GenPORT: sharing knowledge and inspiring collaborative action on gender and science

By Juliet Webster, Director, Gender and ICT Research Programme, IN3-UOC

Imagining the world of computing as if Steve Jobs had been a woman requires a considerable degree of guesswork, since we do not know for sure precisely which aspects of this world would be different from how they currently are. Nevertheless, during the last three decades, research has taught us a great deal about the gender relations of science and technology, and provided a firm basis for practical action to advance gender equality. The problem is, though, that this growing body of information is scattered, and for many reasons it is not always easily accessible.

We are therefore very pleased to announce today the beginning of a new four-year action on gender equality in science which we are co-ordinating in the Gender and ICT Programme at the IN3. The ‘GenPORT’ project will exploit the numerous resources that try to advance gender equality in science, technology and innovation. Although the wealth of gender and science resources developed in Europe over the last decade offers enormous potential for knowledge sharing and informed action, these resources are dispersed, and have varying degrees of visibility and usability. Globally, too, major gaps in the dissemination of past and present knowledge persist, while new knowledge is constantly being produced. This information needs to be offered in accessible, timely, and useable ways to enhance the potential for its exploitation. This is the purpose of the GenPORT project, which will develop an online community of practice on gender equality in science, technology and innovation.

«Although the wealth of gender and science resources developed in Europe over the last decade offers enormous potential, these resources are dispersed, and have varying degrees of visibility and usability»

Exploiting the Open University of Catalonia’s established expertise in developing online resources, the project will create an internet portal to provide an open entry-point to the high-quality research, policy reports and practical resources on gender, science, technology and innovation which already exist, and to new resources as they are generated. The main gender and science policy environments in the EU, US, Australia and beyond will provide the platform for developing the collection worldwide. Policy support will also be provided through research syntheses and ICT-enhanced policy briefings.

Since it will support a community of practice, the portal will be interactive and dynamic. We will achieve this dynamism by ‘crowd-sourcing’ the portal: we want to draw stakeholders in, share knowledge, create web tools to add value to resources, and exploit social media to boost the impact of the key messages coming from the latest research and policy insights.

«GenPORT will showcase a vast array of resources and innovative user interaction to boost practical and policy action by illuminating the contribution of gender equality to science excellence»

On-line community activities will be at the centre of the portal. We are also planning physical meetings and stakeholders’ events to create synergies for increased collaboration between members of the community of practice. Our aim is that this portal, showcasing a vast array of resources and innovative user interaction, will boost practical and policy action by illuminating the contribution of gender equality to science excellence. It will link closely with EU activities to promote structural change in science and research, specifically those being undertaken through the EU COST Action GenderSTE, which under Inés Sánchez de Madariaga’s leadership is also concerned with policy action for gender equality in science. In the US, the portal will exploit and promote the work being done under the National Science Foundation's ADVANCE program, among others.

We have received funding for this action from the EU FP7 Science in Society Programme under the theme ‘Creating a transnational community of practitioners (Internet Portal)’. Five partners — GESIS in Germany, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini in Italy, Matej Bel University in Slovakia, Örebro University in Sweden and Portia in the UK — will work with us to develop the portal over the next four years. In the longer run, we aim to make the portal self-sustaining through the contributions of community members, so that its resources are permanently available to the gender and science community.

We are convinced that a shared vision, and shared information to achieve it, are vital elements in creating a society where the question posed in this blog no longer carries any meaning.

Contact us

We are keen to hear from you, whether you are an academic, policy maker, employer, professional association, or have another type of practical interest in this field and would like to be involved in this project by contributing your resources, ideas, news, and expertise. You can reach us at the addresses below:

• Dr Juliet Webster, Project co-ordinator: jwebster@uoc.edu
• Dr Jörg Müller, Project manager: jmuller@uoc.edu

Women in the techie world, far from being a bed of roses

By Athene Donald, Professor, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge

If Steve Jobs had been a woman, let’s say called Stephanie, one has to ask whether she could have gone on to be the leader of Apple. Not because of a lack of brains, or innovation skills or imagination, but because she would have found the environment in which she worked so unpleasant she might have decided she’d rather work in some other field which didn’t make it so hard to progress.

Maybe Stephanie would have gone on to excel in some other sphere, or maybe her innate creativity was sufficiently specific to the world of computing that her amazing skills would have been permanently lost, but as the recent story of Adria Richards —known as "Donglegate"― reminds us, women and the techie world isn’t a match made in heaven ―at least as yet.

«Somehow tech culture is stuck back in the Stone Age and, given the vile abuse that was generated by Donglegate, it seems unlikely it’s going to clean up its act fast»

I’m a female physicist, and I’ve frequently found myself in a minority of one in a meeting room, or a somewhat larger minority at conferences, but the sort of hostility which seems to pervade the world of PyCon —where Donglegate took place― and the like is beyond my experience. I don’t believe academic science is full of misogyny, although it may be full of people (men and women) suffering from a bellyful of unconscious bias.

Pirelli calendars no longer grace my department walls and I haven’t seen a woman asked about her engagement ring and child-bearing intentions for a long time at interview. Somehow tech culture is stuck back in the Stone Age and, given the vile abuse that was generated by Donglegate, it seems unlikely it’s going to clean up its act fast.

So, if Stephanie Jobs had been born, I suspect she might have been inclined not to fight against the tide just because she had so much to offer, but to take her skills to an arena which was better able to appreciate them and treat her decently at the same time.

Women can have a family and at the same time excel in the sphere of innovation

By Rebecca Chiao, co-founder and director, HarassMap

As manager of an organisation that uses technology to help changing the social acceptance of a terrible situation like sexual harassment in Egypt, Rebecca Chiao kindly agreed to put herself in front of the camera and give us her reflections on the main question of this blog. Chiao was one of the featured speakers at TEDxBarcelona Women event. We deeply thank the organisers for this contribution.

«When it comes to financial decisions from investors and partnerships, a lot of people tend to consider that women are entrepreneurs as a hobby»

Towards a new generation of versatile "Jobs"

By Isaac Mao, co-founder and director, Social Brain Foundation; philosopher at Sharism.org

CC Joichi Ito

I never had an Apple product for my daily use, but I did buy some of them for my family members, including my 7-year-old daughter VV and my father. I believe Apple really fits those people who are afraid of using a computer, or are trying to touch base the digital world. So it’s not difficult to imagine why China is now the biggest market for Apple products. 

Each time VV shows me some new apps on her iPad I can’t help praising: "it's really an exquisite toy", and my daughter always nods back. Once she even said: "(iPad is) like a pretty princess". I had to agree. The sense of touching the screen and the borders of Apple’s products really prevails the feelings I get on my Google tablet. Then, I reckon I would be not surprised if Apple's products were designed by some deft women. 

Even though we still remember Steve Jobs as the man that enabled those exquisite toys, Masha Ma, one of the top fashion designers in China, told me she always thought Jobs had a female heart. That might be the reason why he could transfer the view of ICT products from lame machines into soft fashion devices.

«After Steve Jobs, the combination of both aggressiveness and sensitivity is inexorably indispensable in industry»

After Steve Jobs, the combination of both aggressiveness and sensitivity is inexorably indispensable in industry. If any other “Jobs” wants to copy his success, he or she can’t be merely a designer or an engineer, but should be both. Last March, Masha just finished her show in Paris, which included very cool 3D printed earrings in her new seasonal collection. I see this combination of design and ICT on her work as well: apart from being a designer she also has a geeky heart. And more interestingly, she is now learning how to use Python (a programming language) to code her next season's design work. 

I don't know what would have happened if Steve Jobs had been a woman. In fact, Jobs' gender shouldn't matter, only his legacy. In the coming maker's age, as author Chris Anderson predicted, future may present us more versatile "Jobs", and surely they will be indistinctly called Steve or Stephanie.

A portrait of Stephanie Jobs

By Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, Vice-Chancellor, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

If Steve Jobs had been a woman, she would have probably been named Stephanie and would have started and co-founded Apple in her family’s kitchen, not in her family’s garage. Stephanie Jobs would have completed her bachelor’s degree and continued to obtain a PhD. She would have postponed marriage to avoid the hassle of balancing work and family life. She would have started her career in a male-dominated division of an IT-company and would have become the first woman to rise to its top CEO position. She would have been a dynamic, visionary and charismatic leader driving the company to greatness.

As a leader, Stephanie would have worked extremely hard, moved very fast and made creative decisions. While Steve was job-centered, she would have neglected neither her employees nor their families. Stephanie would have used the same presentation style for launching her Apple products to motivate and instill in her employees, particularly women, the need for achievement, power and affiliation, while meeting the goals of their personal lives. She would have used her CEO position and charismatic leadership style to help her workers identify with her on the emotional level, including sharing her battle with cancer. She would not have dared to be different, and would have made decisions outside the normal rules .

«As a leader, Stephanie would have worked extremely hard, moved very fast and made creative decisions»

In business, as in life, she would have cooperated rather than competed. She would have been very focused and clear in what she wanted, pouring her ideas into her products with passion and intensity. All these would have been part of her perfectionism in creating the most beautiful and highly-sought after consumer products, as well as leading one of the most successful technology companies in the world today.

If Jobs had been a woman, she would have paid more serious attention to her health. After being diagnosed with cancer, she would have stepped away from Apple and devoted her life to her family and charity. She would have developed a Foundation and devoted her talents and genius to solving incurable diseases, environmental problems and human conflicts around the world. If Steve Jobs had been a woman, she would not only made our world more beautiful with iPods, iPads, iTunes, Macintosh and Pixar Movies, but she would have also used her products to make our world a safer place to live in.