 So, the hacker ethic says that you should judge a hacker by his hacks, not by his gender, by its race, by its appearance, or the other simple or fluid things. And this is something that we take very seriously at the CCC. And so, this talk is somewhat in that direction that we, at the first camp, we started to say, okay, we want to enlarge our cultural space. So we want to integrate artists, we want to integrate political activists, people who need our help. And so this camp has been, as an kind of unofficial topic, also about remembering that. So remembering that the hacker community is a community that has special abilities, special talents, and that we have a responsibility to use these talents wisely. And so we have come a long way doing that, basically making our community more accessible. But one of the spots that we, where we are still a bit lacking, is making women an integral part of our community. And making them feel welcome, making them not feel repelled by all this hacker stuff. And so in order to learn about it, we invited Fiona to talk about women in tech in general and technology fields, to learn a bit more and to find ways how we can improve in a very non-ideologic way, just doing the hacker way, finding solutions to problems that we all can live with. So welcome, Fiona. Well, thanks a lot for the introduction and welcome to this talk about women in tech. I'm really, really happy and grateful that I can talk about this topic that is obviously kind of important to me. But I also think it's not really a given that we can talk about this topic, because especially recently I feel like the public discussion has been somewhat heated up from all kinds of directions, and often, oh, there's an ant crawling into my computer. And often especially recently I feel like it has been dominated by accusation and conflict where I think that collaboration, explanation are key to improve the situation. So I'm really happy that you're here and that I have the chance to share the insights that I have gathered over the last couple of years. So a couple of words about my background. I just got into tech a couple of years ago, and since then I've been a strong advocate of so-called digital literacy. So I've been involved in various projects that are aiming at making knowledge about technology more accessible and encouraging people to get into technology. And one of those projects where the chaos mentors, some of you might know it, it's a program aimed at people visiting Congress for the very first time, the Chaos Communication Congress by the Chaos Computer Club, and also encouraging people to visit the Congress. Now we'll delve into those experiences from time to time. Yeah, so the results that I'm presenting today are mainly based on the experience that I've made over the last years in exchange with initiatives that are also aiming at onboarding women into technology, but also from talking a lot with women that are detached or attached to technology, and also about some research that I conducted over the past six months to drive deeper into the scientific resources that there are existent about women in technology. So I kindly ask you to understand that I'm using a lot of binary explanations today talking about women. I do understand that women are not a homogenous kind of group, but I kindly ask you to understand this for a pragmatic reason so that we can solve an existing problem. Yeah, let's skip the small talk and go directly to this very German tradition of expectation management, what I'm going to expect today from this talk. Today I will talk with you a little bit about the existing challenges that there are for women, just so that we all get to a basic knowledge about, yeah, what challenges they have, and also how we can solve this together as a community. Because I think most of us are at least involved in tech or even key figures in our communities, and we will think about how we can change that situation together. And thirdly, I will talk about the reasons why we should care at all, because I feel like this is a point that has been somewhat often neglected in the discussion, but I think it's super important to talk about this so we can motivate people to get involved. And also if there's time left, we might talk about a little bit about existing initiatives, but we'll see whether there will be time left. So let's go to zero first. No women in tech. What is the current situation? And I could bore you forever with statistics and studies and research about the distribution of women in computer science and technical jobs and occupations, startups, companies, but I won't do this because I think every one of us knows this fairly well from their own everyday life. A lot of us are part of technical communities. We've been visiting conferences. We are part of open source development, and we know that from our everyday life that there are only few women in tech. There are women in tech, of course, and sometimes it's just a very normal thing, but usually they are in a minority. And there are different explanations for this, why that is. One of them I want to present to you, I found it particularly interesting is I read it on the blog of the Planet Money podcast, and they talked about there's this particular point in history where the number of women studying computer science started to dwindle, and there was in the middle of the 80s. Maybe some of you have an idea of why that is. And their theory is kind of interesting. They say that with the start of the distribution of the personal computer in people's homes, it became a product that was advertised. And I warmly invited you to check out some old Apple spots about the personal computer, about the computer being in people's homes and how little Jimmy can become an astronaut because he has a Mac computer, and it's totally reasonable. And because it became a product and was as aggressively advertised for boys, and the computer started to be something normal or rather usual in boys' bedrooms. It created at a very early stage an experience gap for girls in school. So they would enter school or elementary school. They would already have far less exposure to computers than boys would have. And this, of course, creates a leaky pipeline where girls wouldn't be able to compete as good in school, and this continues and carries on. So this is just one explanation. And it leads us very quickly to the next point of the challenges. And I put down the title of this report. Why are there so few female computer scientists by Alan Spurtis? It was written in 1991, and I'm really fond of this report. It was written by a computer science student. Alan Spurtis was now a professor in computer science at MIT. And she was basically just wondering because she was always interested in technology and didn't understand why she was one in few people, few women studying computer science. And her report is very, very accessible to everybody who hasn't been exposed to feminist literature for 10 years. It's very easy to understand and offers basic explanations of almost every