After some very promising networking and fascinating presentations, the TechWomen mentors and mentees enjoyed dinner together and then walked to the final party of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing – held at the Maryland Science Center on the harbor in Baltimore MD.
I particularly enjoyed yesterday’s talk by Jane Margolis about changes in the technical world in the ten years since her publication with Allan Fisher of the groundbreaking book Unlocking the Clubhouse. There has been both growth and retreat for the community of technical women during that time. Some of the advances are in:
- Visible Leadership: Exemplified by Maria Klawe becoming President of Harvey Mudd College, Shirley Tilghman becoming President of Princeton, Ginni Rometty becoming Chairman and CEO of IBM, and Meg Whitman becoming President and CEO of HP. (See the Famous Women in Computer Science list for more…)
- Growing Role Models: Exemplified by the Spelbots, the African-American Women’s Robotics Team of Spelman College.
- Successful Education and Networking: Exemplified by the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing growing from a few hundred attendees in 1994 to 3,600 participants this year – and GHC being sold out in advance for the third year running. 2012 is also the 25th anniversary of Systers – the world’s largest email community of technical women in computing. Another notable success is the National Center for Women & Information Technology organization and NCWIT’s Aspirations in Computing award program for technical girls.
As always, I was very pleased to be able to participate in GHC with my smart and geeky daughter Jessica!
Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson
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KatysBlog 
Awesome post!! I love the pictures and I really appreciate hearing about the unlocking the clubhouse talk.
Quick correction: Dr. Klawe wasn’t President of Princeton. She’s President of Harvey Mudd College, and previously was Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton. Princeton’s president is Dr. Shirley Tilghman, a molecular biologist.
Thanks for sharing this with all of us!
Thanks for the comment – I fixed the error! I did know that… not sure why I combined the names and roles of two such distinguished women.
Impressive list of great CEO’s TechWomen
Sends an encouraging feeling that commercial cum tech business leadership is no longer thought of as restricted to gendering considerations
Bravo IBM HP PRINCETON & MUDD
let’s hope we ear of more important ones
let’s hope we hear of more important ones
I meant other important appointments
e.g. you were all at the White House…..will it become PINK one day ?!!!!!