This chapter profiles women and girls engaged in emerging technology fields, and in so doing demonstrates the lack of traditional barriers experienced by those people. Individual strengths are drawn out and demonstrate the fit to the STEMCell model and #SocialIT approach. The chapter concludes that, ultimately, not only have traditional barriers disappeared or at least subsided, but there do not appear to be barriers preventing females from engaging with the emerging technologies of today. And not unlike the historical women in technology profiles in Chapter 1, the newer generations of women in emerging technologies are indeed strong individuals.
I think the best way to empower women is for them to be self-empowering, to help equip them so they can flourish through their own means, and revel in their autonomy - Evangeline Mullins (year 12, 2018)
I think that young girls should not only take every positive opportunity that comes their way, both in terms of STEM and greater life, but also actively seek opportunities for themselves – Serena Malatesta (year 10, 2018)
Top#Satoshiisfemale
“Isn’t it obvious? Satoshi is Female?” poses Rodgers (2018), who then proceeds to point out 5 examples that illustrate why #SatoshiIsFemale:
- 1.
Collaboration: In opposition to ego. Instead of having one centralized point of transaction, the blockchain is built by multiple points working together in unison to create more security.
- 2.
Inclusion: The fact that it is open source encourages all people to participate in its further innovation.
- 3.
Values-Driven: For the first time in history we have the ability to infuse values like generosity, equality, and goodness into our currencies.
- 4.
Community Centered: The Blockchain gains financial value when there is buy in by its community.
- 5.
Generosity: A crypto millionaire named “Pine” created the Pineapple Fund and donated over $55M in bitcoin to charities declaring that “once you have enough money, money doesn’t matter” and it should be shared.
Whether Satoshi Nakamoto, originator of the bitcoin/blockchain White Paper (Wikipedia, 2018), is female, male or a group of people is not really the point here. What matters is the values underlying our new era. “#SatoshiIsFemale is a metaphor for a more optimistic, global and inclusive future,” wrote Rodgers (2018). Trust, Values and a sense of Community are underscoring our new digital world and associated economy, and those elements are contributing to the tectonic changes that we are experiencing that will organically result in drawing more females into technology.
As part of that we are also experiencing a shift in the fabric of IT developer interests as reported by Quiros et al. (2018) and Stackoverflow (2018), where in the past two years it has been observed that females are trending towards careers in areas that align with emerging technology fields.
Given that storytelling “has been a primal form of communication, stories are about collaboration and connection, and are pathways to engaging our right brain and triggering our imagination” (Rutledge, 2011), we believe it is an effective way to demonstrate the cultural and demographic shifts occurring in our rapidly changing world. To relate and consume the stories of people who are part of that shift, not only those engaged in technology studies, but those ‘pioneers’ in emerging and converging technology fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, Drones, Mixed Reality, Open Source, Robotics and Virtual Reality. We believe it is through their stories and the bringing together of common threads that the greater picture emerges.
The students profiled in the ‘I Am The Future’ section below all tag an interest in technology from an early age, and embody characteristics of this emerging world that fully align with our #SocialIT model. Threaded throughout the stories are key qualities of curiosity, critical thinking, honesty, creativity and purpose. All stories have been presented in their own words, with only some minor edits.
Following the students’ stories is an analysis of online interviews with the women working in emerging technology fields shown in Table 1.
Table 1. | Emerging Technology Field | Role Models |
| Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Drones | Sue Keay, Kim Klein |
| Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality | Catherine Strohavona |
| Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies | Katrina Donaghy, Anonymous |
| Mixed Technologies and Open Source | Pia Andrews, Alezeia Brown |