what makes a good product I can ask any
one of you in this room and perhaps
someone will tell me that it is the team
behind it so what if that seemed to 85%
consist of whites middle-age men called
save or John then are we really making
good products for everyone cuz you know
that’s basically what the tech industry
looks like today according to recent
studies gender balance teams have a
strong correlation with performance so
science is telling us that a gender
balanced team will perform better than a
team that is not gender balanced thus
make better products still inequality is
glowing with its presence in the tech
industry now it doesn’t have to be that
way and I’m here in Oslo today to share
with you an idea of what you and I can
do to make a difference but let’s start
with some trivia on the matter did you
know that the first programmer was a
woman Ada Lovelace is said to be the
first person on earth to realize the
true power of the computing machine and
she even wrote a few algorithms to
broaden to usage of it now this was back
in 1843 and here we stand almost 200
years later having trouble recruiting
women to tech so naturally I asked
myself what are we doing wrong I mean we
try we really do try
we create great initiatives to teach
girls how to code we create women in
tech events to bring women to tech and
help them find their passion for the
industry and how are these events
working out for us be honest maybe not
as good as we would want them to at
least not as fast as we want them to it
is my opinion that we offer them too
late these women have already
demonstrated an interest in tech by
showing up there and frankly we need a
bigger target group than that let’s
raise our hands how many have ever
bought their daughter or their friend’s
daughter or her sisters daughter a doll
raise your hands look around the room
quite a few right now keep your hands in
the air if you’ve bought that very same
girl a video game intended specifically
for her to play with keep your hands
where I can see them not as many hands
in the air right that is the thing we
need our youngest girls to be curious
about things even technology but if we
hand them dolls to play with then there
is a chance that when they’re old enough
to be interested in technology they have
already decided the technology is a boys
club it’s not for me now I’m a woman and
I’m a mechanical engineer and I was a
very curious child I was never told what
toys to play with or more like I got to
play with whatever was there because
when we came to Sweden as Yugoslavia
refugees honestly my parents had more
alarming things to think about know
whether or not I was playing with dolls
and so most of the time I wasn’t I
played with an old inherited Nintendo
and at the time no one made a big deal
out of that
I was a kid playing a game now imagine
me as a teen I’m wearing the biggest
Fela sweater
you could ever imagine and I’ve hid in
my hair in a cap I’m making my way to
gamers paradise which was the local
internet cafe in Malmo you know going
there to play can strike with my friends
now I’m going there intentionally
dressed like a boy why do you think that
is because by that time people had
developed a fixed opinion on whether or
not I should be playing video games and
that started sharing those with me I
never wanted to be the girl that played
video games I just wanted to be a gamer
and so I went there just like a boy and
I played and after a while I got sick of
asking for help when things started
breaking so I learned how to fix a few
things myself I open up the computer see
what’s in there I even coded some basic
htlm and CSS before I knew what that was
because I had a lunar storm profile page
I needed to make it sassy what else the
kid I hung out there a lot and in school
I even had a small CD cracking business
I was your go-to kid to get the next
simps expansion really cheap and I love
that said to me there was never any
industry that was more interesting in
tech tech was me whether I was an obese
Italian plumber or I was blood of rogue
it was always tech and I was always me
doing something that I loved something I
was good at so today when people show up
and they go you don’t look like a gamer
or they say are you a mechanical
engineer I laugh it off basically but
when I was a kid those people could
really get to me sometimes usually
adults
making me feel different in a bad way my
parents generation have through their
unconscious biases affected the clothes
we wear the toys we play with and
definitely the education we choose and
today in 2018 I see parents making a
similar impact so we might as well blame
this inequality thing on her selves now
if you look at it the challenge is quite
simple you and I were not some passive
bystanders looking at life while it
happens to us we’re the ones in charge
of the future and more importantly we’re
the ones responsible for it not the
schools not the companies us as role
models and as parents so onto my idea on
how we crack the code for equality in
the tech industry we let our boys play
video games and we let our girls play
video games as parents we put aside our
own presumptions and we simply encourage
our children to play with different
things and find their own niche if we do
this there will be no need for girls in
college to learn how to code probably if
they want it they will have done it by
then and the boys won’t be way ahead we
won’t need to introduce women to tech we
just need to allow our girls to interact
with it and how do I know that that will
work well I for one I’m a product of
before I leave the stage I want to leave
you with a food for thought something
that we could do tomorrow or the next
time we go to a children’s birthday
party I want to encourage you to get
those children a video game
because few things are as actionable for
creating a quality in tech as awakening
a tech interest at a young age our
actions might spark the reactions that
will fuel the future tech industry thank
you [Applause]
