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10/17/11 | Uncategorized

Bringing Together Women Who Code in the Bay Area

By Sasha Laundy (Founder, Women Who Code)
I love startups and the vibrant technical community in the Bay Area. While many men were friendly and helpful to me, I grew tired of being the only technical woman at event after event. I craved a space -— just one night a month! —- where I wasn’t the only one. Where I didn’t constantly have to prove myself with every introduction, and where I could see what other technical women were accomplishing. So I launched Women Who Code.

Two months later, I have been overwhelmed by the community response. More than 300 women have joined on Meetup.com. We have hosted 2 all-woman hack nights with 40+ women attending. Coders worked on projects, offered help, found study partners, got career advice, and found strategic partners for their startups.

The hack nights were fertile ground for forming more specialized groups. A weekly Ruby study group has spun off, with a small dedicated group meeting every Tuesday to work on Ruby and Rails. And on November 9, the first South Bay branch hack night will take over the Hacker Dojo.

We are mixing it up this month with Lightning Talks on Tuesday, October 25 at Parisoma. Non-coding women are encouraged to attend these talks. Speakers are covering a wide range of projects and topics, from genetic algorithms to useful tools to negotiation tips. Sign up here: http://bit.ly/obd53S
Editor’s note: Got a question or answer for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.
About the guest blogger: Sasha Laundy loves helping others learn cool things. She coached the first high school girl’s varsity ultimate frisbee team in the state of Connecticut and taught physics to 9th grade girls. Sasha launched a Neuroscience class to get kids hooked before they hit college, and a girls-only weightlifting class to get girls confident in the weight room. She now codes in Python and Objective-C. Sasha is learning Javascript and looking for a study buddy for Stanford’s Intro to Databases class.

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