Thank you everyone.
I'm glad you are still here and have some energy left for the last two talks.
I'm starting this slide empty because I want to
ask you something first.
The next slide will have a riddle on it, and I want to ask you if you already know
this one, please don't shout the answer out loud, just
let everyone try and figure this out by themselves.
So be quiet.
It is a bit depressing, but I hope you can read
it.
A father and his son are in a car accident, the
father dies at the scene and the son, badly injured, is
rushed to the hospital.
In the operating room the surgeon looks at the boy and says, "I can't
operate on this boy.
He is my son."
Just read it and I'll give you ten seconds.
I'm not giving you the answer.
Oh, you're super quiet.
That's nice.
My name is Lieke, I'm from Amsterdam and I notice
there are a lot of cat pictures at this conference, so
I added one a black cat cycling through Amsterdam on an
orange bike with tulips.
What more do you want?
You probably know me, maybe not, maybe not.
I'm involved in the real skills summer of code,
also a Dutch ambassador for the code week, if you don't
know, Google it and participate, because it is awesome.
I have my own website called codepancake.com, where
you can find a lot of resources on coding and I'm proud
of the spotlight series, there are a lot of amazing
interviews.
I work at an organisation on girls and women in
science and technology.
Our mission is to involve the increasing of girls and women in science,
mathematics, engineering and IT.
We do research but also organise activities throughout the education chain,
so primary, secondary and higher education.
You can see four role models.
We have a large database with over 2,000 female IT professionals and students, and I think
that is amazing because we can always count on them
if we have activities.
But the question is, why are we doing this?
Why do we need more women in tech?
Well I think Brenna already mentioned it a bit, but diversity.
Things in more general in diversity have proved to be
more innovative and creative and effective in teams.
If you're interested in this project, go online,
there are lots of resources online.
And another thing, the lack of women entering the tech field is also a
loss of talent with the IT industry, and a loss of
opportunity for the women and entering the job market.
So a lot of talent is wasted, actually.
Girls and females are underrepresented in tech, if
you compare them to the male counterparts, and in the
Netherlands it is somewhat exceptional because we are
last, actually Tunisia is below us, and then the
Netherlands.
Less than 10 per cent of the females are working in IT and in the Netherlands, and
you can see Germany is below average for the 35, and we
have 23 per cent, and the rest of the European
Union is 37.
So why is this?
Well, the choice for science and technology by Dutch girls is far below the
average, like I said.
Well, it is true that brains of boys and girls are not the same.
But these differences is not the reason why there are many more boys choosing
a career in tech, because both of the brains are full
with potential, but to what extent, the potential
is for fields and which is highly dependent on stimulation
that parents and teachers offer.
Next is also that girls think they perform worse
than they actually do in STEM related subjects.
I'm not sure what your grading system is, but in the
Netherlands it is from one to ten, but if you have a 5.5
then you've passed your exams.
We always ask students if they think they're good in mathematics, and boys normally
raise their hands if they have a six, because it's
good they passed our test, right?
And girls are more like: no, I should have eight or nine.
So they're too hard on themselves and it is not necessary at all.
Secondly, environment, like I said, girls are less
stimulated by teachers and parents to choose a career in
IT, and this is a cartoon, I don't think you can read it
but it is a teacher, and he says: "Well, your child is
has very good grades in maths and science, but she's
a girl."
And then the parents reply "Oh shit, that's too bad."
So that's not an option to consider a career in IT.
Last but not least, there's unfamiliarity.
Girls have no good image of STEM medications and professions
and there's a huge lack of role models.
So I just want to conclude this with a quote, it is from unlocking
in the clubhouse, very early in life computing is
claimed as male territory at each sustainable early childhood
through college, computing is both claimed as guy stuff
by boys and men and passively ceded by girls and women.
Question observation shows that disinterest and
dissatisfaction are neither genetic nor accidental, nor
inherent to the field, but are the bitter fruit of
external influences.
This is important because if you think there are
less girls in IT because of disinterest, then you're
wrong.
One of the external interests is unconscious bias.
Evolution has taught us to mathematically process
information without critical thinking, so we're
constantly overlooking much of the world around us and
there's actually nothing serious about this.
We receive 11 million bits of information every day,
and we can only consciously process 40 bits.
The conclusion is stuff gets broken while our brain is storing
information, and our objectives are certainly clouded
because our brain is taking shortcuts and relies on our
earlier assumptions.
So even a tiny bit of bias can have big consequences, for example, these
biases can prevent introduction of diversity into workplaces.
I think this is a great example.
Blind auditions.
I just add another picture of a cat behind the curtain,
because that's the way it is supposed to be.
Laughter].
Well, it is a research from Princeton, and they
found other that since the 1970s the number of women in
orchestras went up from five to 25 per cent, and due to
the fact that they asked them to audition behind the
screen or curtain so they couldn't see if it was a male
or female.
So I think that is -- well, that's a lot of bias going on right there.
Well, most people would agree that gender bias
exists in others.
All of us, myself included, are biased.
So you should take a look around, I think you
know the cartoon, maybe.
A guy says, "Well you suck at math" and then a girl has to answer wrong,
and it's like Girls suck at math."
If you're curious about your own biases, you can
take the implicit associations test, it is called
project implicit from Harvard University, and it
measures actually how quickly words like math and
physics are associated with boys or men, you can also
take this test with a career and family, but this is
a gender science test, and I took it, and I have to be
honest, I worked in IT, I've been a developer, and these
were my results.
