“Free beer and ping pong doesn’t work for everyone” – Anita Singh
Women need equal pay in the workplace and companies should be more public with those numbers. There is a need for proper management training and women have left companies because managers don’t know how to adequately deal with discrimination and bias.
“Being a mother helps you prioritize things and gives you a new perspective” “If you want something done give it to a busy person” – Annyce Davis
Being a mother helps you prioritize things, be more organized and empathetic at work, and realize that just as your own children are all different, so are your employees. The customers as well are all different and having that motherly insight can help reach a broader customer group.
“I had to look for role models” – Lara Martin
I remembered looking for blog posts of people doing career changes as I wanted to. I found one written by a woman who moved to Berlin and successfully started an iOS development career. The article gave me reassurance that I was capable of changing career paths and succeeding as well.
“Companies might still need to go the extra mile to enable gender equality in the future.”– Vivien Dollinger
For example, last year’s Techstars London class was the first class that was nearly 50/50 male and female CEOs. Max Kelly (MD) achieved this by searching actively for female founders, going the extra mile to diversify the program.
“Men should be feminists; I am one!” – Kevin McDonagh
It is easier for women to be in the tech industry in big cities such as London, New York, and San Francisco, but in other places, women have more problems fitting into the stereotypically male industry. There must be effort to changing company culture and to offer equal opportunities to both genders. In the current tech culture, men are heard more, so men must take the initiative to speak out about this issue.
General summary
The panel engaged in a lively discussion about women’s experience in the Tech industry from their personal experiences, and how the industry can adapt to better support women and families. Annyce Davis and Vivien Dollinger believe that gender equality needs to start early with children’s books showing less gender bias and inspiring girls with tech role models. Bringing in the male perspective, Kevin McDonagh identified himself as a feminist and encouraged more boys and men to embrace feminism. Anita Singh and Lara Martin talked about the women role models that inspired them to pursue a career in the Tech Industry, including Kalpana Chawla, the first woman of Indian origin in space.
We had a wonderful time hosting the Women in Tech panel, and we would be thrilled to make it an annual tradition – we already have new panellist ideas! If you would like to get in contact with us about the panel, message us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
We are looking forward to the Women in Tech panel at droidcon Berlin. It will be taking place during the Interactive Day on June 25th from 3:00-3:45PM.
The numbers show, there is still a lack of diversity in technology in both the startup world and the established tech industry. We are very excited to have successful women from the technology industry in different fields joining the panel to discuss reasons, implications, and possible solutions. Also, everyone from the audience is invited to participate in the discussion and suggest discussion questions upfront; don’t be shy 🙂
Key questions will include: What the current barriers facing women in the technology industry are; if and why diversity in the tech industry could be important, why moms can be great hires, and why role models are important to inspire girls to enter the world of technology. We’ll also go “meta” and discuss whether there even should be discussions about this and what the merits and risks of the ongoing discussion could be. We are going to be exploring these through the perspectives of both, the employer and employee.
Annyce is an Android Google Developer Expert, with a special focus on the Kotlin programming language. She has spent the past 7+ years developing applications for the Android ecosystem across multiple form factors. She is also an international conference speaker and author, sharing her knowledge of Android development with others. LinkedInTwitterGitHub
Lara is a self-made Android developer based in Berlin. Her passion for Android made her transition from her background in science to software development. She’s currently part of the mobile team at Babbel and her dream is to make apps more accessible for everyone. When she’s not attending a tech meetup, you will find her on video games. LinkedInTwitterGitHub
Kevin is developing the world’s most desirable mobile products. He has developed for print, web, desktops and mobile and can confirm that they all take a long time to do right. He is an engineer on a journey of learning & growth. Kevin is a Scottish artist making light at Bryden Art. LinkedInTwitterGitHub
Dr. Vivien Dollinger–Co-Founder and CEO at ObjectBox
Vivien has spent the last 15 years scaling teams in the mobile and gaming industries. After leading a successful app development business, Vivien cofounded ObjectBox in 2015. Leveraging a PhD in Economics, she manages the growth and development of the company as CEO. LinkedInTwitterGitHub
Anita Singh leads mobile development at Winnie, an early-stage startup helping parents navigate the world with their kids, where she built the Android app from scratch as a solo developer. She transitioned from backend to mobile almost four years ago and is passionate about making Android development more approachable through blogging and speaking. LinkedInTwitterGitHub
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
