A month from now exactly, on March 24th, it will be Ada Lovelace Day. I urge you to sign the pledge to participate and to spread the word around you so that we can reach our ambitious target of 3072 bloggers writing about a female role-model in tech or science on that day.
There are many brilliant and inspiring women in the traditionally male-dominated scientific and technical fields who often do not get as much attention or “screen time” as they might deserve. This is a real shame, all the more because women need to see female role models more than men need to see male ones, as Suw Charman-Anderson, the initiator of Ada Lovelace Day, explains very well in last year’s kick-off post. Ada Lovelace Day is a direct solution to this, by inundating the blogosphere with posts about inspiring women over the space of a day.
I took part last year by writing a post in French about Marie Curie. Ada Lovelace Day 2009 was a big success, with around 2000 people participating, media attention, a comic which took on a life of its own to become The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage and even a T-shirt, and the drive to organize Ada Lovelace Day 2010, complete with a higher target for people participating, and offline events.
We need your help to make this happen and reach our target of 3072 people participating. What can you do?
- sign the pledge and blog about a woman in tech you admire on March 24th (please read the FAQ for more information about the why and how)
- write about Ada Lovelace Day on your blog, and tweet about it to spread awareness
- talk to the people around you: if you know any bloggers or influential people, ask them to participate too and spread the word
- join the Ada Lovelace Day group on Facebook and invite your friends to join too
- organize an offline event in your town!
I know that for many of you who think the event is a great idea and want to participate, the big question is “who should I blog about?” — particularly if you already took part last year. Here are a few thoughts to help you out:
- you can write about any woman, be she alive or dead
- the woman you choose to write about does not have to be famous — but she can
- you can write about more than one woman if you like — or just about one
- think of the women who have influenced or inspired you in some way or another throughout your life (teachers? family members? public figures? historical figures? friends? colleagues?)
- “tech and science” is a pretty loose field, on purpose
- if you are in the field of science or tech, look around you: are there women you know (or know of) who are not getting as much recognition as they would deserve?
- your post doesn’t have to be about “the woman who most inspired me” or “my absolute top role-model, and she happens to be a woman” — go for “a woman who inspires me, or whom I admire”.
“Blog”, here, is shorthand for any kind of publication: video, podcast episode, web comic, newspaper column…
Thanks a lot for being part of Ada Lovelace Day!