WLEAD@STEM AICCSA 2022

This page is a working page with elements discussed in the W-STEM session at the conference AICCSA 2022.

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Code: 1dhw9b
7th December, 2022, 11:30 - 13:00 UAE Time

The Women in Computer Science & STEM session highlights concrete opportunities females have to carry on successful careers in Computer Science and STEM in general. The aim is to bring together junior, and senior women computer scientists/STEM, encourage collaboration through formal and informal discussion and provide a perfect opportunity for young researchers to discuss their research and get valuable feedback in an open and friendly environment. Besides, this event promotes networking opportunities and a support network comprising role models, mentors, and peers. The event is devoted to all scientists – male & female – it includes talks by distinguished women speakers from industry and academia who will share their experiences with the participants. With young computer science engineers working in the industry, senior speakers will share a panel to exchange their experiences and vision of their professional careers and promote an inclusive and diverse community.

What is the participation rate of women in promising trends like data science, AI, quantum computing or blockchain?
Are women getting their part of the pie?

Women’s full and equal participation in all facets of society is a fundamental human right. Yet, women and girls are underrepresented worldwide, from politics to entertainment to the workplace. Rooted in patriarchal norms and traditions, the consequences are far-reaching with detrimental, negative implications on the personal, economic, and future well-being of women and girls, their families, and the community at large.

Over the last decades, several economic trends like data science, artificial intelligence or blockchain have emerged as economically propitious disciplines and are moving the labour market through promising careers with space for developing well-being and contributing to projects with a significant impact on society, industry, and knowledge. Yet, it is plain to see that moving trends like blockchain in general, cryptocurrency, financial tech industry) are still a man’s world. Only 30 per cent of researchers worldwide and 35 per cent of all students enrolled in STEM-related fields of study are women. The existence of this difference means that women are missing this professional and labour market, and thus they are not getting their part of the pie. For instance, female speakers at the Bitcoin 2021 conference were still a tiny minority, comprising just 25 of the 192 speakers. In parallel to those women who have bold attitudes and break the glass ceiling to drive the direction of tech trends, other women often adhere to the aridest aspects of IT. For example, data preparation and cleaning in data science projects is a time-consuming task that requires effort and energy, which is the less visible aspect of those projects.

Panel Teasing Questions

The IT production model with an open but very, very heavy door

• In such a disadvantageous context, with only part of the potential brains being hunted, does it make sense to change the production model and reinvent a new order guided by equity? 
• Are current strategies pink-washing programs? What were inclusive strategies good for? Why have they not been allowed to create female/male balance?
• Just like how beer has never made a successful marketing campaign for women, do promising trends in IT need to twist around their insides to appeal to another demographic who may not be as interested?

How can we work together to open the heavy door that leads to opportunity?

• What can be done to nurture the discrete growth of the participation of women in the bright market of trends in the right direction?
• In an ideal scenario, do you think initiatives to grow women’s IT communities should be organically formed and women-led? 
• Do women need to be the ones talking to other women about IT, providing mentorship and role modelling, and lifting each other? Those who believe in women’s inter-support have promoted ideas like including girls-only hacking events, grants for aspiring women, and other safe and supportive women circles where learning and growth can happen locally or globally. Or is it instead a male alliance with mentors promoting women that can best allow women to take a big part of the pie? 
• With global adoption as the aim, should the approach not be strictly gender-specific but rather gender-inclusive? That is, instead of specifically catering to women and failing by adopting its stereotypes, a better system would be more conscious and inclusive to all genders along the spectrum, including cisgender males and females and everyone in between. 

How can women organize their studies and careers to increase their chances to?

• Advise women how to design a professional career, choose good topics, and be elastic to surf the waves of opportunity.
• How to stand out from the crowd in a male environment and get the best out of your effort, expertise development and time investment? Should women adopt patriarchal masculine attitudes to perform, or is it possible to build an outstanding career with “other” attitudes, with another pace or different priorities? Do you think women must design their promotion strategy to excel and move up the professional ladder? Do not hesitate to give anecdotes.
• To conclude, can you elaborate on the participation rate of women in your area of expertise? How can women get their part of the pie?

Panellists (AICCSA 2022)