I was very interested to read the article
“Women in Computing – Take 2” in the February 2009 issue of the
Communications of the ACM (Association
for Computing Machinery). This is a follow-up to an article written in 1995.
“Women in Computing – Take 2” is by Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College),
Telle Whitney (President and CEO of the
Anita Borg Institute or ABI), and Caroline Simard
(Director for Research at ABI), all of whom I have known and respected for
many years. I have two favorite parts of the article: First, the quote from
Jean Bartik (Eniac Programmer):
-
“The best advice I’ve ever heard about how women should compete in the
workplace was spoken by Betty Snyder Holberton, the first of my three
favorite work partners:
‘Look like a girl. Act like a lady. Think like a man. Work like a dog.’.”
Second, the reference to my own
SEED Engineering mentoring program. If you go to p.75 you will see:
-
“Some of the successful approaches that companies may use for recruiting,
retaining, and advancing more women in computing, as well as in other
technical professions, include:…
Implement a mentoring program. Indeed, make mentoring which
positively impacts career advancement and satisfaction, a basic part of the
organizational culture. Sun Microsystems’ SEED program, for example, is
is regarded as a major step in this direction.”
The article even includes a footnote to
“Five Years of Mentoring by the Numbers”, my 2006 presentation
to the Grace Hopper Celebration of
Women and Computing.
I spent Thursday night and all day Friday with the other members of
the ABI
Board of Advisors and staff in our annual meeting. Here we are in
what is I think the first-ever ABI Advisors’ photo:
Left to Right – Back
Caroline Simard, Carol Muller, Allan Fisher, Chandra Krintz, Katy Dickinson,
Kathy Richardson, Robin Jeffries, Kim McLeod, Deanna Kosaraju, Jody Mahoney,
Pamela Arya, Nina Bhatti, Carole Dulong, Tracy Prentiss, Jerri Barrett, Ruth
Stergiou, Amy Clark, Rachelle Siskin
Left to Right – Front
Kathy Gee, Rebecca Norlander, Telle Whitney, B.J. Wishinsky
Image Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson
KatysBlog 