Women in Tech #13 | Deepnews.ai

Feminine design video games (#4) Women on boards (#17)	Charles Murray (#8) AI gender bias (#18)

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‘COVID-19 does discriminate.’ It’s making it harder for women of color to get into tech	Fast Company
The CEO of Reboot Representation observes that as COVID-19 makes the lives of late high school and early college students uncertain, young women of color working toward a career in tech are facing a steeper uphill battle. Editor’s Note:

A CEO’s pledge: ‘I will not accept bias or racism in our company, period’	Protocol
Tech companies can be both inclusive and high-performing, says PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada, but “people will constantly tell you it can’t be done.” Editor’s Note:

Making people aware of their implicit biases doesn’t usually change minds. But here’s what does work	Knowable Magazine
A quarter-century ago, social psychologist Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington developed a test that exposed an uncomfortable aspect of the human mind: People have deep-seated biases of which they are completely unaware. And these hidden attitudes — known as implicit bias — influence the way we act toward each other, often with unintended discriminatory consequences. Editor’s Note:

Why feminine design is the next frontier to more gender-inclusive video games	Mashable
From a programming perspective, binary is embedded into the way developers make video games. But beyond the 1s and 0s of coding itself, for a long time another kind of binary has been imposed onto game design, genre labels, and industry marketing: gender. Editor’s Note:

Potential down market could temper VCs’ promise of more diversity	TechCrunch
Venture hiring by definition is exclusive. Legally, investors have to be able to fork out their own capital, ranging from hundreds of thousands to multi-millions, to join as a partner of a fund, meaning to be a senior partner typically requires some personal wealth. The industry is exceedingly gender imbalanced, with data showing that 84.6% of senior investors are male. The vast majority of VCs, too, come from very similar — and privileged — educational backgrounds from institutions like Harvard or Stanford. And they happen to be white. Editor’s Note: Part of the problem in the diversity in tech funding is the diversity of those doing a large amount of the funding, VCs. Here Natasha Mascarenhas explores, including the impact of the pandemic.

Sellers of Sex Toys Capitalized on All That Alone Time	New York Times
As the pandemic approached its peak, online retailers saw sales spike. Editor’s Note:

The Great Recession was called a “mancession.” This one could be devastating for women.	Vox
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Eleanore Fernandez worked as an executive assistant at a company that catered healthy snacks for Silicon Valley offices. Editor’s Note:

The gene delusion	New Statesman
The genetic data around human difference is inconclusive – but that does not stop right-wing thinkers using it to excuse profound social inequalities Editor’s Note:

The tech industry has a terrible track record on diversity. Here’s how 17 companies that spoke out against racism this week say they plan to improve.	Business Insider
Business Insider tracked what enterprise tech companies have said publicly about the ongoing protests, along with their diversity statistics for leadership and their overall workforce, and asked how they plan to promote more diverse and equitable workplaces. Editor’s Note:

Women in Tech: “Join meetups and other women tech groups”	JAXenter
A research study by The National Center for Women & Information Technology showed that “gender diversity has specific benefits in technology settings,” which could explain why tech companies have started to invest in initiatives that aim to boost the number of female applicants, recruit them in a more effective way, retain them for longer, and give them the opportunity to advance. But is it enough? Editor’s Note:

The horrifying truth about being a Black woman founder in Canada	BetaKit
Of the thousands of Canadian venture deals produced from 2014 to 2019, so few Black women founders raised money that these figures are very close to nothing. Editor’s Note: Recent protests have started national and international conversations about racial injustice. Here Amoye Henry writes about her situation as a black woman, and the lack of funding that black women receive from VCs in Canada.