single point that was further elaborated in research in the following 30 years. And it's also free to download on the web. So the first thing that I want to talk to you about are stereotypes. Stereotypes are not necessarily immediately something super evil. Actually, they're really helpful for us to help us to categorize our environment, to process all the millions of images and impact that we are millions of things that we are seeing that we have to grasp and progress. But stereotypes always, you have to keep in mind that stereotypes never come alone. They always go hand in hand with some attributions that we ascribe to a group. And what kind of traits we ascribe to people is always dependent on the cultural context that we live in. So stereotypes and what we connect with them is always constructed. And we do not only ascribe things, we also start to expect things from people that belong to a certain group. And for example, we might expect girls not to be good at math. And when we start or, yeah, we might, yeah, for example. And those things are quite powerful. They can even make people perform in a different way. And this is called stereotype threat. So when you might have heard of the term self-fulfilling prophecy, and it sounds way more esoteric than it actually is. It's actually based on a lot of research in social psychology about the term stereotype threat or the phenomenon. That means that people also live up to the expectations that are put on them. And so chances are good when a girl is being taught, her entire child, that girls usually suck at math. Chances are good that she will have problems in math. And also this goes even further. If a person that has, for example, darker skin or a certain migration background and grows up in a context where this migration background or people with this background are expected to be criminal or less intelligent, chances are very bad that this person will experience trans equality. So when our stereotypes limit the possibilities that other people have, we call this prejudice. And if those stereotypes make people perform less well in a task, we call the stereotype threat. And I think one of the most impressive examples for this comes from a study from 1999 when three groups of women that are studied were studying math and had an Asian migration background were asked to perform on a math test. And they were all expected to perform more or less equally well. And the first group only had to claim their migration background. The second one didn't have to claim anything at all. The third one only claimed the gender. And the third one performed way above what was expected. And the third one that only gave, mentioned the gender, were performed way below what they were expected to perform as. So simply reminding people of the stereotypes that they have or the traits can have a significant effect on the performance on a task. So in our context, there's not only this kind of stereotype that is very powerful that women can't program or a better math. There's also another stereotype about the programmer being this male person tinkering in the cellar. So a second problem, so just to expand it again, stereotypes, we all have them and they are very, very powerful and affecting us how we see each other and also how we behave. A second problem that I came across personally a lot and that everybody I talked to who's working in initiatives also comes across self-confidence. Women tend to evaluate their own abilities and performance way below the way they are actually performing. And this has posed or has turned out to be one of the biggest challenges also for me in working with women that they don't perform less well, they just think they can't do stuff. And I think it's not only evaluating their own performance and abilities, it's also about whether they feel comfortable going somewhere, whether they feel appropriate going somewhere. Especially with the chaos mentors. I've been experiencing this a lot that, so the chaos mentors we get about 100 or 120 mentees each year. And last we had about 50% female mentees. And a lot of them write me emails and they say, yeah, hi, I've been totally fascinated with computers. I study math, I'm doing my PhD in biochemistry. But I don't know whether I belong on the Congress. So they often feel not appropriate or not immediately belonging to a certain community when it's tech related. And the next problems are kind of related to structural problems, meaning they're already deeply embedded in our society. There's family planning that women get pregnant or they take care of their family or older people or the parents in critical years when they actually have the chance to have another push to their career or women are usually more ignite to move together with a partner somewhere else. And also, of course, deeply intertwined with the point, stereotypes, the lack of positive role models, affects a lot. Take any random cultural reference to hackers, it's chances are good that this reference is male. And also, of course, environment. When a community or a job, an office or a group is male dominated, doesn't mean that this group is deliberately being hostile towards women. But it can be that the conference is taking more into advantage or into consideration the needs and interests of men just because they are the majority. So, as Frank said, we are going to choose the hacker approach and not delve into the problems too long, but think about how we can solve this issue. And I put together some solutions that I've gathered over the last couple of years. And they might sound really, really simple, but I'm often surprised that they're still not being followed considering how simple they are. So the first one is be explicit and inviting. And this might seem really, really simple, but if you are organizing a conference, if you are leading a group, if you want women to come to be part of your community, why not say it? Be explicit, you have to invite women for them to actually feel welcomed. Because at the chaos mentors, for example, a lot of people told us that just along the fact that they knew, the CCC is having a program that is explicitly aimed at making a landscape more diverse and explicitly aimed at onboarding women already took for them away such a kind of a default mindset of not being welcomed. And a lot of them told us that this was the only reason they even attended knowing that we are caring about this kind of stuff. So communicating that you're caring about this issue is key. And secondly, role models. Of course, women being on stage is a super important thing and manipulating the narrative that is dominant, that there are only male hackers showing that there are female hackers. And women on stage is a super great thing. But we also, it's not the only thing that we should care about. It's also about this women being in a hacker space and it's completely normal. It's not a big deal. And I think that sometimes this is even more important. So whenever you have the chance to represent your hacker space to talk about it, always keep