Women In Computing

You got the job. You meet all the qualifications. You're doing the work. But something feels off. You're trying so hard to fit in, but you don't feel like you belong. And there's a difference. Fitting in means changing yourself to match the environment. Belonging means being valued for who you are. Fitting in is exhausting. Belonging is freeing. I see this all the time with women in STEM. They mold themselves to the culture. They laugh at jokes that aren't funny. They downplay their strengths to not seem "too much." They silence their opinions to avoid being labeled "difficult." And they call it professionalism. But it's not professionalism. It's survival. You can fit into a toxic culture. You can fit into a team that doesn't respect you. You can fit into a role that drains you. But that doesn't mean you belong there. Belonging feels different. It's when you can speak up and be heard. When your ideas are valued, not dismissed. When you don't have to shrink to make others comfortable. When you can be yourself and still be respected. If you're constantly trying to fit, ask yourself: Am I changing who I am to be here? Or is this place making space for who I am? Because the right place won't require you to be someone else. The right place will make room for you as you are. Stop fitting in where you don't belong. Start finding where you do.

You’re getting stalked. Harassed. Doxxed. The social media platform says: “This doesn’t violate our policies.” Tracy Chou heard that one too many times—so she stopped reporting and started building. Tracy was a Stanford-trained software engineer. A second hire at Quora. A founding engineer at Pinterest, shipping everything from infrastructure to growth. Quietly brilliant. Head down. Crushing code. Then, in 2013, she published one blog post asking a simple question: “Where are the numbers?”—a challenge to tech companies to reveal how few women were in engineering roles. It went viral. Tracy went from backend engineer to accidental face of diversity in tech. But visibility came at a cost. Trolls. Stalkers. 10,000 password reset requests. Conspiracy theorists claiming she was married to James Comey. Real-life threats. Real-life fear. She reported it. Platforms shrugged. So she did what Silicon Valley loves to preach but rarely practices: she built the product she needed. Block Party was born in 2018—not as a startup idea, but as self-defense.   What started as a Twitter anti-harassment filter has grown into a powerful browser extension used across 9+ platforms. It deep cleans your social media, locks down privacy settings, and gives users back control of their data. Because Tracy knows: what starts online rarely stays there. Venmo. Strava. Instagram. We’re bleeding personal information by default. And for women, activists, and marginalized communities—that can be life-threatening. So Block Party does the hard part: scans your accounts, flags your risks, and helps you wipe your data trail before someone weaponizes it. And she’s not stopping there. She’s advocating for legislation that would force platforms to open their APIs. Why? So third-party tools like Block Party can exist without permission. She wants a future where people can build their own feeds, filters, and safety nets—not beg corporations to care. In Tracy’s world, privacy isn’t a product feature—it’s a fundamental right. Stanford Terman Scholar. TIME Woman of the Year. Forbes 30 Under 30. Co-founder of Project Include. She’s graced the covers of WIRED, The Atlantic, and MIT Tech Review. And yet, had you heard her name before today? In 2025, I’m sharing 365 stories of women entrepreneurs in 365 days—because the women reshaping tech, safety, and society deserve to be celebrated every day. 💡Follow Justine J. for more #femalefounder spotlights.

Proud to share that Saudi Arabia ranked #1 for female inclusion in AI. According to Stanford University's AI Index Report 2025, Saudi Arabia now ranks… → 3rd in global AI job growth → 4th in the number of top AI models → And 1st in the world for female inclusion in AI That last one stopped me. While most countries are still talking about women in AI, Saudi has already built the pipeline, and the talent is showing up. Here’s what’s behind this unexpected lead: 1. Women are being trained, not sidelined. Through initiatives like Elevate (with Google Cloud), the goal is to train 25,000 women in cloud and AI by 2028. And these aren’t one-off workshops. These are deep, technical programs backed by KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), SDAIA | سدايا, Apple, and more. 2. They're entering STEM in real numbers. Today, 59% of computer science students in Saudi universities are women. That's not a slight shift, that's a structural one. 3. There are real role models (not just panels). Women like: > Dr.Fatmah Baothman — the first woman in the Middle East with a PhD in AI > Dr. Latifa Al-Abdulkarim — one of Forbes' "Top Women in AI Ethics" > Deemah AlYahya — who led digital transformation at Microsoft and launched Women Spark to train 26,000+ women These are names you’ll be hearing more often, because they’re not just breaking in, they’re building what's next. 4. It’s not performative. It’s ecosystem-deep. From flexible work policies to women-focused bootcamps to actual funding, this isn’t window dressing. It’s infrastructure. ___ We talk a lot about innovation. But what’s happening in Saudi right now is a reminder that real innovation comes from inclusion. Not by chance, but by design. #AI #WomenInTech #SaudiVision2030

Almost 10,000 of you saw my post about lack of #AI Governance in women's health apps. You heard me vent about #HIPAA compliance theater. One common pushback I get? "We've already lost. People are numb to trading data for services." And I get it. Claude and I are BFFs. He knows me so well 😍 But here's why that argument doesn't work for women's health #data. Yes, we've all traded our data for convenience. Gmail reads your emails. Instagram knows what you like. TikTok reads your mind. ChatGPT knows you better than your therapist. Oh..sorry...ChatGPT is your therapist. But women's #health data is different. But why Soribel? What's so special about women and health and data? Here's what I mean: 🩸 Your period tracker knows you missed your period in October. 🤰 Your pregnancy app knows you logged a miscarriage in November. 🎮 That little game you were playing while visiting Planned Parenthood? Your location data was on and now data brokers know you were there in December. In 14 U.S. states, that data can get you investigated, charged, or imprisoned. That's all 🙃 Post-Dobbs, 210+ pregnant women have faced criminal charges related to pregnancy, abortion, pregnancy loss, or birth. Law enforcement is accessing: 🩸 Period tracker data (subpoenas) 🗺️ Location data (data brokers) 🔍 Search history ("abortion pills near me") 🩵 App analytics (Facebook, Google via SDKs) Most of these apps aren't covered by HIPAA. "We're HIPAA compliant" means nothing! Especially when: 👉 Consumer health apps fall outside HIPAA's scope 👮♂️ HIPAA has law enforcement exceptions ⛰️ Data brokers operate in the Wild West 🃏 Third-party analytics firms share everything So no, we can't be "numb" to this. Not when Flo Health settled with the FTC for sharing pregnancy data with Facebook and Google. TWICE. Not when Meta just lost a jury trial for recording protected health info without consent. Not when Google settled a class action over the same app. 100+ million users. Pregnancy data. Shared without #consent. "But what's the alternative? Go back to pen and paper?" Actually...yes. If you're in a red state. Or use apps like Euki - local storage only, no account required, no cloud sync, open source. Or demand better: Cirdia is building hardware-up with privacy architecture, local-first data, ephemeral AI processing. Better exists. We just have to stop settling for surveillance disguised as empowerment. I repeat: ♀️ I'm not anti-femtech. 🚺 I'm anti-treating women's bodies as data goldmines. I'm anti-convenience at the cost of criminalization. Women deserve apps that protect us, not prosecute us. And if you're building or investing in femtech without asking these questions, you're part of the problem. What questions should every femtech founder answer before launching? I'll share the 5 non-negotiables in my next post. Drop a 👀 if you want to see them. Mandatory pic for algo. #AIgovernance #femtech #womenshealth #dataprivacy #healthtech

There is no pipeline problem in women and tech. There is a culture problem. A retention problem. A "why would I want to stay here" problem. In the UK, women make up 21% of the tech workforce. Not because they didn't study the right subjects. The number of women studying computer science has grown every year for the past decade. They're entering. They're just not staying. And before anyone says "maybe they're choosing other sectors", yes, some are. Often because those sectors are more hospitable, more flexible, and less likely to make you feel like a guest in your own profession. Fixing the pipeline when the bucket has a hole isn't a strategy. It's a press release. The question isn't how do we get more women into tech. It's: what would we need to change so that the women already there actually wanted to build careers in it? That's a different conversation. It's also a harder one. Which is probably why we don't have it.

If you grew up in India, you’ve heard this "Beta, creative field is better for girls." No, this isn’t a pink-bannered Women’s Day shoutout. And no, it’s not just another “Can’t a woman code too?” pep talk. We’ve been silently trained to believe that:  → Logic is masculine  → Systems are masculine  → Coding is masculine  → Facts are masculine So naturally, Tech became the “boy thing.” And anything visual, emotional, or intuitive? That was for girls. Then who are we to complain that only 1 out of 5 software engineers is a girl It’s like handing someone a compass, but redrawing the map every time they get closer to the destination. Eventually, they stop trusting the path. Not because they can’t walk it. But because every signal told them they were heading the wrong way. I was told too But here’s what I’ve learned after working in both design and data science: Creativity without logic is chaos. Logic without creativity is useless. This is not about gender. It’s about letting women enter the rooms they were always smart enough for. To founders: If your tech team looks like a boy’s hostel, you’ve already missed out on 50% of the smartest solutions. It’s time to stop asking “Where are the women in tech?” and start asking “What made them walk away?”

💻 20 years in IT. That’s how long I’ve worked in this industry. In that time, I’ve built my career on technical knowledge, hard work, and a deep love for what I do. But despite that, I still walk into rooms where people assume I can’t be the technical SME. Not because of my experience. Not because of my skills. But because I’m a woman. Over the years, I’ve had to fight harder to prove myself than male colleagues with less experience. I always believed things would get better, that we’d evolve past those outdated assumptions. Sadly, even in 2025, I still encounter that same disrespect, and not just from men. Sometimes, it comes from other women too. Let’s not forget the women who helped shape this industry, Ada Lovelace, Margaret Hamilton, Dorothy Vaughan. They were pioneers, innovators, and leaders. Women have always belonged in tech. 👉 So here’s my ask: If you work in IT, assume the woman in the room knows her stuff. Assume she’s the SME. Assume she’s a badass. Because more often than not, she is. Let’s break the bias. Together. #WomenInTech #GenderBias #InclusionMatters #TechIndustry #STEM #BiasInTech

A lot of women are taught to admire tech from a distance, not enter it. Not explicitly. But subtly, repeatedly, over time. You grow up seeing tech treated like a male domain. A world of coders, engineers, jargon, and certainty. And if you are a woman from a non-technical background, it can feel even further away. You start to believe tech is for people who have been building since they were 15, for people with the right degrees. For people who sound technical the moment they open their mouth. And many women do what we have been conditioned to do in rooms like that: we underestimate ourselves before we even begin. I know that feeling. I came from media. From storytelling, content, audiences, emotion, communication. Not from engineering labs. Not from computer science. Not from deep technical training. And today, I work on speech infrastructure. If you had told me earlier that my work would one day involve thinking deeply about evaluation systems, model behaviour, infrastructure, and how AI systems perform in the real world, I would probably have laughed. Not because I could not do it. But because I had quietly absorbed the idea that this world was not really meant for me. I think that is true for many women. Our fear of tech is often not about ability. It is about conditioning. It is about being made to feel that technical confidence belongs to someone else. Some of the smartest women stay away from tech not because they lack the capacity, but because they think they need permission they were never given. This is why I think this moment is so important. AI is changing the entry point. It is reducing the distance between “I don’t understand this” and “let me explore this.” It does not replace deep expertise but it does make the road into tech less intimidating. And that is huge for women. My own move from media into speech infra has shown me this very clearly: you do not need to begin as a technical person to become one. You need curiosity. You need courage. You need the willingness to stay in the discomfort of not knowing. So to every woman who has felt that tech is intimidating, alien, or somehow not for her: Please do not mistake that fear for truth. A lot of that fear was taught. A lot of it came from culture, not capability. And a lot of it can now be unlearned. Give tech a chance. Not because you need to become someone else. But because this is one of the first moments where the walls around it are actually starting to come down. You do not have to fear technology to build with it and you definitely do not need a traditional technical background to belong in the room. Sometimes, all that changes a life is realizing the room was yours to enter all along.

"We urgently need more women building AI technologies, and the fact that women make up less than a third of AI professionals and only 18% of AI researchers globally is a crisis that demands attention. But this isn’t just a pipeline problem; women everywhere need to start using AI tools in their daily lives and work. In AI training programs, women represent just 28% of enrollments worldwide. Studies show women are 16 percentage points less likely than men to use AI tools in the same job. This reluctance creates a dangerous cycle: as women hesitate to adopt these technologies, they fall further behind in both the workplace and a society increasingly shaped by AI.    But this time could be different. The good news? You don't need a computer science degree or corporate backing to start using AI. Many of the tools are free and available to anyone with a computer or smartphone.  Imagine having a mentor available at any hour, offering guidance without judgment. Master new skills at your own pace, free from the weight of imposter syndrome that haunts so many women in male-dominated spaces. This technology could be more than just another tool; it could be the great equalizer we've been fighting for, giving women the support, efficiency, and confidence that the prior systems have consistently failed to provide. We have, at times, had to forge new paths without established role models. This systemic lack of guidance remains a barrier to equality, with women 24% less likely than men to get advice from senior leaders, and for women of color, the gap is even wider, with nearly 60% never having had an informal interaction with a senior leader. With tools like ChatGPT, every woman can now have a mentor in her pocket—one that helps her rehearse difficult conversations and provides the continuous support that was historically only available to those with strong networks. This technology could also be powerful in addressing the confidence gap that has held women back for generations, the self-doubt and internalized societal messages women often carry that undervalue their abilities and discourage risk-taking. Today, we see similar patterns in women's hesitation to adopt AI technologies. But with these tools, it’s possible for women to get feedback on overly apologetic language in their emails, help preparing for salary negotiations, coaching on presentations, and support identifying the achievements they may be underselling on their resumes.  Research shows that when women overcome this initial hesitation, they often outperform their male counterparts. The key differentiator? Not technical skills, but the confidence and a willingness to experiment. Women who ease into using AI—perhaps using generative AI to draft a challenging email or prepare talking points for a meeting—quickly discover how these tools can augment their work and amplify their expertise." Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/ejEJJjqR #WomenInAI #WomenInSTEM