Introducing the new ACM-W Council

ACM's Committee on Women in Computing has now been raised to a Council in the ACM organizational structure. Our new name is the ACM-W Council, and our charter states: "The ACM-W Council (AWC) will be chartered for the purpose of creating awareness of, interest in, and the need for elevating the issue of gender diversity within ACM as well as externally." The first meeting of the ACM-W council was held in Keystone Colorado on October 3 at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Using Technology to Create an Economic Powerhouse Ambassador: Jehan Ara, Pakistan

Women account for almost 50% of Pakistan’s potential workforce. However, their active/acknowledged participation in economic activities is quite low compared with other economies. Even though they participate dynamically in family, home, community or farm activities, this unpaid work is perceived as their social duty rather than an economic contribution. One of the main reasons for the low economic participation of women in the country could be limited socio-economic opportunities and socio-cultural values and traditions.

During the last ten years, many countries have developed ‘Women’s Enterprise Strategic Frameworks’ to provide a collaborative and long-term approach to the development of women’s enterprise and entrepreneurship. The long-term vision set out by these frameworks is to create an environment and culture that encourages more women to start and grow businesses.

A recent research study demonstrates that in Pakistan, women entrepreneurs’ full economic potential is not being realised. As in many developing countries, women entrepreneurs in Pakistan also suffer from the lack of access to, including control over, capital, land, business premises, information and appropriate technology, suitable markets, training and capacity building opportunities, production inputs, and assistance from government agencies. They lack sophisticated networking mechanisms and effective social capital, constituency building and advocacy.

The potential of ICT for stimulating economic growth, social development and political participation is recognized, but it is increasingly apparent that the benefits are unevenly distributed. Women are increasingly taking advantage of ICT in all spheres of life, thus confirming that ICT can be a tool to promote gender equality and enhance the economic, political and social empowerment of women. As women, it is our challenge to encourage the spread and use of this technology to a larger number of women, to choose what we use and in which way we will have our contributions valued in a properly egalitarian society, for the freedom to use technologies as we will. Not solely for contributing to the Knowledge Based Economy, but for participating in and creating an economy of our own choosing, in a life of our own choosing.

A lot of women in Pakistani cities go to University. They do better academically than a lot of the young men but unfortunately a very small number filter into the workforce.
I have long felt that this is because of a number of reasons – responsibilities for small children, ailing parents, security concerns, distance from work and socio-cultural restrictions. How, I asked myself, can I and women like me help to economically empower these women? Thus surfaced the idea of the Women’s Virtual Network which I am planning to launch by the end of this month.

The objective of WVN is to:

• Open up a Virtual Networking space for the economic empowerment of Pakistani women through the development of rewarding online careers and remotely operated businesses.
• To benefit organizations and employers by making available talent, skills, concepts and specialized knowledge that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
• To bring women associations and educated women, both entrepreneurial and workers, into mainstream business activities through networking and providing access to information such as market opportunities, business and career advice and exchange of innovative ideas through an Online Virtual Networking space.
• To create online communities to encourage networking and sharing of resources by women in different professions.

The project will connect:

1. Educated women with companies that have jobs that can be outsourced
2. There are already a dozen or more women who have registered as Online mentors and will provide guidance to these women in the selection of their careers or the formation of their businesses
3. Online communities of women in health, in education, in science and engineering, in education, in media who can share resources and knowledge.
4. A free online marketplace for women to showcase and market their products and service hence achieving an outreach to areas way beyond their immediate vicinities.

I am hoping that this Women’s Virtual Network will evolve and grow with the needs of the women who register on it. It is for me a Social Entrepreneurship that I hope to make self sustaining. Wish me luck.

Elaine Weyuker Accepts 2008 Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award

Congratulations to our co-Chair, Elaine Weyuker on becoming the winner of the 2008 Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award! The Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award is given to a woman who has inspired the women’s technology community through outstanding technological and social contributions. This year’s winner, AT&T Fellow Elaine Weyuker, has had a career of firsts: She was the first woman to receive a doctorate in computer science from Rutgers University; the first female faculty member at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU; and is the only female AT&T Fellow. A leader in the software-engineering research community, Dr. Weyuker specializes in software testing, reliability assessment, metrics and measurement, and empirical studies; and is a fellow of both ACM and IEEE, and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. The Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award is underwritten by Cisco.

