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Women in Electronic Design!
Welcome to the site, and thanks to Chip Design for having us!
Please check out the previous blogs! Videos…articles…scandalous pay inequity…Computer Science Barbie…Female CEO successes for VCs…it’s all inside!
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Image from Africa…
Karla Reynolds took this picture at a school she visited in Africa. She writes:
“There were these mottos tacked up everywhere…this one touched me because as you know, educating the “girl child” has always been a passion of mine. Spent a lot of time with the science teacher there…he has one book about 25 years old he teaches from. Technology is coming to Uganda (a lot of young people have cell phones). They pay as you go. In most places I could access the internet thru 3g on my Blackberry…so technology is accessible.
Notice the footwear.”
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Cocktail Party Physics: With a Twist!
Fabulous site with posts on a wide variety of Science Topics, fun for all!
http://twistedphysics.typepad.com/cocktail_party_physics/
Kudos to Nerd-Girls:
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Jennifer Ouellette
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M.G. Lord
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Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
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Lee Kottner
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Calla Cofield
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Allyson Beatrice
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Profiles of Women Engineers Here!
Profiles of Women Engineers…..
http://www.engineergirl.org/?id=9375
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7th Annual Silicon Valley Business Mixer!
7th Annual Silicon Valley Mixer!
November 17th | 6-9pm | Santa Clarawww.siliconvalleymixer.com
Enter code WITI298 to save $5.00 on your ticket.
(Code only valid for online sales until 11/15)The Silicon Valley Mixer has become one of the of the Bay Area’s most popular business networking events. Attended by more than 250 people each year, the Silicon Valley Mixer attracts business professionals from local startups and high-growth companies in the Silicon Valley including CEOs, VPs, Directors, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Influencers, and more.
www.siliconvalleymixer.com
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Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Nominations Open!
Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Nominations Now Open!
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2011 Women of Vision Awards. These annual awards honor women making significant contributions in the areas of Innovation, Social Impact and Leadership.
The winners will be honored at the Women of Vision Awards Banquet on May 19, 2011 at the Mission City Ballroom, adjacent to the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California.
Nominations will be accepted until December 10th, 2010.
Categories
Innovation recognizes a woman who has contributed significantly to technology innovation. The innovation might be creating unusual and important technology or approaching developing technology in a significantly new and innovative way, such as by bringing diverse people and experiences together in the technology creation process.
Social Impact recognizes a woman who developed or applied technology with a significant impact on society and/or the community. These people are creating or employing technologies that are changing our world in positive ways.
Leadership recognizes a woman who has led an important technology development or innovation, made a significant contribution to the technology industry, and someone who inspires others.
For more information about the Women of Vision Awards, please visit our website at http://anitaborg.org/wov.
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“The End of Men” / Atlantic Magazine
A long but thought-provoking article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/
“The End of Men“…..Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to women? A report on the unprecedented role reversal now under way— and its vast cultural consequences.
Thanks to Karen Bartleson for sharing this link….
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Anita Borg Institute
Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology: a rich site for information
http://anitaborg.org/
Announcing the release of: Senior Technical Women: A Profile of Success (download)
Newsletter, videos, more!
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“Letter(wo)man’s Top Ten” Tech Songs
Happy End-of-Q3 2010! Just for fun…Especially for Women in Technology:
1. Aretha! and Annie Lennox: Sisters are Doing it for Themselves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pu0Fn1oRN4 (GIRRLL…Our best feel-good song!)
2. Polecats: Make a Circuit with Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOj6H3HR5f8&feature=related (80s Rockabilly Cool!)
3. They Might Be Giants: Why Does the Sun Shine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDOkGx1gAZQ (Science, not engineering, but my favorite, I am such a Nerd!)
4. The Flying Lizards: Money (That’s What I Want) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATmiX1tofBY&feature=related (For the Straight-Up Sales Women among us…Happy End-0f-Quarter!)
5. Thomas Dolby: She Blinded Me (With Science) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V83JR2IoI8k&ob=av2e (Hmm….Can our chem / bio scientists give us any insight on this?)
6. Eddy Grant: Electric Avenue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA5MtAmT24g&feature=fvsr (Complex! Interpret it as you will! But check out the charming Caribbean Nerd Girl…)
7. Tennessee Ernie Ford: Sixteen Tons http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfu2A0ezq0 (Warning: only for the ironic cynics among us!)
