INFO 102

TAKE WAY JOURNAL

FALL 2016

EMPOWER WOMEN
BY: BETHEL ZEGEYE

November 16 2016
How can we empower women to get involved in Tech Jobs and
Leadership roles?

Its complicated

Empowerment
THEMES

OBJECTIVES:
What I hope to get out of get out of this class was how diversity
impact the working environment.
As a Black Women studying Economics and trying to double
major with Informatics, I wanted to take this class to show me that
I belong in these fields of the working world.
Improving my brand and how I present myself is the one other
thing I hoped to get out of Info-102.
Also to ensure myself that I am on the right track.
Fun Fact about Professor Laura:
Did you know Professor Laura
was fired from her
first job?

What I learn from professor

is not to give up even if the
world seems to be against
you. Also to not get
discourage and to take risks.

HOW IS THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY

GROWING?
-

1.4 million Openings for Tech jobs by 2018, only 29% of it will be filled by
women. Why are their less women going for these tech jobs? What are the impact
of not having diversity in this industry?

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

There is a stigma in society where people think women are not good enough to be
in STEM field. This is why women are discourage to even try to entry the STEM world.
HOW CAN WE FIX THE PROBLEM?
The chart below will show the problem on why girls are not empowered at young
age to pursue a technical field? On the other side it will shows the problem women face,
after a getting started with their career.

Learning about the Information School:

- Informatics: How to make the information we have more efficient.
Its the human elements of technology and the connection between
human and technology.
-

The founding dean of the information school is Michael Eisenbreg. He is known

for Big6, which is a model of learning and system of information problem solving.

During Lecture Professor Laura have said Mike have already retired from the
ISchool however, he goes around the country giving speeches to educators. On the
speech we watched in class the thing that I thought was interesting was how he said
human compression (human processing brain) havent increased/improve, while
technology have been getting bigger and better. That was really fascinating to hear.

Also the community at the ISchool is very supportive and that stuffs are amazing

SOME ADJECTIVE THAT WAS IMPORTANT FOR ME

CAREER LEVEL

PROBLEM GIRLS/WOMEN FACE

SOLUTION HOW WE CAN

EMPOWER/INSPIRE YOUNG
GIRLS/WOMEN

Elementary school

-The toys little girls play with,

example: Barbie, Princesses, and
Kitchen tools

- More toy companies such as Goldie

Box, to show young girl its okay to
play with toys like that.

-How they are raised and the culture of

their environment.

-Parents need to set an example and

motivate young girls.

- The power of what teachers say at

school have a big impact

-Parents can buy toys like Legos or

some other toys that would enhance
their confidence and technical skill
can motived girls to be at least
interested in STEM field.
-At school teachers can inspire young
girl by showing them video and
reading them books about powerful
women.

Middle School

-not having supportive environment,

which leads to am I good enough
question.

-Helping and supporting girls to

pursue or even research about the
tech/STEM field.

-Teachers/counselors underestimating
young girls

-Never underestimating girl. As the

founder of TAF said Every child
have the right to develop potential no
matter what gender or race.

- Getting safe gifts, more girly pinkish

things, than getting technical gifts.
-Insecurities, girls at this age just want
to fit in, and starting to ask questions
like who am I?

High School

- Parents or relatives buying safe gift

like stereotypical things girls, might
introduce them to technical fields or
motivate them to be in leadership.

-Parents not introducing or taking kids

to after school activity based on Stem,
or any technical fields.

-At school building safe environment

for girls/students to not feel insecure.
Also creating environments where
students can help each other out and
learn how to work together would help
girls feel like they belong.

-The big issue when teenagers is

TIME. They dont know how to
choose or prioritize.

-Parents help and show their kids how

to manage their time.

- Materials at schools are becoming

harder. Boys have more support and
drive from teachers and counselors.

-Schools having after school program

to help with the Math, Science and
Computer classes.

- Late middle school and high school

stage, media have lots of impact on
shaping what girls should act and look
like.

