Take the Pledge: Write about a woman in technology on Ada Lovelace Day

Journalist, tech writer and blogging consultant Suw Charman-Anderson has started a new project to draw attention to women who excel in technology. She's asking bloggers to take the Ada Lovelace Day pledge:

"I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same."

As I write this post, 524 people have joined up, including me.

On the official Ada Lovelace Day blog Suw explains what inspired the project:

I’ve mainly stayed away from the discussion of gender issues in technology. I didn’t think that I had any real expertise to share. But over the last six months, after many conversations, it has become clear that many of my female friends in tech really do feel disempowered. They feel invisible, lacking in confidence, and unsure how to compete for attention with the men around them.

Then I see the stupid puerile misogynistic manner with which some of the more powerful voices in the tech community - some of them repeat offenders - treat women, and it makes me very cross indeed. The objectification of women is bad enough when it’s done by the media, but when it’s done by a conference organiser or tech commentator or famous tech publication, what message does it send? Nothing but “You will never be taken seriously, but we might take notice of you if you’re hot.”

On March 24th (hopefully) the 1000+ posts will end up highlighting the great contributions that women have made to technology, beyond providing eye candy for their male colleagues. Learn more at FindingAda.com and take the pledge.

(Of the posts Suw links to, I'd recommend starting at BitchBuzz Tech's "Two Big Reasons Why it's So Hard to Be a Woman in Tech")

You can see the latest pledge total on the image above.

Tags: Ada Lovelace Day, women in technology