one of you in this room and perhaps
someone will tell me that it is the team
behind it so what if that seemed to 85%
consist of whites middle-age men called
save or John then are we really making
good products for everyone cuz you know
that’s basically what the tech industry
looks like today according to recent
studies gender balance teams have a
strong correlation with performance so
science is telling us that a gender
balanced team will perform better than a
team that is not gender balanced thus
make better products still inequality is
glowing with its presence in the tech
industry now it doesn’t have to be that
way and I’m here in Oslo today to share
with you an idea of what you and I can
do to make a difference but let’s start
with some trivia on the matter did you
know that the first programmer was a
woman Ada Lovelace is said to be the
first person on earth to realize the
true power of the computing machine and
she even wrote a few algorithms to
broaden to usage of it now this was back
in 1843 and here we stand almost 200
years later having trouble recruiting
women to tech so naturally I asked
myself what are we doing wrong I mean we
try we really do try
we create great initiatives to teach
girls how to code we create women in
tech events to bring women to tech and
help them find their passion for the
industry and how are these events
working out for us be honest maybe not
as good as we would want them to at
least not as fast as we want them to it
is my opinion that we offer them too
late these women have already
demonstrated an interest in tech by
showing up there and frankly we need a
bigger target group than that let’s
raise our hands how many have ever
bought their daughter or their friend’s
daughter or her sisters daughter a doll
raise your hands look around the room
quite a few right now keep your hands in
the air if you’ve bought that very same
girl a video game intended specifically
for her to play with keep your hands
where I can see them not as many hands
in the air right that is the thing we
need our youngest girls to be curious
about things even technology but if we
hand them dolls to play with then there
is a chance that when they’re old enough
to be interested in technology they have
already decided the technology is a boys
club it’s not for me now I’m a woman and
I’m a mechanical engineer and I was a
very curious child I was never told what
toys to play with or more like I got to
play with whatever was there because
when we came to Sweden as Yugoslavia
refugees honestly my parents had more
alarming things to think about know
whether or not I was playing with dolls
and so most of the time I wasn’t I
played with an old inherited Nintendo
and at the time no one made a big deal
out of that
I was a kid playing a game now imagine
me as a teen I’m wearing the biggest
Fela sweater
you could ever imagine and I’ve hid in
my hair in a cap I’m making my way to
gamers paradise which was the local
internet cafe in Malmo you know going
there to play can strike with my friends
now I’m going there intentionally
dressed like a boy why do you think that
is because by that time people had
developed a fixed opinion on whether or
not I should be playing video games and
that started sharing those with me I
never wanted to be the girl that played
video games I just wanted to be a gamer
and so I went there just like a boy and
I played and after a while I got sick of
asking for help when things started
breaking so I learned how to fix a few
things myself I open up the computer see
what’s in there I even coded some basic
htlm and CSS before I knew what that was
because I had a lunar storm profile page
I needed to make it sassy what else the
kid I hung out there a lot and in school
I even had a small CD cracking business
I was your go-to kid to get the next
simps expansion really cheap and I love
that said to me there was never any
industry that was more interesting in
tech tech was me whether I was an obese
Italian plumber or I was blood of rogue
it was always tech and I was always me
doing something that I loved something I
was good at so today when people show up
and they go you don’t look like a gamer
or they say are you a mechanical
engineer I laugh it off basically but
when I was a kid those people could
really get to me sometimes usually
adults
making me feel different in a bad way my
parents generation have through their
unconscious biases affected the clothes
we wear the toys we play with and
definitely the education we choose and
today in 2018 I see parents making a
similar impact so we might as well blame
this inequality thing on her selves now
if you look at it the challenge is quite
simple you and I were not some passive
bystanders looking at life while it
happens to us we’re the ones in charge
of the future and more importantly we’re
the ones responsible for it not the
schools not the companies us as role
models and as parents so onto my idea on
how we crack the code for equality in
the tech industry we let our boys play
video games and we let our girls play
video games as parents we put aside our
own presumptions and we simply encourage
our children to play with different
things and find their own niche if we do
this there will be no need for girls in
college to learn how to code probably if
they want it they will have done it by
then and the boys won’t be way ahead we
won’t need to introduce women to tech we
just need to allow our girls to interact
with it and how do I know that that will
work well I for one I’m a product of
before I leave the stage I want to leave
you with a food for thought something
that we could do tomorrow or the next
time we go to a children’s birthday
party I want to encourage you to get
those children a video game
because few things are as actionable for
creating a quality in tech as awakening
a tech interest at a young age our
actions might spark the reactions that
will fuel the future tech industry thank
you [Applause]
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