So it says "Your data suggests a strong automatic association of male with
science, and female with liberal arts."
So yeah, I just added that, because it's also something you should do, and I felt terrible
because I work in IT and I should have known better,
right?
So this is something I should take home.
Now it gets me back to the riddle.
I think you know the answer by now, probably, I hope.
So who is the surgeon?
You can shout.
Yeah, the mother.
It is true.
Actually, two days ago I learned that in German "surgeon"
is a female word, so it could be that most of you already
know the answer right away.
I don't know, but in English and Dutch it is different.
In 80 per cent of the time, it is when we ask or tell people about this riddle,
they don't know the answer.
Or they are more likely to think that it is a gay couple, or that the father
is a step father, or that they magically live again,
but nobody thinks it is the mother.
This is true.
I have to admit, I had it wrong the first time.
So don't feel bad about it.
Don't feel bad about being biased, because it is just the -- because
of our culture that we're biased.
So, notice not about football.
But yeah, when it comes to implicit and explicit associations,
the Netherlands are highest in gender stereotyping
because a lot of -- I think a couple million people
took the test, and you could fill in your country and
these were the results, and I think that is shocking
because I always think of the Netherlands as modern
and open minded, and well, it turns out it is quite
-- we are quite old-fashioned when it comes to gender
stereotyping.
So I was shocked, and I decide to take a look around, and I notice some things.
I think you all know the girl and boy department at toy
stores, yeah.
Well on the left it is pink, it is advertisement for girls, so you learn a bit of Dutch now,
and on the right it is boys, it's blue.
This is actually for the girls, it is a dish washing set.
I don't know why, it is a stupid gift anyway because nobody likes
doing the dishes, right?
But yeah.
[applause].
It is pink.
It has a pink sink, it has a real working tap, it is like amazing.
And on the right is for boys, it is a microscope, it has 23 parts,
it has glasses, everything.
So these are associations, and you come across them when you're already 3 years
old or something.
This is another one, that's also induction.
It's from a children magazine.
It is a test, and it defines who you are, and on the left, it is
for boys of course, because it is blue, it says, "What
are you?"
Well, the results are: you are a tough guy, you are
a smart guy, or you are a funny guy, and on the right it
is pink, and it is for girls and it says, "You are
a sweet girl", and the description is horrible.
It says, "You think about others before you think
about yourself.
That's amazing."
Okay.
Second -- well, you're a sporty girl, and third you are [Dutch], which is non-translatable
which means cosy, fun to be around.
I think it is a bit like a German word, if I pronounce it right.
Gizelle(?).
Okay.
Well.
Anyway, I think this gender bias could be a major threat, and it is a major threat,
because it is one of the key reasons why few girls study
computer science.
The good news is bias can be weakened.
The bad news is you cannot do it alone.
We should all do it together.
So, what should we do first?
Well, be aware that you're bias, because believe me, you are.
Just take the test when you have time, and you learn about
your biases and how you can address them.
Second, I think it is important, use inclusive language.
Because a couple weeks ago I was at a conference, a Dutch conference, and it was
about the future programmer, and someone got to the
stage and started talking about the future programmer
and he said: well, he is this and he is that, and he should
be this and he should be like that.
And I felt offended, come on.
I am obviously not a future programmer then.
So I don't think he meant it that way, but it
is good to be aware of what you're saying.
I think this is from a social media platform and they removed the
word hacker" from their job titles, and they noticed
the change in who was applying.
So they decided to write an article about it and how gender inclusive
they were, they attached an e-mail they sent to the employees,
and the e-mail started with "Hi guys".
It is not very gender inclusive.
So just for some people this is offending, so just be aware of what you're
saying.
Well, this is important.
If you're male or female, doesn't matter, hold yourself and others accountable
and point it out, because by the simple act of
talking openly about behavioural patterns it makes
the subconscious conscious, so talking transforms
minds which transforms behaviour and communities,
and which can result in a better environment, for example,
women in tech.
So we should all share this and talk about it.
Last but not least, use your imagination.
Counter-program your brain.
I Googled for "programmer" and these were the results I got.
I really like the right one, below it says, "Do not wake up
a programmer, he is working, not sleeping."
It is important, important lesson.
But you can only see one female and there is a black guy and the rest of them
are all white males.
And I think you should be aware of the images you have in your head.
If I ask you to picture an architect or programmer, I think most of the
time it will be a white male with glasses or something
like that.
Just be aware this is not always true ... I think
you probably all know this one.
Hashtag I look like an engineer.
I think this a great way of bias busting.
It started with this girl, she works at 1 lodge
Inn, and I don't know if I'm supposed to say that, but
she was an advertising campaign for a company, and they
were looking for developers, and then she got a
lot of responses on her picture like "oh, I didn't
know that you were an engineer.
You don't look like an engineer" and so on.
And she was a bit fed up and started the hashtag actually, and she asked everyone to
spread the word.
And I think these are all engineers, you should remember.
This is some great bias busting, like I said, and it is a great way of breaking down gender
stereotypes.
So in short, be aware that you're bias.
Use inclusive language.
Hold yourself and others accountable and use your imagination.
So counter programme your brain.
I know we are at JSconf and it should be about coding and programming, but
the thing is it is not about the programming, it is about
the way you're programmed.
I know it has been a challenging day today, but I'd like to ask you to take this
home and to look past your initial perceptions, because
I bet you they're probably wrong.
So thank you.
[applause].