Handing Over(Past Ambassador: Vashti Galpin)

Since I have come to the end of my term as the ACM-W ambassador for South Africa, I'd like to recap some highlights and introduce my successor, Cecille Marsh.

I've been in this role since 2000, and with the assistance of Hlami Huhlwane (who was then a second year Computer Science student at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg), we developed the first of the ACM-W ambassador websites. I focused on statistics (which were quite hard to get, and to get permission to use -- the situation is much better now, in fact there are too many to choose from!), programs for women in computing and women in science and technology in South Africa, and literature about women in computing in South Africa, which I knew a fair deal about because I was doing research in the area. The website has been updated at least yearly since then.

The things that really stand out for me when I look back are the two panels the ambassadors presented at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in 2002 and 2004. They were wonderful and gave the ACM-W ambassadors an opportunity to meet as well as to pass on information about women in computing in their countries. My impression was that the audience who were mostly North American really appreciated the opportunity to get an international perspective and we had many questions on both occasions.

I also had the opportunity to mentor three undergraduate female Computer Science students (Hlami, Kego and Debashree) when I employed them to work on the website, and I believe this benefited both me and them.

Dr Cecille Marsh has now taken over the role of ambassador and I'd like to tell you about her and her research. She is Associate Director in the School of Information & Communication Technology of Walter Sisulu University in East London. East London is a small city on the southern coast of South Africa. The rural areas around East London are extremely poor and many of the students at the university come from impoverished backgrounds and have attended under-resourced schools.

Cecille has recently conducted research into self-efficacy beliefs of students studying for the National Diploma in Information Technology at her university. Her research has shown that female students, unlike female students in some developed countries, have similar (high) computer self-efficacy to male students. This appears to be related to a perception that women can do anything and comes from the female role models that they have grown up with (many come from households that have a female head) as well as the empowerment of women in the new democratic South Africa. Ironically, the fact that many households have female heads was caused by the apartheid
policy of migrant labour.

I've also investigated self-efficacy at Wits which is more similar to a university in a developed country, with most students having attended technologically-advantaged schools and few students from rural areas. My research showed that among the Wits Computer Science students, female students had significantly lower self-esteem than male students, following the trends in developed countries. It's fascinating to compare these different results from different parts of South Africa.

I wish Cecille all the best for her term as ambassador and I wish everyone at ACM-W a fond farewell.

News From Under Down-Under(Ambassador: Annika Hinze, Senior Lecturer, University of Waikato)

This is my first blog report, so as the Ambassador for New Zealand I would like to start by introducing you to my country.

New Zealand is predominantly an urban country, with a multi-cultural mix of Pakeha, Maori, Asian and Pacific Islanders. New Zealand is the only country in the world in which all the highest offices in the land have been occupied simultaneously by women: the Queen, the Governor General, Prime Minister, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice, and Maori all had women in office between March 2005 and August 2006.

However New Zealand has a Gini coefficient of 36.2 measuring income equality (0 being total equality) - which means that the situation here is comparable to that in the UK. Unfortunately there seems to be a decline and this situation is getting worse! NZ census data claims that 42% of the IT workforce are women -- however, only 27% out of these are system technicians and application engineers. So while these figures are better than in many other countries we again see the typical picture of women as the IT minority gender.

A major project that I have initiated in New Zealand is the Computing Women Congress which is conducted in Hamilton. The congress is built around the strategy of encouraging women into IT by enabling students to meet with other women who are already successfully working within IT (see e.g., this study or this one).

The Congress has been running for three years now and brings together students, academics and IT practitioners. The conference is modelled after similar ones internationally with one important difference - its size. New Zealand is a small country and our conference brings together 40 to 50 women in IT. Within these three days together in February, people can really get to know each other. Courses have two to five participants and are truly hands-on. The 2008 conference had technical topics, such as data compression, statistics, and peer-to-peer computing, mixed with career skills training as well as gender and IT topics. Nuchjira Laungrungthip won the award for the best student paper - congratulations! This year's participants of the CWC came from the New Zealand islands as well as Australia, Germany, the UK and the USA. The conference was rounded off by a visit to the bubbling mud pools in Rotorua (remember, February is at the end of the NZ summer). The next conference is planned for 2010 (stay tuned).

