Lifted
Women, Technology and Melinda Gates’ Moment of Lift
I am blessed to be born into a society and a family that recognizes the value of an education. I never had to fight to pursue educational opportunities and have always understood it as a right. My parents played a huge role in forming this perception. Despite being born in a very conservative Indian household, they shielded me from biased comments and supported my decisions. My parents recognized the value that education provides as a means for me to pursue opportunities not available to them. Because of these rights and protection, I am currently working at an innovative and dynamic tech firm, LinkedIn.
But my experience is not universal.
This revelation became more prevalent after reading Melinda Gates, “The Moment of Lift.” In her book, Gates sheds light on the inequities that women face worldwide by providing an emotional and honest account of her travel experiences. The aspect that stood out the most was the massive gender disparities within school access all around the world. Worldwide, millions of girls do not go to school, and the discrepancy between women and men pursuing education becomes starker when we look into higher education.
But education has a multiplier effect, where it truly is a gift that keeps on giving. Education is crucial to empower women because it allows them to break out of the poverty trap by improving literacy, wages, and health.
Even though this disparity seems like a problem isolated within the developing world — it is not. Even developed countries, like the U.S., face massive differences within specific industries. Computer science is one of these majors that has a blatant lack of women.
The influence of tech in our lives is hard to overlook or deny. Code is a language, and without women writing this code, we will be written out of the narrative. Moreover, the inherent biases that already exist will be absorbed within this language that can profoundly impact women’s ability to be equal to men. Therefore it is paramount that we have more women in tech to more accurately reflect society.
Boldly claiming that empowering women will empower all of us, Gates filled me with hope and gave us all a call to action — to help lift women. This makes me even more proud to be a part of an organization like the <wit> project, which aims to empower women technologists. The <wit> project’s founders noticed that women are systematically excluded from tech, and the stats become more discouraging when we look at women of color.
The <wit> project aims to change the trajectory of tech by lifting women, who have been relegated to the margins. They provide hands-on learning experiences to allow these women to gain real-life experience and provide them with connections and opportunities to succeed. I am excited to see all the women that are lifted because of the <wit> project.