0:13  
Hi, my name is I knees.

0:15  
I'm a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo and I'm working on as a health data scientist,

0:22  
nella Salem, the Senior Technical Product Manager Ruby cloud technologies. My name is Amina. I'm doing a postdoc researcher at the myovision company in Waterloo working on the traffic data data scientist role and machine learning. Hi,

0:38  
I'm Travis O'Connor senior Data Modeler.

0:42  
Hi, my name is Samir officer and I am a machine learning student.

0:52  
Welcome to the show, you're listening to tech space. On today's episode, we're talking about women in the tech industry.

1:04  
Women in many industries face a significantly higher number of obstacles than men when trying to climb the corporate ladder, even in industries that are thought to be driven by women like fashion. One industry in particular, has suffered the misconception that men ruled it from the very beginning. The science and tech industry Believe it or not, was kick started by women. The first digital computer was invented in the 1940s by two University of Pennsylvania professors, john Mauchly and J. presper. Eckert called the electronic numerical integrator and calculator, also known as any ACH or e n. ac. When the war times came, women were hired to solve complex equations using the NIC building software, program computers and solving algorithms at the highest level for companies like NASA. But sexism and racism had infected the industry, bringing us famous stories like Katherine Johnson and Hidden Figures.

2:08  
astronauts will be here for training, and we're shooting a human in the space and it's never been done before. The launch of the Russian spy satellites the president is demanding an immediate response. But

2:20  
space test group needs a computer

2:21  
can't there is a gap but that she can handle when the numbers you put in

2:26  
a different from

2:26  
each other. This is about him getting the math because without it, we're not going anywhere. Yes.

2:34  
While it is great that Johnson is well known and highly celebrated now, thanks in part to the success of the movie, The under acknowledgement of women and technology still persists today. The story of Johnson mirrors 1000s of other women who launched the technology industry into hyperspeed. So what happened, it all started with smads. The company bcl business computers Ltd, which was running out of the UK at the time, advertised for highly complicated, yet affordable computers that would improve the functions of any business. But computers still seemed overwhelming and proved extremely hard to market. The solution ad companies came up with was showing women working them to make them seem less complicated. Although this was totally sexist. It allowed women in numbers to continue practicing programming and for male business owners to receive the praise for advancing the times. As women were marketed as programmers, men were marketed as builders, taking on the physical hard labor and business owning side of computer engineering woman found themselves pushed out of the spotlight. The 1990s brought along a whole new landscape. media companies profit on the nerd model, visualizing nerds and computer geeks as only men. As recognition moved further and further away from women, to solely support the achievements of men like Steve Jobs, the language of science and technology, and business became one sided supporting the characteristics of men. living in a world

4:12  
that's designed by men for men, women were not at the table to design any part of this world is designed for someone to like have a ton of bravado and get up here and be like climate or disrupt the universe Invest in me. I think that doesn't work for women are generally cultured. And so she always sort of flip it around. And it's a conversation and you share what your vision is. There's no pitch decks in our process. There's no jargon, no attachments, it's literally 12 questions to apply to shoot you. Why are you the person to solve this problem and why is now the time that is needed?

4:50  
That's Vickie Saunders, a totally badass female entrepreneur, supporting fellow female entrepreneurs to succeed outside of the traditional model that she I think she's talking about that's her company. And its funding overlooked businesses and technology that are run by women. with companies like this, a male dominated tech industry isn't the issue anymore, because women are making space for themselves. Women today continue to thrive in technology, despite the gender gap by creating a whole new model with new language that supports their presence in the industry. In many ways, women have always been in the tech industry, kicking ass and getting things done with little support and less money behind them.

5:37  
people here know this, but only 4% of venture capital goes to female entrepreneurs. One out of every $23 loaned by a bank globally goes to female entrepreneurs. And just so you know, we are not a niche market. 50% of population are women, right? So the numbers are just super painful. And I had done quite a few startups and I was in between startups. And when I actually heard this number 4%. I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize it was so bad. And so I set out to figure out, is there a new model that we could find to get more money into the hands of female innovators?

6:14  
Saunders organization is designed to troubleshoot systematic issues that women have been working with for over 40 years. It has become so common for women to be Lone Ranger's in their field, that for some women, like computer scientists turned entrepreneur era Abraham, lack of diversity was normalized before she even entered her profession in university.

6:36  
When I was in university, there was just a handful of our female students, and then a minority even I get to thinking of black women. Today, and I'm like, I think I was the only one thinking about it. But at the time, we were just all happy to be open ride riding on the wave, I think new invention and technology.

7:05  
Although more women are entering ScienceBase professions than ever before, little has changed in terms of supporting them once they settled into their careers. Even though era is now the creator and programmer of her own company that makes visual alarm systems for people that are deaf and hard of hearing, the stagnant state of how women are viewed in the tech industry is concerning.

7:27  
Interesting enough, when I reflect back, most of us who graduated computer science went on a different direction. At the time, I do know that they were initiative trying to get more women in tech. And we're talking pretty much over 20 years ago. So it's interesting that now that I come back, that the same conversations are happening, you would think that with the decades of experience and opportunities that we would have changed. But it just goes to show you there's a fundamental mindset shift that needs to happen in our society to enable that, to fulfill itself. And just that network and that bro hold and we want to hang out with our brothers and make this some kind of hanging out on and watching a game. And I think that kind of exclude women for sure, I guess you're like, you know, she never gonna have access. And so I really do feel that it has not changed that much. Because I because I'm hearing the same story. And, and I say that because when I was at university, like I said, there were many times if you for saying all the companies are seeing that, this is some there's hardly any female and they want to bring more women into it, you're gonna have no problem when you graduate. And now that and, and I'm looking back and I'm sharing the same situation. So they really were there. It was all lift surface almost as I feel it's unfortunate. And I really do think that because it all comes to culture, they'll come to network. And when people only hang out with people that they know when they feel comfortable and familiar to them. It makes it very hard to an open your doors and open yourself to other different type of diverse groups of people.

9:29  
And changing the boys club mentality is the goal. There's no way around overhauling the entire system. An era isn't the only woman who endorses this idea.

9:40  
We need new thinking so desperately in our world. Right now we have one model of success, which is Winner takes off. We see it happening right now between Uber and Lyft who's gonna win who's gonna win the whole market and we're putting billions of dollars in it for one person to win. And the result of this winner takes all mindset which I I think is really trashed the planet is that right now five people have the same wealth. As three and a half billion people on the planet, five people have same wealth as half the planet. When I started CEO three years ago, it was 85 people last year was 62. Now it's five. Like there's nowhere else to go with this model, we need to rethink our challenge of inequality, we need to figure out how to get money into the kinds of companies that actually create sustainable jobs, amazing communities, connective tissue, that heal planet.

10:32  
So what's next for women in the tech industry? I suppose the same as always, will keep programming creating, making amazing things that the world needs now. And as for men in the tech industry, well, I suppose this time, they realize that the future of technology, just like the past has always been female.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai