The first computer programmer was a woman. Women invented some of the first programming languages. Even the person who coined the term "software engineering" was a woman.
But, through the history of tech, we've seen the industry become ever more hostile towards women, with women's representation numbers dropping. Progress isn't inevitable. But that doesn't mean we can't try; if anything, it means we have to.
On Feb. 23, 2016, SF Shaper Tracy Chou, reviewed the past and present of women in tech, why diversity matters, and what companies are doing to fix the problem now. The talk was well-attended, with over 125 participants. (FB event here)
About Tracy:
Tracy Chou is a software engineer at Pinterest, most recently on the home feed and recommendations team. She has previously been a tech lead on the ads and web teams at Pinterest, and worked on infrastructure, API, email, and growth as well. Before Pinterest, she worked at Quora, also as an early engineer there.
Tracy Chou is a software engineer at Pinterest, most recently on the home feed and recommendations team. She has previously been a tech lead on the ads and web teams at Pinterest, and worked on infrastructure, API, email, and growth as well. Before Pinterest, she worked at Quora, also as an early engineer there.
In 2013, Tracy helped to kick off the wave of tech company diversity data disclosures with a Github repository collecting numbers on women in engineering, and she continues to be an outspoken advocate for diversity in tech. She was named Forbes Tech 30 under 30 in 2014 and has been profiled in Vogue and WIRED for her work.