Chennai-based start-up raises $5.5 million	The Hindu
Chennai-based agritech start-up WayCool Foods raised $5.5 million through debt financing from IndusInd Bank Ltd, guaranteed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). Editor’s Note:

Reframing privilege: real advice to change biased narratives in tech workplaces	Silicon Angle
For an industry that prides itself on innovation and change, tech sure seems to be stuck in a rut when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Editor’s Note:

Fast-growing Madison Reed is eyeing men’s hair next; “We’re going to blow the doors off that market”	TechCrunch
Amy Errett’s company, Madison Reed, sells in-home care color. It may not sound like a glamorous business but, as it turns out, it’s a very durable one, done the right way. Not only has the seven-year-old outfit been slowing chipping away at the dominant personal care giants like L’Oreal that have long controlled what’s currently a $30 billion market, but during one of the most dramatic economic downturns of the past century, it has been attracting new customers. Editor’s Note:

Indira urges UN agencies to support women in COVID-19 crisis	Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nesa Indira today urged the United Nations (UN) Women and International Organizations to support women’s employment and development during the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Editor’s Note:

[Techie Tuesday] How Riddhi Mittal, who started coding at 10, is using her tech prowess to help combat coronavirus	Your Story
It was love at first sight for Riddhi Mittal when she first saw a computer at the age of five. At 10, she got her first taste for programming and coding, and since then, it has been hard for her to take her finger off the keyboard. Editor’s Note:

Nicklaus: Investors want women on corporate boards. And they’re getting them	St Louis Post-Dispatch
Big investors have begun demanding more diversity. This year, influential proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services announced that it would recommend voting against nominating committee chairs on all-male boards. Editor’s Note: The power of many companies ultimately rests in their boards, which have traditionally been dominated by men. Here David Nicklaus explores the state of affairs from a local perspective in St. Louis. Warning: Because of data privacy compliance reasons, this article may not be accessible in the EU.

AI Gender Bias is No Glitch in the System – UN Report	Tech.co
Speaking virtually at the CogX conference, Judy Wiseman, professor of sociology at the London School of Economics, described the problems facing women in tech after gathering evidence for more than a year. Editor’s Note:

Suggestions to further empower women’s employment and safety under the National Economic Revival Plan (Penjana)	The Star (Malaysia)
The Women’s Aid Organisation views positively the gender-responsive components of the National Economic Revival Plan (Penjana) announced by the Prime Minister on June 5, 2020. This includes childcare subsidies, flexible work arrangement incentives, and cash transfers for single mothers. This is a good start towards retaining women in the workforce by helping working parents cope with the double burden of paid professional activities and unpaid care responsibilities. Editor’s Note:

Kerala’s eWe Enables Women To Drive Digital Commerce In Tough Times	Inc42
Built around the idea of social commerce, the eWe app acts as a virtual store for women to sell products Editor’s Note:

The Sorry State of Diversity on Tech Boards	NY Magazine
On the latest Pivot podcast, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway discuss Ohanian’s move, diversity on tech boards, and the power those boards have to create real change. Editor’s Note:

Maybe Sheryl Sandberg Should Be Leaning Out	Bloomberg
Facebook’s leadership is yet again displaying a spectacular failure to take responsibility for the monster it created. As President Donald Trump and others brazenly use the social network to spread misinformation and foment violence at protests against police brutality, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is clinging to the lame argument that he can’t constitutionally do anything — even as other social media take action and his own top employees publicly object and quit in disgust. Editor’s Note:

This Colombian Scientist Is Searching For A Battery That Won’t Explode	Forbes
Lithium batteries power our phones and modern lifestyle, but they have also been known to catch on fire. Colombian scientist Laura Loaiza is working on ways to increase the safety of batteries by finding ways to move away from volatile and flammable components. Editor’s Note:

Dorothy Zinberg, a founding member of the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, dies at 92 – The Boston Globe	Boston Globe ($)
“At the end of her life, she was at most two degrees of separation from everybody,” said musician and mathematician Tom Lehrer, who considered himself a dear friend, though he added that she referred to everyone as a “dear friend.” Editor’s Note:

No house of straw: Sarah Wigglesworth’s eco-home, 20 years on	The Guardian
Gender inequality in architecture is one of those recurrent themes. In the mid-90s, Wigglesworth co-curated an exhibition, symposium and accompanying book called Desiring Practices: Architecture, Gender and the Interdisciplinary. Editor’s Note:


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