Why I host all-women hackathons

The year was 2015.

The San Francisco tech scene was abuzz with weekly hackathons. As the founder of?The Expat Woman, I had hosted a number of tech-related events and was curious to see what the fuss was all about with regards to this new “programming” event.

When I had a break in my busy schedule, I signed up to attend a hackathon pitch event in downtown San Francisco.

After a year or so of hosting and attending events where the majority of the attendees were women, l had never felt so out of place.

I must?have been one of four women in a room full of sweaty programmers, most of them guzzling beer and scarfing pepperoni pizza.

No one spoke to me and I felt so out of my league that I didn’t make an attempt to introduce myself.

I had heard about the gender gap in tech, but for me, this hackathon was a gender-chasm.

According to an article in Fast Company,?“..Something that has been the case since the very first event, participants tend toward a specific, mostly male demographic. NASA, for example, reports that of the 25,000 people worldwide participating in its 2018 Space Apps challenge, just under 25% were women.?And that’s up from 20% in previous years. Other organizers cite equally low percentages.”

I spoke to several women in my network and they shared their varied experiences of participating in hackathons, all equally dispiriting. I heard stories of women being talked down to, or ideas and suggestions being ignored, to being hit on, or feeling like an outsider or having to prove themselves to get any credibility.

Not to stereotype all co-ed hackathons, but you get the gist.

I searched for women hackathons that I could refer our community to, but there were scant few.

As my LinkedIn headline states, I Help Women Discover & Unleash their Unique Skills to Step Up, Stand Out and Achieve the Success they Desire.

And when I see an opportunity that will empower them to do so, I make it happen.

In October of 2016, through my social enterprise The Expat Woman I hosted our first All-Women Hackathon in partnership with a Devbootcamp, a prominent coding school in San Francisco. I told myself that I would be happy if we had 10 sign-ups. One hundred and sixty-five women participated, ranging in age from 15 to 65. For this first one-day hackathon, the theme was “San Francisco City Hack Challenges” with a focus on helping expats and newcomers navigate the city.

At the end of the evening, our judges were blown away by the quality of the final projects and had a hard time selecting the winners.

“What an incredible day. Thanks to The Expat Woman team for all you did to pull it off — it was by far the BEST hackathon I’ve ever attended. So well-organized, and tons of talented, impressive women to connect with.” — Ginny, Software Engineer and participant at one of our previous hackathons.

Since our inaugural hackathon in 2016, we have hosted four more hackathons with an emphasis on finding solutions to social causes. Our participants have developed innovative websites, games, cloud-based services, and mobile apps to address various challenges faced by women, minorities, and underrepresented folks. To see women come together to use their skills and technology to solve problems that impact our world has been my biggest joy and given me my greatest sense of accomplishment.

“I participated in 2016 (Best Solution), 2017 (Best Design), and mentored in 2018. At the time, I felt that the “all-women” ecosystem provided a safe environment to share thoughts and opinions without being judged. Put simply, it was slightly easier for me to be myself there. Personally, this experience reiterated that skill and talent come in all ages. I recommend The Expat Woman’s All-Women Hackathon for tenured professionals looking for startup experience, business professionals looking for tech product development experience, or anyone willing to step out of their comfort zone to learn and contribute to a solution.” — Joanna Chan, Product Designer @Thumbtack

Then the pandemic hit a few weeks before my 2020 International Women's Day hackathon.

If I was empowering women to find solutions to challenges at hackathons, I had to practice what I preached. I moved the hackathon to an online format and hosted the Women Hack the Crisis, a one-week long hackathon.

100 women participants from across the globe including Japan, London, Muscat, Canada, and various cities in the US participated.

The pandemic disrupted our lives but it has also provided innumerable challenges as well as opportunities for our Never-Say-Die, go-getter network.

With this hackathon being virtual, women who couldn’t participate previously because of childcare issues or because of the inability to travel to San Francisco could now join us from their couch or home office.

Despite the different time zones, they burned the midnight oil and worked in teams virtually to create really?innovative solutions to challenges brought on by the pandemic.

? They were such an inspiration in those dark days of uncertainty.

I see the power in virtual hackathons and hosted our 2nd one in April of this year. Looking forward to hosting our next All-Women Hackathon, Women Hack for Social Impact on Nov. 10ths. Here is the link to learn more and to register.

I leave you with quotes from our sponsors and some of our virtual hackathon participants past and current

“We are excited to sponsor the Women Hack the Crisis event as part of our commitment to equity in data. As we’re learning that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting marginalized communities, a diversity of experiences, voices, and values are essential to designing and building data projects that will actually make a difference in this time of crisis. We are proud to partner with women across the globe to build solutions that will serve those who otherwise are underrepresented.”?— Heather Krause, Founder of We All Count?@Datassist

“I decided to register for this event because I felt that it would be mutually beneficial both for me and for the world around me. It is a way to push me outside my comfort zone, continue to meet inspiring and empowering women from The Expat Woman community, come away with a stellar project for my portfolio, network while I am job hunting, and hopefully find a way to make a tangible difference during this crisis which I have been seeking. “?— Natalia

"The Expat Women's hackathon was the first hackathon I've ever joined. I joined initially because I wanted to gain some team experience by working with people from different tech fields. I later realized how much this hackathon experience has helped me via my interviews and boosted my confidence when I was asked to talk about my experience during job searching. I felt comfortable and I enjoyed the safe space I had working with other?women who came from different backgrounds and with talented skills. I would highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in gaining hackathon experience. I hope this may not be a once-in-a-lifetime-experience for you, but if it is, it is truly worth it." - Megan Lo

"Niantic is committed?to creating AR technology that not only helps advance our communities forward, but in thoughtfully considering how both technology?and the people who build them, have an impact?on society. We are thrilled to be sponsoring the Women Hack for Social Impact event and believe the participants in events like these are the future of tech." - Yennie Solheim, Director of Social Impact, Niantic