Cassie's Speech

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Good Afternoon fellow classmates,

My name is Cassandra and today I am going to summarise the article "Women's Startup weekend doesn't discriminate" This article was authored by Hannah Duke and was published in the Age on the 29th May 2014

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Before I begin, I would like to provide you with an overview of the presentation.

The article covers topics such as

What the women's starup weekend is ,
Gender bias in the field of Technology

And the the overall issue that Duke addresses in her article; whether the women's startup weekend encourages Discrimination or Empowerment for women.

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The Start-up weekend movement spans across 450+ cities where developers, designers, marketers, product managers, and start-up enthusiasts come together to pitch ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups – all in just one weekend. These weekends are sponsored by major organisations such as Google, Intel and Seek.

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The one that is central to this article, was held in Melbourne and Focussed at women in particular.

Start-up Weekend Melbourne Women is an event designed by women aiming to create a nurturing and welcoming space for women to:

* Get inspired
* Improve skills
* Build your network
* Test some ideas

This event is the first of it's kind in Australia.

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Duke refers to occurrences of gender bias in concerning prominent people in technology.

She references to the CEO of Snap chat, Even Spegiel in her article who was slammed for derogatory text messages that were leaked that include the CEO listing his ill treatment of women in 2010.

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Duke mentions the violence of RadiumOne CEO Gurbaksh Chahal against his partner, Chahal A multi-millionaire internet entrepreneur has been fired from the company that he founded after police alleged that he was caught on camera striking his girlfriend 117 times during a 30-minute domestic violence In his home.

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The author also notes on the Executive Editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson who was dismissed after speaking out about not being paid the same as her predecessor Bill Keller, and was fired after confronting the Time's Chairman about the inequality.

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The author urges that events like the Women's startup weekend are in support of gender equality of the field.

She suggests that events like this are empowering for women and support them to be leaders in an environment that may not necessarily welcome them.

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She is hopeful that people recognise women for their talents and accomplishments before their gender.

"Startup Weekend Women isn't designed to encourage these women to stay inside a safe, female-dominated haven. Nor is it designed to make a huge political statement: to say “we hate men - we don't want them involved”. Rather, it's to acknowledge that it's not always easy."

"That events like the women's start up weekend play an important role: not to shut men out, but to give women a strong foundation."

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Duke states that "Perhaps we'll never know whether something like Abramson's departure denote gender bias. But Regardless of the reasons, her departures will mean fewer women in positions of power. As many others have asserted, a lack of women in leadership roles means fewer role models for other female employees,"

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Conclusion.

* Gender Bias is evident in Technology
* There have been occurrences where women in leadership have been affected by this bias.
* The women’s Startup weekend event is a good thing, and rather than encouraging discrimination, it empowers women to break the mould and succeed in the field.