-Media have a huge impact on young

girls, So watching a movie, or reading
article about powerful, independent,
and strong women might give
confident to young girl and they can
believe they can do that as well.

-Girls are at the stage where they start

to date? And most girls believe they
have to act dummier.
- Peer groups/peer pressure in
Decisions making
-In schools STEM courses may not be
offered. Also to get to those computer
science classes, students might need
recommendation from teachers.
Teachers can underestimate girls, so it
will be harder to get into those classes.
- Girls can be discourage. This happens
because less support to join this field.
-Resources to technology and schools
having poorly prepared education
especially in low income
neighborhoods.

-Motivating girls to get involved in

organizations such as girls who code,
Black girls coding and many other
organizations.
-Education industry, 74% of teachers
surveyed responded that using
technology in class motivates students
to learn more.
-Off all the students that took the AP
computer science test 27 percent were
girls. Why? This is because young
girls are discourage to take these
Tech/STEM Class. So what we need
to do is boost young girls confidence
so that they can get involved in those
classes.
-Also having more women teacher in
the STEM classes. And making CSE
classes requirement for high school
graduation.
-Schools or organization having field
trips to big companies to inspire girls.
- Colleges having more scholarship for
women in the STEM field can
encourage more girls to join this
career.

College

-Implicit bias of that women should

stick to fields that are not in STEM
field.
-There is low support in college
compare to middle and high school.
Students have to go out to look for
mentors. Which leads to taking the safe
way out of school because, its hard to
take risks.
-Exposure to computer science classes
-college acceptance rate for women in
STEM field
-Opportunities to meet with employers
-Not having enough clubs or study
groups at school

-Schools should have more STEM

field women to women mentorship
program, so women could feel they
have support in a huge school. Also it
will show them that they belong and
have a place in this field.
-Incoming freshmen are very goal
oriented and excited to go to college
and explore new fields. Therefore
encouraging them not to be afraid to
take STEM oriented classes so they
can at least get exposure to it.
-STEM colleges acceptance rate for
women in the STEM majors have
been increasing. Its also a higher rate
than men.
-Having clubs and motiving girls to
join these STEM field based clubs can
give girls/women the assurance that
this is for them and help continue in
this field.
- Career fair are very important,
because students get to meet
employers and get an early work
experience by applying for internships
through theses career fairs. Also
having this to be an all women event
can be helpful and more comfortable
for girls that are students. Specially,
interning or working for a startup
company or small company can be
easier for girls to make connections
and students will have more chances
to be creative and learn.

Early Career

-In 2014 only 26% of the Tech jobs

were held by women.

-Hiring more women in Tech field and

Leadership roles can empower women
and young girls to follow this field.

-Women might be the minority they

can feel lonely and believe they arent
-At work have women group, have a
good enough and that they dont belong community, so women at work have
in the field. It can create insecurities.
someone to talk to when they have
these issues like sexism, and its nice
to have Colleagues friends and have
-Also perception of credibility, (this is
not graded, they are paying you so they that connections.
expect you to know what youre doing)
- Another way to make connection and
-Fewer mentors and less support at this improve your level is going to high
stage, you have to figure it out most of level meetings.
it on your own.
-Also since this is first job after
college, setting up a mentor (both
-Which can be hard and scary to take
risks and go into STEM field. This gets women and men) and having meeting
to help them so they can guide
back to taking the safe route, since
employees through this transition.
college.
-At this stage competition have
increased and it much higher than
schools.
-Problems might occur from higher
management such as, sexism, sexual
assault and many more problems.
(When to standup for yourselves and
others)- Its complicated.
-Issues on pay gap, how assertive can
you be?- Its complicated
-Women if they hide their gender on
GitHub. They have more chance of
getting picked for the job.

-On the last day of class one of the

guests said, Just because you
graduate college doesnt mean you
cant go to community college and
enhance you knowledge. I agree
because they can create more
opportunity for the employee.
- At work having anonymous
chatroom or feedback so the company
knows what to improve on and include
women.

Mid-Career

-Men might have hard time knowing

the women is managing and that they
are in charge?
-At this stage women are thinking
about family so, they might level for
maternity level. That can give the
perception of being weak.

-Companies showing that women are

treated equally in the company and
shows that the company value their
opinion matters and this is a very
important way of getting women
interested in leadership position.

- Hiring women that qualify for the

job without thinking about the
stereotypes and have gender equality
-On getting promotion, because of
in companies. Girls notice that and
maternity leave employers might take
motivates them to get more in to more
the consideration that women are less
reliable, and she might leave because of leadership roles and Tech jobs.
it.
-Companies having training program
-Coming back to a job after a long time for women returning from a long
maternity leave might give them a
can have a huge impact on women,
because the woman might question her sense that they belong in the company.
position at work. Where am I going to
fit?
Leadership

-59 percent of the workforce are

women, however 30 percent are in the
Tech field, while 20 percent of women
are in leadership.

-Great improvement were seeing over

time is that women are creating and
starting new business 1.5 times the
average. I believe the reason why is
that it is less risky than working in a
company. A women can be pregnant
-The stigma that people have, when a
women is in power that she is a Diva, and she can take her maternity leave.
It will be little hard to get back to
a Bitch and she have altitude
work. Furthermore, the schedule of the
problems might discourage women to
work may not coordinate with the
take a leadership position.
womans schedule.
-Always having to answer the question
Are you in charge?

- On her article, Emily Peck gave a

statics that Facebooks leadership is
77 percent male. Google and
Facebook are working on moving
more women into leadership roles, and
have made strides recently in
improving work-life policies,
specifically in amping up parental
leave.

The chart above shows the problems such as: why girls/women dont go for
STEM field and leadership roles at different point of their lives? And Solution what we
can do to empower them to pursue these fields? Girls at early age are introduced to what
the roles of gender are. The games they play, the books they read are very different from
boys. I really believe in motivating girls as early as possible to pursue STEM field is
very significant. Parents have huge role they play at early ages, because they can buy
girls toys like Legos to help young girls enhance their technical skills. In class one of the
guest speakers who was founder of TAf academy said Starting young on STEM will
also help the youth that is why TAF academy is very successful. Also in middle and
high school, parents and teachers have huge impact on young girls, because they can
guide them to go for STEM field. They motivate them to join clubs at school, and
encourage them attend after school programs that can boost their technical skills.
Professor Laura also mentioned, Special skills boys have more, since they believe their
meant to do this, however with little effort it can be balanced. This is not just
empowering for me to hear but, it gives hope that if I work hard and put effort I can be
successful. Therefore young women in college need to hear that because, college can be
hard and make them feel worthless/not smart enough, and however it give students hope
that if they put in effort they can succeed no matter the gender or race.
Also schools should encourage college students to participate in researches and
internships. Kathleen works at AT&T as cybersecurity, and she was one of the first guest
speakers. She said that at her work, less than 10 percent of cyber security workers are
women! Every year there are one million open position in the cybersecurity field and it
pays well. Interns make 64k per year at AT&T. This is one of the good reasons why
students should get internships, students can earn money and gain new skills. She also
said AT&T might hire their interns, which the starting salary is 80K. This is a huge
opportunity for colleges to encouraging women to go to career fairs and meet with
employers, as well as try to get internships. That would eliminate the struggles of
transition from college to the early career stage of life. On the last day of class, one of
the alums said you may went to school for your whole life and some of you since
kindergarten nonstop and its weird to transition to the real world. This is why getting
internship and having the chance of getting hired after graduation in a place where the
environment seems familiar can help on the transition. At work place, higher
management might think women are not reliable because of maternity leaves and that
impacts womens career in a big way. They might not be promoted, get hired and that
impacts women in many more ways. That is why, I believe women are creating their
own businesses faster than the average, because they are in charge and they make their
own schedule in however it works for them. Creating owns business is taking on a huge
leadership role. On the other side being in a leadership position in a company can create

10

many problem. Old men having issues that a woman are in charge and many stigmas that
comes with it. On the leadership part the chart, there is a quote that I took from one of
the readings in class and it shows how Facebook and Google are trying to move women
that are qualified in to a leadership position roles. What Facebook and Google are trying
to work on is a huge motivation for women, to go for higher paying technical jobs. It
might be a complicated issue however, when young woman like myself notice that big
companies, parents, and teachers are encouraging girls to pursue STEM field, motivate
girls to pursue these careers.

Important things I took away from Info-102:

The first thing I learned is that, as Professor would say syllabus is king, because it
helps organize and be on top of class deliverables. The one thing that brought my interest
in this class was that, on first day of class Professor said we will be talking about how
being a minority effect as negatively. However, we can change these negativities and use
them to our advantage. That was very important for me to hear. Since I am a black
woman there are many stereotypes that affects me in many different ways.
This class have thought me to get out of my comfort zone. For example, introducing
myself in front of huge lecture. Similarly presenting my research and idea in front of
class which Im not good at but, this class have definitely helped me a lot with this. Also
I love working with groups and this class have gave me many opportunities to work with
groups and improve my skills on working with group.
The main thing that I took away from this class and has been stuck with me since first
day of school was how as a student, that I need to be selfish. Because, this is the time to
educate myself so, I have to be selfish with my time now, as a result it can benefit me for
the future. This is my third year in college now and this statement professor said was the
most impactful thing that I been told.
I learned from one of the guest speakers that was a specialist in Branding, that I am a
brand. I have to learn how to represent myself to anyone in the best way possible. That
means no matter what job experience I had, I have to know how translate it in a way that
shapes to the employers needs. I learned having LinkedIn profile is very important in
the professional world. I have to think about what I bring to the table? Why I am
different from thousands of students that graduated with me, with the same degree?
Overall I have to think about my service.
Having diversity in the work place or school have lots of advantage. In a work
place diversity can help the industry be more efficient and innovative. One of the speaker
say from last day of class mentioned that, Diversity broads your markets which means,
more money. This is because people have different experiences and perspective with

11

problem solving and having that asset in organization will leave the company better off.
If a company doesnt consider or have diversity, they are ignoring half of the population
which are half of the consumers and half of the work force. Big companies hiring a
diverse group can help minority groups in achieving their goals and inspire younger
generations
CAREER PLAN
Background Story: I am a junior majoring in Economics. What I love about economics
is that it have every part of business such as, marketing, analyzing and many more
things. The one thing that attracted me to economics is the human interaction part of it.
My sophomore during winter I took Info 101 with Professor Bob as an elective and that
is how I was introduced to the informatics program. I really enjoyed that class, I liked
the environment of it. I wasnt sure if I was interested in informatics by the end of the
quarter. So I decided to take another Informatics class during spring quarter, I took Info
200 with Professor Mike Freemen. I loved the class, it gave me a whole new perceptive
on ISchool and how information system works. Also this school year I ended up taking
two Info classes, I really enjoyed how its group based, and it thought how present my
ideas and improved my problem solving skills. I am plaining on applying to the
informatics major by the end of this school year and Im very excited about it. The one
connection that I made with economics and informatics is the data analyzing and the
human interaction. Such as economics we predict how customers react to price changes
and other things using data. Also in informatics we can use analyzed data and think
about how we can translate this information to people/customers using technology.
Dream Job: I really want to intern at a startup company this summer and right now I
am applying to whatever Im qualified for. Because in the future Im hoping to create
and own my own business and working at a startup company will expose me to learn the
struggle and the ways of having a new business. However before all that thought I really
want to work at Boeing as a data Analysis. Also Boeing pays for tuition if I decide to go
to graduate school which, Im planning too. I want to get my MBA from UW after a few
years of getting undergrad degree. If that whole thing works out by the end, I really want
to help low income, underrepresented students get to college and help them be successful
in college.

I reserved the right to wake up smarter tomorrow than I did today

PROFESSOR LAURA

12

13