8. The Police: From “Ghost in the Machine,” Everything She Does is Magic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMUzkfAq0hc&feature=related (Yes, it is! And we are!)
9. Alberta Hunter: My Handy Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWv9Khg2Xsk (Raw, bluesy, racy take on the home front…)
10. Aretha: Respect http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DZ3_obMXwU (Last and best… Sing it, Ree-Ree!) -
Beyond the Garden of “Shokuba no Hana”
Blooming Beyond the Garden of “Shokuba no Hana”: Japanese Women in Electronics and Technology
The shokuba no hana (office flower) or OL (office lady) is a stereotype evoking attractive young women with perky origami-inspired scarves at reception desks or serving elegant demitasse in conference rooms from Osaka to Sapporo…but happily, there is an emergent body of women in technology and science in Japan today which is notable, and laudable.
Please consider this anecdotal evidence….
I hope to add more, the testimonial and the statistical, in a future blog.The Anecdotal
I have been so fortunate as to do active business in Japan from my early career to the present, and have personally witnessed wonderful changes for women who are interested in careers in electronics.
In my early days in Japan, the Office Flower stereotype rang too very true…(and too true in the US as well!) When I moved to Japan to set up a sales and support office for an EDA company in 1991, there were so few female technologists that I cannot remember meeting even one…and I certainly would have noticed! When we hired an extremely competent woman as an office administrator, she was so grateful to have the position…although her skills were impeccable, her children were grown and she was facing the “double whammy” of both gender and age discrimination.
My best female Japanese friend was a skilled and popular translator, often on call for the international news networks, but cringing in fear of her 30th birthday which would put an end to both her marriage prospects, and her career “popularity” (ack!)…. Translation and teaching were the mainly popularly accepted careers then, and even they had a shelf life far more onerous than any careers for men.
But lately, in July 2010 visiting Japan electronics companies and distributors, the difference was clear:
• At a major consumer electronics company, I had the pleasure of re-encountering a female EE who is now managing a design verification group.
• At 2 different EDA distributors, female application engineers were integrated into the organization, representing 16% of the AE technical force.
• I also know that both Sony and Renesas have official programs on diversity which include women…The Future
It is encouraging to note that IEEE WIE is active and ongoing, note:
1. September 22, 2010 panel discussion “Global Career Development for Women in the Scientific and Engineering Field – Learn from APEC economies -” in the 15th APEC Women Leaders Network Meeting event with IEEE WIE Japan and NPO J-Win will be holding a panel discussion as a side event to Workshop #3 ‘Fostering Women Leaders in the Scientific and Engineering Field’, at the APEC WLN meeting. Global women leaders in the science and engineering field will discuss their own experience of being an engineer or scientist and the way they pursued their career. Access: http://www.miraikan.go.jp/access/index.html and http://www.women-engineers.com.
2. 20 September, 2010 Panel discussion “Fostering Women Leaders in the Scientific and Engineering Field” in the 15th APEC Women Leaders Network Meeting. Access: http://www.keioplaza.com/map/index.html For more details, read Japanese page and 15th APEC WLN Site .Space!
Another recent huge stride (“a small step for a woman, a huge step for womankind” to paraphrase Neil Armstrong) is the 2010 launch with Naoko Yamazaki. A new record in gender equality is being set in space – for the first time four women are orbiting the earth on the International Space Station. She follows Chiaki Mukai into space as a Japanese woman.
For All of Us
Dylan Thomas: “The times they are a-changing”….
In my July visit, the only 2 women in kimono I saw the first 4 days were…gaijin! Young American women, having fun, and dressed to the nines. It is incontrovertible that wearing traditional obi is a deterrent to focus on operational research algorithms. As an incorrigible collector of antique kimono this saddens me… and as a feminist scholar of US history, I have to agree, “Hoop skirts and corsets are OUT!” Grin.And for all of us, office flowers, flora, fauna and sharks, female or male, here is a wonderful video link to a presentation “More Than Core Competence….What it Takes for Your Career to Survive, and Thrive!” by Patty Azzarello, author of the new book “Off the Org Chart” (http://www.azzarellogroup.com)
• http://www2.dac.com/wwed+video.aspx
• You do a good job. You take your work seriously. That should be all it takes for career success, right? If you think so, you need a wake-up call! Don’t waste time and energy. Don’t wait to be discovered. Don’t let your career fall victim to someone else’s priorities. Take more control of your career, and get more success out of the effort you put into your job.Ja matta (until later!)
Holly
