: Tim Long, Robert Walker and Stuart Zweben who were with us at the beginning) And then, there were a lot of really smart and effective women who picked up the idea and made it even better.? I wish I could name you all.?
And although I got my name on a plaque – I will treasure that plaque forever – the important thing is to see good ideas growing.
[And tiaras. Tiaras are really cool. If you ever have a chance, tell people that you will do work for a tiara. #forkTheRules]
Today I am the ACM-W Global Communications Chair. And for me, Communications is the best possible position in an organization, because it’s all about growing ideas.? And ACM-W is an organization dedicated to advocating, supporting and celebrating women in computing and their ideas.