Melinda Gates: Break Down the Barriers Keeping Women out of Technology

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Melinda Gates at lectern, pausing and smiling during her talk

When Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, kicked off the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference with her keynote today, she shared a fascinating story about her youth and her first love.

She fell in love in high school. Hard.

It was an all-consuming love, changing how she felt about her life, what she did, and how she lived.

However, her husband Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, is not fond of this story from her high school years.

Why?

Because the object of her affections was an Apple III computer, a computer her father brought home for Gates and her sister.

The computer changed her life, as she spent her days at school and her nights coding in Basic.

She knew technology was going to be part of her future.

In college she studied computer science and business. And when she graduated and applied for jobs, she was thrilled to be offered an opportunity at Microsoft.

And that was the beginning of her career in technology.

When You Dream Big, You Fall Hard

In her keynote, Gates shared inspiring stories about her technology career, facts about women in technology, and she challenged the audience to take action.

Any time you dream big, you’re going to have spectacular failures.

And that’s what happened to Gates when she led the ill-fated Microsoft Bob project. When it launched, it received lots of bad reviews.

The project closed down.

But one piece of the project lives on to this day, the font Comic Sans.

Some startling facts she shared. In 2015,

  • Women made up only 25 percent of the tech workforce
  • African-Americans made up only 3 percent of the tech workforce
  • Hispanics made up only 1 percent of the tech workforce

Break Down the Barriers to Women in Technology

In the next decade, the economy is expected to add 500,000 computing jobs. But we don’t have the computer science graduates to fill those jobs.

Gates implored the audience to take action, break down the barriers that are keeping women out of technology.

She recommended we get started by using for-loops:

  1. For girls: create pathways to explore technology, both in and outside of the classroom
  2. For women in college: help them to understand technology can be used to solve real-world problems. Ellora Israni who took her first computer class to fill a requirement is not at Harvard Law School, and plans to use her tech skills to improve the justice system
  3. For women majoring in another area of study: offer programs that combine computing with their program
  4. For women who discover their passion for technology at different times and places in their life: create more pathways into the field. Example: community college programs that bridge to a bachelor’s degree in computer science

In her closing, she challenged the 12,000-person audience in the room to commit themselves to help 10 women get into or stay in technology.

She called it the ripple effect and ended her talk by telling the audience, “Let’s go make some waves.”

Social Conversation

I was inspired by her keynote, as I found myself nodding my head and laughing during her talk.

Here’s some of the social conversation happening during Gates’ keynote:

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Deborah Edwards-Oñoro enjoys birding, gardening, taking photos, reading, and watching tennis. She's retired from a 25+ year career in web design, usability, and accessibility.

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