Katy Dickinson

Women in Computing - Take 2

I was very interested to read the article "Women in Computing - Take 2" in the February 2009 issue of the Communications of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). This is a follow-up to an article written in 1995. "Women in Computing - Take 2" is by Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College), Telle Whitney (President and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute or ABI), and Caroline Simard (Director for Research at ABI), all of whom I have known and respected for many years. I have two favorite parts of the article: First, the quote from Jean Bartik (Eniac Programmer):

"The best advice I've ever heard about how women should compete in the workplace was spoken by Betty Snyder Holberton, the first of my three favorite work partners: 'Look like a girl. Act like a lady. Think like a man. Work like a dog.'."

Second, the reference to my own SEED Engineering mentoring program. If you go to p.75 you will see:

"Some of the successful approaches that companies may use for recruiting, retaining, and advancing more women in computing, as well as in other technical professions, include:...
Implement a mentoring program. Indeed, make mentoring which positively impacts career advancement and satisfaction, a basic part of the organizational culture. Sun Microsystems' SEED program, for example, is is regarded as a major step in this direction."

The article even includes a footnote to "Five Years of Mentoring by the Numbers", my 2006 presentation to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing.

I spent Thursday night and all day Friday with the other members of the ABI Board of Advisors and staff in our annual meeting. Here we are in what is I think the first-ever ABI Advisors' photo:

Left to Right - Back
Caroline Simard, Carol Muller, Allan Fisher, Chandra Krintz, Katy Dickinson, Kathy Richardson, Robin Jeffries, Kim McLeod, Deanna Kosaraju, Jody Mahoney, Pamela Arya, Nina Bhatti, Carole Dulong, Tracy Prentiss, Jerri Barrett, Ruth Stergiou, Amy Clark, Rachelle Siskin

Left to Right - Front
Kathy Gee, Rebecca Norlander, Telle Whitney, B.J. Wishinsky

Image Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:39PM Mar 08, 2009 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

Daughter in Qatar

My daughter Jessica (a Sophomore studying Political Science, Computer Science, and Music at CMU - Carnegie Mellon University - in Pittsburgh, PA) is spending her Spring Break this week at the CMU campus in Doha, Qatar. Jessica calls the campus CMU-Q. For those who are geographically challenged, like me, Qatar is east of Saudi Arabia and south of Iran. You can follow her interesting cultural adventures on her blog http://feelingelephants.wordpress.com/

Posted at 03:56PM Mar 08, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |