Among the many accomplishments of The Bookseller-led FutureBook Hack of this past weekend, one of the most impressive is a 40-percent representation of women among the hacker-participants.
Even more impressive, this percentage persisted during the de-facto second test of the Sunday presentations-day turnout: sixteen of the final 40 participants were women. There was at least one all-women’s team and several teams with both men and women as the event concluded.
And if anything, Melinda Seckington, a developer with Future Learn (associated with the Open University programme), says she’s surprised more women don’t engage in hackathons – as a way to improve their odds in technology overall, not just to break up the tech boys’ club.
“I’ve spoken to some women in the past few weeks,” she tells me, “and they think they don’t have the right skills to do anything worthwhile at a hack day.
By Porter Anderson | @Porter_Anderson
The FutureBook: FutureBook Hack: 40% women and proud of it
Read the full post at: The Bookseller’s The FutureBook