Imagine If Women Built The Web

Gender inequality in tech jobs and the tech industry is a troubling and ongoing issue. Based on various tech companies’ diversity reports, the average proportion of women at major tech companies hovers at around 30 percent. Last year, women were paid 3 percent less to do the same tech job as men, while women-led startups raised only 2.2 percent of venture capital investment.

“Sexism is alive and well in our modern society and sometimes, the internet seems to amplify it. Not like that’s stopping a lot of women though. There are plenty of allies out there supporting them and other often marginalized people, helping them to thrive and succeed on the web. (…) So, here’s the big question we wanna ask today. What would the internet look like if it was built by women? What can we learn just by asking ourselves to imagine a women-built web?"

IRL host and brilliant tech podcaster Manoush Zomorodi delivers 25 minutes of an interesting and highly informative episode about gender diversity in the tech community, giving voice to multiple guests representing different perspectives within the industry. The episode starts off with a funny/not-so-funny story of Witchsy founders Kate Dwyer and Penelope Gazin, who describe how they had to rely on stereotyping to get their site launched. Then, the attention turns to Coraline Ada Ehmke, author of Contributor Covenant, a code of conduct encouraging inclusive language use, and Brenda Darden Wilkerson, CEO of AnitaB.org, a non-profit organization focused on the advancement of women in computing. Finally, founder & CEO of Mighty Networks Gina Bianchini explains why gender inequality in the boardroom is a problem and how annoyed she is with being called “lady CEO”.