About a year ago I found myself joining in the decades-long bemoaning the of computer, science and engineering industries – locally and globally – for being dominated by the “unfairer” sex. Thankfully, in Manchester at least, a few women are trying to redress the balance and this Friday is an event I’d hope some here would be interested in.
Manchester Girl Geek Dinners is our very own branch of the global “Girl Geek Dinners” events, originally started in London by UMIST graduate, Sarah Blow.
My experience of typical “Geek” events across the North has been one of an extreme male bias, to the point that on one occasion I noticed just one female in a gathering of nearly 40 people. When enquiring as to why this might be, it seemed there were several issues and part of it was chicken and egg: until we had more women attending geek events, more women would not attend geek events.
The idea of Geek Girl Dinners is to bring women together to share experience, network, and given the male domination of their usual workplaces get some balance back into their professional lives. Whilst many in attendance at the first Manchester event were involved in the IT industry, scientists and engineers were there and networking.
Men are allowed to attend but have to be invited by a female. On the last occasion I had a gratuitous total of four invites, and enjoyed the dinner and company very much. I hope to be in attendance again this time, work commitments permitting.
The venue for this event is at Salford University from 7pm, and you can book tickets right now for £15 per person – given this includes dinner and some wine, it’s not too bad a deal. I hope I’ll see some of you there.
Dim Sum Digital 