It’s Ada Lovelace Day, and along with many others, I signed a pledge to blog about a personal technology heroine today.
Picking someone to blog about was a lot harder than I had expected. I didn’t want to look at historical women who, inspiring though they are, haven’t really made an impact on my choice of career. In fact, by their gender being notable, they perpetuate the image that it’s unusual to be a woman in the technology world. They are remembered less for their deeds than their chromosomes.
I then looked at those who have influenced me personally. Did I have a technical whiz of a teacher who encouraged me? Actually, no. My maths teacher was female, but wanted me to become a mathematician. My physics teacher was female, but spent most of her time giving us advice on boys. These women, fantastic in their own way, certainly made it ‘normal’ to be a woman and good at maths or sciences, but hardly in a kick-ass inspirational way.
In employment, and in academia, I’d guesstimate that 90% or more of the people I have worked with on technology projects have been male. Rather than making it easy to find a notable woman to hold up as a heroine, it’s almost harder, since I barely remember the women I worked with at all. Let’s move on… how about women in media?
Surprisingly, Carol Vordeman stands out as a Clever Woman who Did Well. (If adding up on Countdown counts as doing well. Hmm.) However, maths isn’t really technology, and looking for women who are involved in technology on the telly, I’m coming up short. Bits definitely deserves a mention as being a gaming show that had Girls Who Like Games on it, but beyond that…
I suppose the characters of Janeway (Voyager) and Trinity (Matrix) should get a special mention – what I liked about Janeway is, at least in the Voyager I’ve watched, her gender is not a key issue – but the outstanding film-and-tv girl nerd has to be Acid Burn from Hackers. What a kick-ass character.
Jumping across to other media, Lara Croft does get a tentative thumbs-up, but she’s not so much the techy type. Trying to think of a game with a female tech-savvy protagonist is leaving me short, sadly – there are plenty of awesome female characters, from Monkey Island’s Elaine to Broken Sword’s Nico, but none that really dive into technology that I recall.
Gaming does make me recall a woman, or rather a group of women, in technology who I do admire though. Amber Dalton, also known as Athena Twin PMS, is a co-founder of the largest girl gaming clan in the world. Her twin sister Amy, a Frag Doll, founded the clan with her, but in my encounters with the twins Amber’s sheer dedication to the cause has always blown me away.
She’s a combination of girl gamer and entrepreneur, constantly fighting to become recognised in a man’s world, happily taking advantage of the fact female gamers are a minority and that male gamers like to look at them while also extolling the non-physical virtues of her clan of girls. Her efforts have taken the clan from a group of gals who played Halo late at night into a marketing machine, present at all major US gaming events and a brand that is sought-after by various partners.
It’s also clear when you meet her that she adores what she does, and is nothing but dedicated to the clan. Maybe she’s not a programmer, and she probably doesn’t have a 28.8bps modem, but she’s a kick-ass girl in a techie field, and definitely worth some kudos from me on Ada Day.
(Note: I was tempted to take a different direction and write about Alice, who’s an amazing woman working in games and media. Or Aleks, doing crazy stuff in virtual worlds. Or maybe Barb, who’s a fabulous she-geek. Next year!)