Are women underrepresented in the tech sector —fantasy or reality? In addition to the Women in Tech survey, we also released a diversity collection to bring the most inspirational and effective women in the tech scene to your attention. Today, we’d like you to fulfill Agnès Crepet, the co-founder at Ninja Squad and Java Champion.
Is tech a boys-most effective club? So it seems. But the light of clever and powerful girls is ultimately shining vividly. We root for excellence and justice, and, mainly, we need meritocracy to win. This is our manner of giving women in tech a shout-out.
The research observes via The National Center for Women & Information Technology showed that “gender variety has specific blessings in era settings,” that may explain why tech businesses have begun to invest in tasks that intention to reinforce the number of woman candidates, recruit them in an extra effective way, hold them for longer, and allow them to advance. But is it sufficient?
Agnès Crepet, co-founder at Ninja Squad and Java Champion
Agnes is an activist. A Java activist first and main! For 15 years, she has loved constructing Java architectures and implementing them. She was nominated Java Champion in 2012. She co-founded Ninja-Squad in 2012, a group of passionate builders proudly constructing software with Java and JS. She works additionally for an Engineering faculty, Mines Saint-Etienne, on Web programming publications and Agile pedagogy. Because she also enjoys getting to know and sharing, she’s very energetic within the network. She was the leader of the Lyon Java User Group for 5 years. She leads Duchess France, a group that connects women in IT and objectives to offer extra visibility to lady builders. She also organizes the MiXiT convention, blending ultra-modern technologies, Maker sports, and Agility, which she co-founded in 2011.
What was given you interested by generation?
There becomes no pc in my circle of relatives after I changed into young. I’m in my forties, and 25 years ago, the internet became no longer so sizable. So all through my teenage years: no computer & no internet at home (and I’m nevertheless alive 😉 ). But thankfully, all through my primary school, I discovered Basic, way to a large French Educational Program for Teaching Computer Science at college! And when I was 18, a few buddies of mine confirmed the staggering global of Open Source. I discovered Linux, and at once, I became so impressed by way of this opportunity environment and via the opportunity to create something, a software, with others. At that point, I changed into passionate too about the brain and Artificial Intelligence. In 1997, the “Deep Blue” chess gadget defeated the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. I desired to recognize the way it turned into viable… I selected to study cognitive sciences and software program engineering 😉
At the cease of my research in Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering, I had a Ph.D. Scholarship for research work in Artificial Intelligence; however, I didn’t accept it. The height of the hobby for startups came about in France at the beginning of the 2000s. I became bathed in this “appealing” world and changed into searching ahead to discover the industry’s work. A little extra than 15 years later, I think it can have been an excellent concept to take this opportunity to do a Ph.D., maybe sooner or later, it’s in no way too past due… 😉
After my research, I worked for three years as a software program writer. I changed into lucky due to the fact I did several present-day studies for this business enterprise; I located Hibernate in its early days (2001) 😉 I chose then to work for an IT offerings organization for four years and then for the IT branch of a pharmaceutical laboratory. While working for this ultimate enterprise, and after a sabbatical where I made a one-yr international journey, I released my personal company five years ago: Ninja Squad. It took me 10 years to release my company. The biggest impediment I’ve had to overcome turned into myself and my academic heritage! It took me 10 years to remember the fact that quitting a corporate activity isn’t the beginning of the end, but the beginning of an existence that I’ve clearly selected 😉
Inspiring human beings
When I turned in my twenties, I had quite a few pals who had been hooked on Open Source. I found this ecosystem and became very inquisitive about the ethical and political side of this global! When I did my studies work in Artificial Intelligence at the cease of my research, I became coached by using a Ph.D. Scholar, a female, Emmanuelle (Emmanuelle is now a notable researcher in Artificial Intelligence)! She inspired me a lot. She turned into a ninja in coding. I concept that if she had made it, why couldn’t I?
After 8 years in my career, I met an exquisite guy, Cédric, very active in the Java Community, who was main the Lyon Java User Group. I commenced to steer this person group with him, and we co-founded the conference of our desires: MiXiT. Cedric made me find out Duchess France, an association to sell girls builders and women in IT. With him, I embraced the superb side of our process: the builder’s groups make our task interesting and open to lifelong gaining knowledge of!
And because not anything is best …
I’ve had an almost horrific supervisor enjoy, a guy who controlled me turned into, without a doubt, harmful (misogynist, no longer inspiring). He didn’t surely try to stop me from advancing in my career. However, he didn’t do anything for my development or the development of my technical talents. But in fact, it changed into a pretty good enjoy: I’ve pulled myself collectively in a way that he never concept feasible 😉 I think nobody had ever tried to prevent me from getting to know, because “learning to research” is my motto 😉
A day in Agnès’ lifestyles
The maximum of the week, I’m a Teacher in an Engineering School in Computer Sciences (I’m specifically in the rate of Web Programming, Git, Spring, …) and in Agile Management (Scrum, Lean Startup). So an average workday is a day in a study room with college students. Still, besides my publications, I lead too, on this Engineering School, the Department of Learning Innovation (multidisciplinary crew with documentalists, pedagogy engineer & developer): thru one-of-a-kind tasks, I try to carry humans collectively to explore extra agile and progressive studying practices.
Every week, I paintings for a few non-income projects in my very own business enterprise, Ninja Squad. For example, we are developing an application for affiliation, a healthcare center, which facilitates migrant people. The assignment this is actually close to my heart in my expert lifestyles is the company that I co-founded, Ninja Squad, although I don’t think workloads for it right now. Five years ago, the opposite co-founders and I dreamed about a cooperative employer without managers or sales associates. An organization wherein every person should have the identical voice, time to do our very own tasks or contain ourselves into projects that could thrill us (although it’s voluntary work for nonprofit organizations). The organization has been going for walks thoroughly for the past five years. The magical component is that we, co-founders, a percentage the same values approximately existence-stability, preference of our initiatives, risk-taking, …These co-founders are very inspiring humans for me, and I’m fortunate to work carefully with them.
Why aren’t there greater women in tech?
So, past what I hear each day, inclusive of “women don’t have the best brain for method” (don’t forget the “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” manifesto), I tried to recognize why there aren’t so many women in tech. The first rationalization can be linked to ladies’ education and their curriculum selections. Some stereotypes are anchored within the family and the education atmosphere: parents or teachers, on occasion unconsciously, may not encourage women to choose tech research “it’s not for you sweetie, it can be too tough for you”. An Indonesian lady, a pal of mine, defined to me that in Indonesia, little girls may want to repair the family vehicle with their mother and father, it’s not interesting just for her brother; it’s now not too dirty for the women (in keeping with the hacker rank survey “Which Countries Have the Most Female Developers?”, Indonesia has ranked ninth, United Kingdom 23 and France 26!)
Another rationalization should come from the commonplace representations of the “geek” who’s often a man, younger, hooked on universes that include heroïc-delusion or technology-fiction. Women are not nicely represented (they may be just bodily appealing characters, with tight becoming garments). They aren’t an effective element for encouraging girls in tech.
Diversity is first-rate for innovation! I believe that creativity would spread more if there have been greater variety in tech, not only gender variety but also cultural diversity! As Tim Berners-Lee stated: “We need various concepts in the international to stand the brand new challenges.”
Obstacles ladies running in tech face
A huge assignment for ladies in tech is to fight in opposition to stereotypes, to combat against a not-so-welcoming surrounding. Even if a few people say that tech isn’t for them, even though the geek universes (especially at school) aren’t so female-pleasant, women should experiment with this discipline to find their vicinity. I examine a few research demonstrating that they may be extra extroverted and cooperative during ladies-only tech classes. They take part greater due to the fact they’re more assured [1]. I suppose that self-assurance is fundamental; ladies have to overcome the impostor’s syndrome and be persuaded that they are not least-professional in Computer Sciences!
