Today’s quote comes from the intersections of my life. My personal hobbies and interests and my work. This past week was the 24th annual Grace Hopper Conference, a gathering and celebration of women in computing. Held in Austin, Texas, the conference drew thousands (I’ve read anywhere from 8,000 to 22,000) of women together for three days of community, empowerment, and career growth.
The energy of the conference is always palpable. You can feel the positivity; it’s exciting and it’s overwhelming in the best possible way. Most of the attendees are emerging professionals, finishing up the last year of their Computer Science or Human-Computer Interaction degrees. If I had begun my career with a conference like this, it would have introduced so many of the nuances and realities of being a professional woman in technology. I imagine I would have been better prepared when confronted with both setbacks as well as opportunities.
I’ve attended twice but not this year. Instead, I watched from a distance and, more importantly, I launched a little passion project, Wise Words of WIT, a collection of quotes from women in technology and design. The idea first came to me last year when I was preparing a talk for the conference. I spent a ton of time looking for relevant quotes from women. While they are out there, they’re highly distributed and often in a sea of quotes from men as well as women from other fields. The project was a way of bringing together some of the best quotes as well as an excuse for me to learn about more of the amazing and inspiring women in the industry.
Even if you’re not in the technology and design fields, many of the quotes are relevant to any profession or situation. They are about gaining our confidence, being intentional in our goals, and supporting one another to thrive and succeed. I hope you check it out!
