Toys, Engineering, Eggs (huh?), and CWIC (Celebrating Women in Computing)

"[:02] This is your brain.

[:17] This is your brain on princess.

[:40] This is your brain on engineering.

[1:18] Any questions?"

http://youtu.be/ArNAB9GFDog

Seen it yet? Debbie Sterling and her amazing company GoldieBlox have done it again. If you aren't familiar with her work, I highly recommend her Tedx Talk, "Inspiring the Next Generation of Female Engineers: Debbie Sterling at TedxPSU." What will YOU do to ensure girls are not just allowed but ENCOURAGED to build, design, code, take apart, investigate, and even (safely, with adult supervision) blow things up and fly? 

You know I love a princess. However, I also love giving girls and women a CHOICE. It's now undisputed that the toys our girls are provided as options comprise, at least in part, whether subliminally or knowingly, their beliefs regarding the roles they are capable of having in society. Yes, what is possible, what is accessible, what exists, what is real, even the very dreams of what she wants to be when she grows up--from toys. 

If you have a little girl in your life, get her a GoldieBlox "toy." (If you don't have a girl in your life, you are not off the hook. Go find one. Hint: donate to schools, shelters, doctor's office waiting rooms, and toy drives! If you have trouble finding the product, ask for it. If you're really feeling inspired, ask for the integration of "boys" and "girls" toys in stores (online and off).

The things of play today are the foundational building blocks of our daughters' woman's the world's . . . tomorrow.  Expose her to ALL the options. See what she gravitates toward, her aptitudes, and in doing so, tell her you recognize, appreciate, and respect her mind. (And yes, still let her play with dolls). 

You see, putting toys designed to develop the minds of budding engineers on the play rug next to those for dress-up and babies (conspired to create consumers of make-up and motherhood?) is more powerful than you may think. Through toys, we acknowledge careers and give permission to dream, and deliver a powerful message--we believe she is capable of success. It's a promise--a promise to give her the tools, resources, education, and support necessary to ACCESS, PURSUE, and ultimately SUCCEED in making her engineering/IT/CS/etc dream a reality. 

It is MY dream that some day people can look back on this post and not understand it . . . because why wouldn't a little girl play with engineering toys (remember Mouse Trap?) and of course she can be in IT! I am confident that we will get there. 

The Celebrating Women in Computing conference I attended over the weekend was primarily geared toward college-aged women pursuing degrees in IT (both undergrad and postgrad). (Click here for program details, and view information on the keynote speakers and topics here . . . the Academic Keynote was fascinating, but that's another blog entirely). I was both inspired and humbled by the participants. I was also thrilled to see the encouragement they were receiving by so many huge industry names (sponsors include Google, Qualcomm, Microsoft Research, ACM-W, ViaSat, Yelp, General Atomics, Harvey Mudd College, UCSD, Point Loma Nazarene University, UCSB, and Pomona College).

A real-life example of the kind of programs I am referring to was provided by the participants of WISH Cal Poly (Women Involved in Software & Hardware), "club that was founded by females of the Computer Science Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in 2007." Student mentoring programs like WISH are catapulting us in the right direction. According to the WISH website:

"WISH has two primary aims:

1. Providing a community of support for females in computing majors and minors.

2. Continually evaluating and attempting to rectify the gender gap in computing majors and minors and/or looking for the reasons behind the gender gap."

Listening to the panel of four students and their faculty advisor, Julie Workman, gave me goosebumps. I am a strong supporter of mentoring programs and the passion and support it breeds. It also made me a little sad, for if I had access to that kind of program 15 years ago, I just might have had the courage to declare CS as a major myself. I hope that some day, we don't need WISH. We're not there yet, though. 

Women with a career in computing and engineering, I applaud you. I urge you to look into programs to encourage more women and girls to follow in your footsteps, and should you not find any, to CREATE it (after all, BUILDING is what you do). Don't stop there. Be a mentor. Help her graduate, and then make those big names fight for her. Yes, she's just THAT good :D