#wogrammer

ABI staff member, Brianne Huntsman, in an interview with Erin Summers and Zainab Ghadiyali on their women in tech non-profit, Wogrammer.

1.  How did you two meet?

Zainab and I joined Facebook at the same time and met in "bootcamp" that all new engineers go through.

2.  What was the process like to get a non-profit status?

We went through Legal Zoom to help us get all the paperwork. It took a few weeks to compile everything and about a month of processing.  This was really important to us for our future initiatives and to help legitimize wogrammer.

3.  How does an interview work?

We ask four basic questions, and the rest of the content falls into place from these questions.  

- When did you first get into engineering, or when did you learn to code? It's important to point out where their journey started so others interested or at a similar point are encouraged. People learn new skills at all different ages. Some women learn when they are in elementary school like Dani, who founded the kids banking app Bankaroo, while some women completely change career tracks like Victoria, who switched from publishing to and now teaches computer science.  

- What have you built that you are most proud of? - This question hones in on technical accomplishments, which is a big focus of wogrammer. It could be anything from building a system to detect malicious attacks like on the internet like Justine to designing a explosion resistant building for disarming chemical weapons like Preet.

- How do you overcome challenges? - A lot of the challenges in engineering are ubiquitous and it’s encouraging to see other people like you who have overcome similar challenges. It’s useful to see tips from women who are just starting out like USC college freshman Ilona to seasoned professionals like Vidcode CTO Melissa.

- What advice do you have for others? - This is similar to the previous question, but can lead to more universal, motivational and honest quotes. Some our favorites are

“There are two types of people in this world — those who build sandcastles and those who smush them. I try to surround myself with people who are builders, not smushers.” - Mary Lou Jepsen

“Act like it’s impossible to fail” - Kendell Byrd

Who takes photos?

If we interview the woman in person we take a photo, otherwise we ask for a high quality photo to share.

Erin Summers: Part of the reason I started wogrammer was to improve taking portraits of people. I really enjoy taking a photo of someone where their personality shines through.

4.  How do you decide who a "wogrammer" is?

Wogrammers are engineers. We feel that the technical accomplishments of women engineers are not talked about enough and we are explicitly serving this population.

5.  Where do you want to be with Wogrammer in a few years?  How do folks get involved?

Now that we are a nonprofit, we have plans to fundraise for scholarships, host hackathons, and built the community in all sorts of ways.

Right now, the best way to participate is to nominate women engineers (either yourself or others), and help share our content as we post about women.

6.   So, you two are coming to GHC15 this year.  What will you be doing there?

Wogrammer is excited to be part of GHC15! We are going to present the “Own Your Story” workshop to Facebook GHC Scholarship winners and hold a photobooth with ABI to encourage women to own and share their stories.

7.  In your previous post you wrote about the "unavailable archetype {...} marginalizes the amazing technology that she built" - could you go into more detail?

Part of the issue is that too few women are featured on technical blogs and magazines, and if they are, they are asked different questions than men.  Besides the requirement of being a woman for wogrammer, we stray away from asking about their family, work life balance, hobbies, etc. and other things that play into these stereotypes. Leah McGowen-Hare summed this up pretty well in a post a few months ago:

By Erin Summers & Zainab Ghadiyali, Co-founders of Wogrammer Last summer, we were lamenting the lack of women engineers in the media. There are tons of articles and data about how women are a minority in the software industry, which is a sad reality. Meanwhile, the few articles that specifically showcase women in tech create an unattainable archetype of a woman that somehow manages to run marathons, raise a family, always looks impeccable, and marginalizes the amazing technology that she built.

As software engineers, we get asked a lot about what it’s like to be a woman in tech. Are there any horror stories? Have we experienced sexism in school or at work? We would much rather be asked about our technical accomplishments and the technology we’ve built: What was the first Android app that Erin built? What was Zainab’s winning Hackathon project?

We decided to take control and do something about it, and that’s how wogrammer was born. We interview our fellow women engineers and showcase the cutting-edge technology they’ve built. The more voices of real, authentic woman engineers we can share, the greater hopes we have of breaking stereotypes and focusing on the technical achievements of women. From the high school student teaching herself to code, to the CEO running her business, we’ve interviewed over 50 engineers from Cape Town to Silicon Valley in all types industries. Here are just a few of the inspiring women we’ve interviewed so far: