- What is your understanding of gender, gender identity, and biological sex? Is there anything more you need to learn?
Gender is the social norms put on women and men that have formed through culture and history. Gender identity is how the individual decideds to define their gender regardless of the social norms forced on them. Biological sex describes an individual as male or female based on sexual organs, hormones, and genes at birth. As the definition of gender changes, I need to stay respectful of people's decisions. I do need to learn how to be increasingly respectful although I may not be educated. To be honest, how other people define their gender doesn't bother me, but I am not educated on the different genders and if I am creating software for all kinds of genders, I need to be aware of the most inclusive language and assumptions to provide everyone with the same human experience.
- What was your familiarity with the history of women and software development? What surprised you about that history?
Very little. Due to my background in aerospace, I previously knew about Katherine Coleman (still had to Google her name), and her work in the orbital mechanics for NASA's Mercury and Apollo missions. I have never doubted women's intelligence, however, I have noticed how the history of women in mathematics and software development is less touched on than the accomplishments of men, such as Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Bill Gates. I'm not suprised about women being smart and contributing to the history of software development, but what did suprise me is how smart Ada Lovelace must have been to have been able to contribute in a society were women were underrepresented and doubted. Not only did she have to be smart, but she had to push her way through sexism and convince others that she was capable in a society where she was heavily doubted.
- How do you see gender bias playing out in tech?
Gender bias needs to be acknowledged in the companies policies, but bias is implemented at the employee level and company culture. Culture starts in school. It is on schools to start educating students about gender bias, not by talking about bias, but by giving examples of how unimportant bias is when it comes to individual skill and potential. At least that used to be the case. Today technology is impacting younger and younger children and it is important for companies to recognize the biases they impose on the younger generation. If they can provide non biased software, eventually culture will adapt and generations will slowly git rid of the bias. Due to the interconnectivity of human life and technology it is crucical to make unbiased software to prevent imposing biases in society. In fact, software could be used to combat biases by providing society with examples of how an inclusive spectrum of gender can provide the world with new ideas and breed creativity to improve humanity.
- What do you think about Q?
I never thought about how voice describes gender and how tech simply adopted the genders of male and female through voice. A genderless voice removes the unconscience bias associated with gender, allowing software to appeal to a greater user population. I think Q is going to be the future of tech voice, and hopefully large corporations such as Apple, Google, and Amazon incorporate Q into their software.
- Why would creating genderless software matter?
Genderless software matters simply because software should attempt to be without bias. A genderless software does not make assumptions of the user, creating a more useful user experience. Personally, I believe the success in software lies in its ability to improve the human experience and make life easier. Humans all have fears, hopes, and desires and it is important to understand the issues and life experiences every gender faces to create software that can improve their human experience overall.
- What are you taking away from this session? How will you use this in your Turing (and future) experience?
As a white male, I have experienced very little bias that has impacted my life in a negative way. This session encourages me to give women a voice and take their experiences as truth. It is important for these experiences to be brought forward and for software developers to acknowledge these biases in order to produce more encompassing software. Where I really see this impacting me is in the workplace and understanding the importance of a womans opinion in design.