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Inspiring New Blog Is The 'Humans Of New York' For Women In Tech

Inspiring New Blog Is The 'Humans Of New York' For Women In Tech
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A Stanford student is spotlighting the women making waves in tech with her blog Women of Silicon Valley.

"One of the biggest challenges for women in tech is feeling alone and outnumbered," Lea Coligado told The Huffington Post. The college junior hails from Dallas, Texas, and she studies computer science with a minor in Italian.

"I got through some rough patches all because of some great female mentors," she explained of why she decided to start this project. "I wanted to provide that comfort and inspiration at a larger scale."

Coligado took inspiration from the wildly popular blog Humans of New York, which features photos of a wide array of New Yorkers alongside meaningful snippets from their lives.

"I thought it would be great to transfer that model to an issue I feel really deeply and personally about: the under-representation of women in tech," she said.

So she started profiling hardworking women on Medium and Facebook. The result is a collection of richly detailed interviews with accomplished women in technology, complete with shocking anecdotes and inspiring advice:

"It was always the little things that made me feel I didn’t belong. When I attended industry events and people heard I...

Posted by Women of Silicon Valley on Sunday, 22 March 2015

"One of the greatest indicators of maturity is revealed in how you respond to the inexperience and the potentially...

Posted by Women of Silicon Valley on Monday, 6 April 2015

"Now that I’m pregnant, I am more driven than ever to make something of myself, if for no other reason than to prove it...

Posted by Women of Silicon Valley on Monday, 9 February 2015

"And as I’ve started to understand that there are structural problems within the field and that these external...

Posted by Women of Silicon Valley on Sunday, 25 January 2015

Tracy Chou, featured above, told Coligado that she's experienced both blatant and implicit sexism in the workplace. She said the "subtle, unspoken biases" are the hardest to deal with. "It has helped tremendously to build out a network of women around me," Chou, a tech lead at Pinterest, added.

"Technology places an immense amount of power in your hands and in your mind. My advice to girls pursuing a future in...

Posted by Women of Silicon Valley on Monday, 20 April 2015

"I’ve experienced sexism to the point of absurdity," Lindi Emoungu, a software engineer at Google, told Coligado in her interview.

Hopefully, this treasure trove of stories will help inspire the next generation of women in tech. They're sorely needed. Women are woefully underrepresented in tech executive suites, and the number of women in computing jobs has fallen over the past 23 years.

H/T BuzzFeed

Before You Go

Best Advice Given To Women In Tech
Kathryn Minshew, Founder & CEO, The Muse & The Daily Muse(01 of11)
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"Just [expletive] launch already!" It was February 2012, and I had just started to share my plans for a career decision-making engine with Y Combinator's Paul Graham. It was awesome but needlessly complex, and my team hadn't gone more than a sentence when he interrupted us with his now-famous maxim: "Just [expletive] launch already." Put your idea out there in its most basic, stripped-down form and understand how people are using it, interacting with it, rather than building a fully finished product in isolation only to understand too late that users want something different. Over the months in between, PG's advice has saved me a lot of wasted effort -- both on TheMuse.com and in my personal career. I've become more comfortable putting myself out there, even if I don't feel 110% "ready", and I've enjoyed pushing my boundaries as a result. (credit:Minshew)
Christina Wallace, Co-founder, Quincy Apparel(02 of11)
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"Life may be long, but the days are short. Tell people you love them, forgive yourself for mistakes, respect your body enough to know when it needs to be pushed and when it needs a break. If you've had more bad days than good days, make a change. " (credit:Wallace)
Cindy Gallop, Founder & CEO, IfWeRanTheWorld & MakeLoveNotPorn(03 of11)
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Best career advice I've ever received (can't remember who it was who told me this):"Get more sleep." (credit:Gallop/Abosch)
Brenda Romero, Chief Operating Officer, Lootdrop(04 of11)
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"Always fight for the credits." Make sure that your role in the product is clearly visible and known. In games, credits are king. When you're looking for a new job, everyone wants to know what you've worked on and what role you've played. Sometimes, there's a tendency to downplay this contribution or list only a portion of the things you did. Fortunately, a fellow game designer told me "always fight for the credits" and I have, even if that means including credits in games where traditionally there were none, such as social and mobile games. (credit:Romero)
Rachel Sklar, Co-Founder, Change The Ratio & TheLi.st (05 of11)
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"You know, you can charge for this." [This] from Jim Bankoff, CEO of Vox Media, at breakfast in early 2010, gently pointing out that I was giving free consulting across the many breakfasts, lunches and coffee meetings I was taking after leaving the Huffington Post and launching Mediaite. He had asked me to breakfast to discuss my working with SBNation (the cornerstone of Vox) - and he was the first person to pay me for strategic advice. He was also the first person to make me an advisor of his company, and gave me my first slice of equity. I will forever be grateful to him for waking me up to what so many women fail to realize: knowing - and owning - our value. (credit:Sklar)
Kellee Khalil, Founder and CEO, Lover.ly(06 of11)
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"Always be growing." As an employee or entrepreneur you should also be challenging yourself to learn more. When working at a big company you have an opportunity to learn while getting paid. By challenging yourself to learn more you will be more likely to grow within an organization! (credit:Khalil)
Maya Baratz, Senior Product Manager, ABC News(07 of11)
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"Don't let fear be your profession." Don't let fear of rejection or failure cripple you from taking on a career path you're interested in. (credit:Baratz)
Claire Mazur, Co-founder, Of A Kind (08 of11)
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"Nag." Or to put it more politely: follow up. Scott Belsky talks about this a lot in his book "Getting Things Done". It's such a simple concept, but it's so important. You can't be afraid of coming across as annoying—people typically appreciate the reminder and it also shows you're serious about what you want. (credit:Mazur)
Anthea Watson Strong, Consultant, Google Public Policy & Elections(09 of11)
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"Surround yourself with people who push you forward instead of tearing you down." If you don't feel supported and challenged, it's time to find a better opportunity. There's too much important, good work out there to be held back by a bad team or a dysfunctional organization. (credit:Strong)
Leslie Bradshaw, Chief Operating Officer, Guide(10 of11)
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A longtime friend and mentor, Ekaterina Walter, pulled me aside in 2010 and told me: "Don't shy away from taking credit where credit is due." She knew how hard I was working behind the scenes to grow JESS3, but the press coverage continued to be about my then partner Jesse Thomas. And while Jesse absolutely deserved credit as the creative mind behind JESS3, I seemed to find myself too busy scaling the company to lay claim to my accomplishments as the head of strategy and operations. But I slowly started writing and speaking about what I was doing, which eventually picked up momentum and translated into the kind of recognition Ekaterina was talking about. Women need to do this more often at every level -- and when we forget to do it, we need friends and colleagues like Ekaterina to remind us. (credit:Bradshaw)
Whitney Johnson, Co-Founder, Rose Park Advisors(11 of11)
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"Throw down your pom poms, and get in the game." (credit:Johnson)
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