Celebrate women in science and technology

I have been thinking alot about which great woman I should mention on my blog on this Ada Lovelace Day where bloggers all over the world celebrate women in technology and science. Unfortunatly I have to admit, it is harder than it should be to come up with a long list of female top scientists, programmers, engineers or hard core researchers. Maybe I am just not well informed, maybe these types of women are not so visible. I know they are out there, but  I also know, we are not talking about anything near a 50/50 gender ratio. Why is that?

I guess it starts in childhood. Girls are conditioned to be caretakers rather than do’ers and creaters. Even if they do have interest in science and technology often they will have a hard time finding rolemodels among mothers, teachers, sisters and in the media. And lets face it. A carreer in technology does just not sound as “sexy” to a teenage girl as something in fashion and media or as safe and approachable as something “with people”.

Somehow men also seem to be better at promoting themselves. I have heard news media complain about how hard it is to get female experts. Apparently many very smart and competent women refer journalist to another source they believe might know even more about the subject than she does. Would a man do that? Maybe, but often not. “Here is a chance to talk about my favorite subject. Who cares if someone knows more about it than me, if I can come up with a few quotes” he seems to think.

This could be one of the reasons, that the women who actually ARE in technology and science are more transparent than men. One of the reasons why I can’t mention ten internationally acclaimed names of the top of my head. I wish I could.

But what I can do, and what I am really exited to do, is to put spotlight on some of the women, who I believe really ARE great role models in the excellent way they live digital lives and show the world and other women that handling technology, that being a gadget girl, being a lady geek, being an elektronista is a really cool, but also very professional asset. These women play important roles in setting the scene as frontrunners. And every single day through social media- I am lucky to be in touch with hundres like them.

Have a wonderful Ada Lovelace Day.

@DorteToft Not only a great technology journalist. She also wrote the book “Happy in nerdland” (Lykkelig i nørdland) A game changing book that can inspire young women to chose degrees in science and technology.

@Daria A sociologist and tech freak that with her blog socialhallucinations.com and twitter feeds gives great insights into real human/technology interactions.

@idajeng very cool New York based danish woman. Ida is a part of the the UN blog project “Conversations for a better world”, and she also blogs about new media in danish newspaper Politiken.

@karinhoegh has been talking about podcasting before anyone would listen. With many and useful tech tweets everyday she lives and breathes digital living.

@trinemaria is not only the “grand old lady” in the danish blogosphere she is also behind the most succesful danish social media strategy company, and she does an amazing job at pushing away old school thinking with new school digital platforms.

This in only the beginning of a loong list. Feel free to continue…. Happy Ada Lovelace Day.