Sex Still Sells – or does it? Ambassador: Jan Peters (ACM-W Ambassador for the UK)

I was planning to write my blog contribution to reflect on the falling number of IT graduates in the UK, the poor take up of flexibility and the efforts by the British Computer Society and the UK trade body, Intellect to champion and effect change. But coverage recently of the UK National Electronics Week, in early June caused me to change tack and reflect on the way companies are engaging with their users. And the effect of this on the image of the IT profession.

The cause of my consternation was the advertising by JTAG. JTAG uses models to promote their product and attract potential clients to exhibition stands. The CEO even has his own web pages featuring the models. A combination of approaches from across the world, led by e-groups, led to their recent advert being taken down following emails and phone calls to the company. These adverts called me to question all sorts of things:

• Am I narrow minded? Out of touch?
• Jealous that I don’t have the right behind to look good in skin-tight hotpants?
• Confused about the role of hard hats in the electronics industry - I thought everything was getting smaller and smaller?
• Irritated by advertising agencies?
• Bemused? When our professionals - men and women - shout loudly that we cannot lower standards just to allow more women in and then I find that sex still sells and actually standards or products don’t matter.
• Or cross? When my male friends and colleagues shrug their shoulders and say matter of factly “99% of their customers are men so if it attracts them to their stand then why not” and crosser still when the same cohort seem to find it acceptable that these professionals of impeccable morals, high standards and judgment are happy to concede that they would happily buy products from a stand that they had been drawn to by models. Not because they sell superior product.
• Maybe I’m just irritated that sales, marketing and advertising agencies don’t know who their customers are. Eppendorf were drawn to my attention with their cringe-making advert for an autopippette system: Here’s the link – www.eppendorf.com/int/hawkpopup.php?contentid=13 - it has to be seen and make sure your sound is on. Are they trying to target women? Sadly it seems more appropriate to 14 year olds and they are unlikely to have the budget or interest to buy an autopipette system. I’d like to think it was a bit of fun designed to lighten our long days.

The action taken by JTAG in light of our protests in taking the advert down shows that we can make our voices heard. If we continue to shout loudly in the right way and right places the message will get through. We work in this profession and until the images of women that are portrayed are serious and professional we cannot hope to either attract more young women in or be taken seriously ourselves.

So where does this leave us? Arguably girls and students won’t encounter these images. Hence they won’t be surprised to find we aren’t all 20 something clones with blonde hair, cute behinds and perfect teeth and only capable of leading slack jawed guys to the right exhibition stand. [Not, dear friends that I am suggesting you are not up to these Barbie perfect standards and or completely gorgeous as well as intelligent in your own right]. But how are these images going to convince parents that computing is a worthwhile society-benefitting profession for their daughters. So what to do?

I believe that we need to draw on the skills and knowledge of advertising agencies, social scientists, psychologists and education specialists developing a portfolio of ‘collateral’ in a sustained campaign to engender awareness, interest and promote action in terms of getting young women to develop the right skills. For skills are something we learn - right? and moving young women beyond the perception that they can’t do IT / computing is just that, a perception, not a reality. Our campaigns must be joined up and across our nations. The route from child poverty is through mothers. Empowering them in the support of the education of their children and widening their career options and choices is our responsibility. We must take it.

Link to other relevant blogs:
http://eileenbrown.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/why-oh-why-does-this-still-happen/
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/06/making_noise_wo

Shafi Goldwasser accepts the 2008 ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award

Shafi Goldwasser accepted the ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award at the ACM Awards Banquet at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on June 21, 2008.

Pictured (L-R): Stu Feldman, ACM President;
Elaine Weyuker, ACM-W co-Chair;
Alan Eustace, Google Vice President;
Shafi Goldwasser; John White, ACM CEO.