Voices From the Grace Hopper Celebration
Celebrating women who are changing our world
Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) is a three-day celebration designed to bring together women in computing to discuss research and career interests. This year, the unique celebration took place in Houston, TX with over 20,000+ attendees from various backgrounds and stages in their career coming together as a unified community of female technologists and allies.
Grace Hopper lead the pioneering team that created the first computer language compiler at a time when few women had access to the male-dominated world of math and physics.
Recognition allows women in tech to be seen
This past weekend was an overwhelming immersion into the journeys of incredible, impactful and courageous women in technology in the past and present, all dedicated toward improving our future.
Here’s a few of the highlights—
Find the words that define who you aspire to be…Live them and share them.
— Dr. Rebecca Parsons, CTO of ThoughtWorks and Winner of Abie Technical Leadership Award
Dr. Rebecca Parsons was in a class where there were four women out of over 50 students, and the professor actually said, “Women are incapable of understanding math and computer science.” So the four women bonded together and said, “We’re going to prove this man wrong.” She “hope[s] to provide that kind of support to women who maybe don’t have it already.”
Eyes on the stars, feet on the ground.
— Padmasree Warrior, CEO of NIO
Padmasree Warrior’s career was defined by not waiting for the perfect opportunity and taking calculated risks. Her favorite saying is “eyes on the stars, feet on the ground” — having a big vision but staying realistic and focused about her plans. She saw the changing role of female leaders in tech, from early pioneers to community builders who share their experiences.
Bring your experiences, your heart, and your work to the table — every day.
— Priscilla Chan, Co-Founder Chan Zuckerburg Initiative. Read her talk here
Priscilla Chan shared how her family immigration from Vietnam and feelings of being an outsider eventually led her to notice the systemic gaps in education and healthcare. She eventually chose to leave a stable profession as a pediatrician and tackle the “messy, ambiguous stuff — the problems that are hard to define, much less solve”.
I wasn’t sure I was an artist or a scientist but I knew what I could pull from my own experience…just by living you can be part of a solution.
— Jessica O. Matthews, Co-Founder of Uncharted Power
Jessica O. Matthews shared how her experience as a Nigerian-American, a woman, and her upbringing allowed her to understand a problem from a unique perspective. While visiting her family in Nigeria and noticing the problem of unstable infrastructure, where electricity would go out multiple times per day, she invented Soccket, a electricity generating soccer ball and at age 23, would go on to start a company focused on clean, consistent and cost effective energy.
Courage is not something that happens once in our lifetimes. It’s something that we live and exhibit in the way we live our lives every day.
— Anita Hill
Conclusion
I feel so grateful to be around a welcoming group of a variety of likeminded peers — from students, co-workers, scholars, industry professionals to inspiring female leaders in the tech space, and hearing their passion toward creating a more inclusive and transparent community.
While it seems a stark contrast between open and welcoming community of women I encountered during the conference and the current political climate with the Brett Kavanaugh Investigation, Anita Hill’s advice for the audience of women, many about to enter the workforce, was to hold onto our guiding values, and challenge the existing structures that reinforce discrimination and harassment.
Our values are around the human experiences and not around the formula and traditions.
— Anita Hill
All in all, I feel GHC is a reminder of the importance to not simply be a bystander in whatever community/workplace you are in and be bold in sharing your passion, aim high, give back and hold onto your authentic self.
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