Tackling tech diversity one chica at a time
It’s no secret that the tech industry has serious issues with diversity, particularly in the area of gender diversity. Unfortunately, this is also true for the subset of the tech industry we work in. Not only does that lack of diversity affect the workplace, it also affects the kinds of stories that get told - more diverse newsrooms result in more diverse coverage. According to the Women's Media Center, in print, men wrote 62 percent of all stories in 10 of the most widely circulated newspapers while women wrote just 37 percent.
“Media tells us our roles in society – it tells us who we are and what we can be,” said Julie Burton, president of the Women’s Media Center at the introduction of their Divided 2015: The media gender gap report. “This new report tells us who matters and what is important to media – and it is not women”, she added.
Thankfully, there are some initiatives that are trying to address this, and one of our favorites is a group called Chicas Poderosas (Powerful Girls), which provides mentorship, training and activities designed to encourage women to pursue technology in media.
Founded by visual storyteller Mariana Moura Santos, Chicas Poderosas has now expanded throughout Latin America and is helping to give a new generation of news professionals opportunities they might not have had.
Sourcefabric’s Douglas Arellanes recently had a chance to meet up with two of Chicas Poderosas’ national coordinators - Gabriela Brenes and Mayra Baez Jimeno - to talk in greater detail. Brenes coordinates the chapter in Argentina, and Jimeno coordinates the one in Columbia. The chat was recorded via Google Hangouts On Air, and is something we may be doing more of in the future.
Interested in adding to the diversity of Sourcefabric? Look at our open positions to see if there is something right for you.