World's Largest Gathering of Technical Women
High on Tech
Women in tech gathered to investigate the theme, "Creating Technology for Social Good."
This year, the Grace Hopper Conference was held in Tucson, AZ, from September 30 to October 3, beginning on a record-breaking 101°F day. Since its inception in 1994, the Anita Borg Institute and other academic, corporate, and government sponsors have funded this conference to "bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront" [1]. As the "world's largest gathering of technical women" [2], it has positively affected the careers of thousands of technical women like me.
Although I thoroughly expected sponsorship and enrollment to be down in these hard economic times, the commitment to recruiting and retaining women hasn't waned. Registration had to be cut off at 1,608 participants (up 11 percent over last year) [3], and the positive energy was palpable. Big-name technology sponsors from colleges, labs, and industry were out in full force – despite budget cuts and layoffs – and dominated the exhibition space, actively recruiting and conducting on-site interviews.
Despite the increased number of participants, the conference was expertly organized and flowed smoothly. Very rarely did I wait in a line for anything, including food or bathrooms (partly because of the temporary conversion of men's bathrooms). The course content was carefully selected, and the speakers were engaging, which was clearly evident by several standing-room-only sessions.
Although the scheduling allowed only 15 minutes between sessions, participants had plenty of time to network before catching the next presentation. The conference also had many on-site amenities, including a cybercafé, nursing mother's room, free WiFi, and child care.
The conference theme, "Creating Technology for Social Good," wove throughout the fabric of the workshops, sessions, technical presentations, keynotes, poster sessions, and panels. The offerings were organized into several targeted tracks, running concurrently, and focused on issues related to academia, industry, and women at various stages of their career. I attended industry-track offerings that applied directly to my interests and career goals, including privacy and social software, entrepreneurism, individual contributions vs. management track, understanding and coping with Imposter Syndrome, building effective software teams, finding technical mentorship and sponsorship, developing sustainable technologies, and understanding why women leave high tech.
A code sprint to improve the Systers [4] mailing list infrastructure was organized just weeks before the conference. Jennifer Redman, one of the organizers for the event, expressed it best:
The primary goal was to provide a positive hands-on introduction to the Systers open source development community. The original task list was a starting point to help foster new development ideas, in addition to fixing some existing problems. During the sprint, we completed several documentation tasks, made good progress on one particularly pesky bug, had several women commit to future development, and now have the first version of a new app to help manage our testing/release cycles. We were fortunate to have Terri Oda, a senior Mailman developer and a Syster, attend. She helped facilitate discussion on Mailman 3 and searchable archives. We had approx 30 women participate in the code sprint, and everyone had fun.
Arguably the biggest advantage to attending this conference was networking with other women in technology. Throughout the conference you could meet a CEO one minute and an individual contributor the next and talk with equal ease to both. The CONNECT program allowed attendees to create profiles and networking goals before the conference, then a volunteer scanned conference badges to make a "connection." Through this program, I will be able to keep up easily with my new contacts.
Although it can be hard at times for women to stay in the tech industry, this conference helps combat, as Kirrily Robert [5] put it, "the death by a thousand paper cuts." The conference allows us to forge lasting relationships, learn from the bright, technical women around us, reflect on where we've been and where we are going, and open our minds to unconsidered possibilities. I hope to see you in Atlanta for 2010!
Infos
- Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing: http://www.gracehopper.org/
- Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology: http://www.anitaborg.org/initiatives/ghc/
- GHC News: http://gracehopper.org/2009/news/grace-hopper-celebration-of-women-in-computing-announces-record-breaking-turnout/
- Systers: http://www.systers.org/
- "Standing Out in the Crowd" by Kirrily Robert: http://atlantalinuxfest.org/node/108/
- Conference notes: http://community.anitaborg.org/wiki/index.php/Ghc2009
- Twitter stream: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=ghc09
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.
-
SUSE Offers CentOS 7 Support with Liberty Linux Lite
SUSE's Liberty Linux support offering now includes CentOS 7, which means businesses won't be forced to migrate those servers for some time.
-
Ubuntu's App Center Finally Supports Local Installs Again
If you regularly download .deb files and would prefer a GUI method of installing, Ubuntu has your back.
-
AlmaLinux Now Supports Raspberry Pi 5
If you're looking to create with the Raspberry Pi 5 and want to use AlmaLinux as your OS, you're in luck because it's now possible.
-
Kubuntu Focus Releases New Iterations of Ir14 and Ir16 Laptops
If you're a fan of the Kubuntu Focus laptops or have been waiting for the right time to purchase one, that time might be now.
-
NixOS 24.05 Is Ready for Prime Time
The latest release of NixOS (Uakari) has arrived and offers its usual reproducible, declarative, and reliable goodness.
-
Linux Lite 7.0 Officially Released
Based on Ubuntu 24.04 and kernel 6.8, Linux Lite version 7 now offers more options than ever.
-
KaOS Linux 2024.05 Adds Bcachfs Support and More
With updates all around, KaOS Linux now includes support for the bcachefs file system.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils New Iteration of the Stellaris Laptop Line
The Stellaris Slim 15 is the 6th generation and includes either an AMD or Intel CPU