If you ever hike to the top of Mount Olympus in Washington state just at the right time in the morning, you might experience the true meaning of being above the clouds. Unlike the experience from within a plane, the sense of personal and private enrichment is almost tangible there.
Over the weekend, while digging up an article I read back in 2008 about stopping the exodus of women in engineering and technology fields at an early age and stage of their careers, Jimmy Wales tweeted this:
The timing was impeccable since I was updating my knowledge of how far women have come along in the last couple of years with the explosion of “liberating” Internet tools.
In 2010, The American Association of University Women released a very enlightening update report Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, still a great read almost two years later.
So, my memory lane visit over the weekend to review how much ground women have gained in the technology and science fields combined with Jimmy Wales’ well-timed Tweet made something extraordinarily clear to me:
If we continue the progress rate by which women have become engaged in the technology field in the last five years, within the next generation, the gap between women and men in this field will be irrelevant because so many women will not only be entering the field at a very young age, THEY WON’T LEAVE! The women geek squads would be as strong as the men ones, if not stronger.
But, after reading so much about this, I came to the conclusion that the reason this is happening is because so many people have gathered behind women with great potential. The old saying about behind a great man there is an even greater woman works better for women: Behind Great Women there are even Greater people!
And soon, very soon, we will all be proud to say that Behind Great Women there are even Greater ones!
So, today I raise my cup (of cappuccino) to all the great women mentors out there, and there are many, whose direct mentoring and example are enabling the rapid progress we are seeing in women entering and staying in the tech field.
If you have doubts about it, just go to your preferred social media or search tool and search for women in technology and start following the links.
Pretty encouraging and spirit lifting actually. So, join me today and raise your cups (of coffee) in honor of women mentors because when they are reaching the top of the mountain, they are sharing the incredibly enriching experience with those that follow them.
Oh, and as a token, today we get the news of the first woman, Felicity Aston, crossing the Antartic solo.
#womenintech #techwomen #sheisgeek #education #startups #genderquality #codeacademy
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