in mind that there are also women. Because if you don't, chances are good that people will assume that there aren't any. And also talking about this issue. So this is a very good start. But also getting into exchange with other initiatives that have been working in this field already that have gathered some knowledge about this. Also talk to your fellow male colleagues or partners and friends about this. And of course to the women, ask them maybe just, hey, do you feel comfortable at all? Is there something that bothers you? I know it seems very simple, but I wonder if everybody in this room has already thought about this. Just showing your awareness for this kind of issue already is a huge step. And also of course talking about this publicly is important. Creating spaces for women. I know that this is a somewhat difficult thing. And this has been discussed a lot recently. But I think, and I've also been kind of skeptic towards this because, hey, doesn't this reproduce all the prejudices that we have that women need extra treatment and spaces? But in the end it just solves the problem that women might not feel comfortable going to a space where they don't feel like they're explicitly invited or maybe they just feel more comfortable amid women when women explain something to them. So if you are in a hacker space and heard when or active, engaged in your hometown or city or neighborhood, just think about organizing a women's workshop, for example. You'll be surprised. There will be women that you've never seen before, most likely. And also those spaces for women don't need to be physically. It also helps a lot if women can connect to each other. Because even if there's a study class where there are a lot of women, sometimes they have the problem that they don't really, that they are still isolated because they're still separated from each other. And connecting women with each other has proved to be super helpful, especially in universities and institutes. Yeah, and that's not the least. More women in tech will lead to more women in tech. So it might sound absurd, but I think the more effort that we put in it and the more women that are going to be in tech, the more this development will accelerate. And I also believe that this usually helps also to make the landscape on an all or generally more diverse. So why should we care at all? I think one of the main reasons is fairness. It's not about, I mean, if somebody doesn't want to learn programming, that's totally fine. I can totally understand. If somebody doesn't want to get into computers, it's also totally fine. But if somebody wants to, we should give them equal opportunities to enjoy technology just as we do. And this is about fairness. Diversity in communities. The broader we are, the more powerful we are, the more perspectives we are, the more we have, the more possibilities we have to react. And more diverse perspectives usually make us more capable of dealing with different challenges. And thirdly, what I personally think is most important is diversity in technology. Our lives and not only our lives, but everybody's lives on this planet is being vastly dependent and affected by technology. And we should ponder about whether this technology shaping our lives and everybody else's should be created by a relatively small percentage of this planet's population. And if we want to use technology for different interests, challenges, then different people with different perspectives need to get involved. And I don't think that only women code differently. I think everybody codes differently, and everybody has different challenges in their mind, different perspectives, and a different set of awareness. And yeah, I think in order to use technology for different kind of needs and interests, we need different people. So I briefly just wanted to talk about what initiatives there are, but I think, yeah, since we have only limited time, how much time do we have left? I will give this talk 10 minutes in the end. Okay, maybe I didn't even need that much time. So this, for example, I was talking about this connecting women to each other. Yeah, maybe I skip this right away and go to the red skirts. Yeah, well, let's go to the red skirts right away. Other red skirts, people in this room? Yay! Thank you so much for your work. Talk to the red skirts. They know best what to do. Because the red skirts, I think they were founded in Finland and have been active in Berlin, where I come from for several years. And in case you've got too much money, just give it to the red skirts because I guarantee you they have a huge impact. I know people that have been doing their first red skirts, they do beginner's workshops in Ruby on Raids, the Ruby framework. And they invite a lot of women, maybe about, I think, 60 or 70, go to one workshop. They have about 40 mentors that are helping them out for one day to actually create an app by themselves. And they have a very sustainable model in Berlin as well, where they join learning groups afterwards right away and actually work on a program or a project. And I know some people that have been doing their first ever programming workshop two years ago afterwards, went into Halftime, worked their butt off, and now they're working as developers. And after simply two years, they quit their job, worked as developers, earned probably four times of the wage that they've earned before. And so it's a super, super effective thing. And I think it's not about the income itself, but it's also about women getting into technology and gradually changing the perspective that there is. And there's also one interesting thing. There's a computer science class at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in Berlin, and they have the first ever women's computer science class, which sounded bewildering to me at first, but then I talked to them and it's solving so many problems. And actually they're solving so many problems that I think, hey, why don't you stretch this out to many other computer science classes? For example, having hours that are, or studying hours that are family-friendly. Yeah, but this just briefly. But I think much more important than other initiatives is the fact that we are here. So I think that every one of us has a huge leverage in the hand to change things in our hacker spaces, in our family, in our friends, and also in our study classes and companies. And I think from my research that I've been conducting, there's this one thing that I learned that all the challenges, and you might have noticed this, all the challenges that there are for women are so deeply intertwined that every little solution and little step forward will affect so many different things. So your little steps and your little support for initiatives and changing people's mindset will change a lot. And yeah, in the end, make this community more diverse and even more pleasant for everybody to attend. So thanks a lot for your attention. And stay here after the talk. There will be the chance in a self-organized session to exchange even more. Thanks a lot.