7CYJRB76CFJW

Today is Ada Lovelace day, a day to celebrate the achievements of women in technology, named after Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, who wrote the first computer programs.

More Open Source-ey Goodness

In honor of Ava Lovelace day, Anil Dash talked about encouraging women to join open source – how appropriate considering I just posted about the lack of women in open source yesterday. The Ada Lovelace Day website also directed me to this optimistic post showing some women in open source.

My Female Heroine in Tech

This is the part of the show where I get to reveal my female heroine in tech.  I racked my brain thinking of someone (female and semi-famous) who inspired me in technology, science or mathematics.  I even perused the existing list of entries and came up with squat.

That can’t be right.  There must be some female that I admired. Looked up to. Emulated.  *think think*

Oh, right.

B’Elanna Torres

Oh what a cheesy world I live in it, but it’s true. Remember B’Elanna? The fiery half-Klingon and Chief Engineer of the Star Ship Voyager (it’s star trek, people).  She is so awesome.  She kicks ass, she’s smart and you don’t get in her way when it’s time to work.  On the personal side, she seemed all hard and rough around the edges, and then settled down and had a baby (fawn).

That doesn’t count!  Pick someone real!

I do see how it seems odd to select a heroine that isn’t real but the fact is I don’t even know about many women in tech.  I read a lot and virtually never come across any remarkable women in technology because there are so few.

I have no desire to seek out reading about someone successful in technology just because she’s a woman.  I’d much rather read about remarkable people (in tech, or not) and learn from them even if we don’t have the same anatomy.   Doing cool things is not cooler just because you’re female.

In fact, I’m not particularly inspired with women who do cool things in tech, but don’t have children.  Take Marissa Mayer at Google.  She is unequivocally awesome.  I think that men and women alike would love to have her experience and position.  Except, how does she apply to my life anymore than a man in her equivalent position?

Fine.

So if I had to pick someone real, I would say Penelope Trunk, blogger and CEO of Brazen Careerist. She rocks and is in tech (despite not being an actual programmer/engineer, she has a start up in the tech sector).

She’s honest and open and it’s not pretty – because that’s life. And she really shows what it’s like to be a woman with children and be successful. What do you do when your little kid wants to cuddle in bed but you’ve got to get to work in the morning? What do you do when your husband takes a call for work and you’re watching the kids and you get a call too? What do you do when you’ve decided to stay-at-home with the kids and are so desperate for just a teeny tiny bit of professional achievement in your life?

This is what working full-time and mothering looks like:

1) Not counting working, sleeping, showering or eating, you only get 15 extra minutes each day do you:

a) bond with your child
b) talk to your spouse
c) clean the house
d) cook dinner
e) do something for work

2) Now, let’s say you need 15 minutes more (and more and more). Working is pretty much a constant at full-time.  So, which category do you take them from: sleeping, showering or eating?

I don’t know the right answers and I don’t think Penelope does either, but she is talking about it publicly and that takes guts.