Why female-friendly?

During the last year of organising female-friendly workshops and events, I have been getting requests asking why only women can attend, whereas it’s the furthest from the truth. Those questions are fine. Sometimes there are slightly rude comments and they are just that, comments from people who are probably not the right people to come along to these events. Maybe they are comments in jest, who knows… meh, just check out “Don’t read the comments”.

Seriously though, it makes women uncomfortable, short and simple. That’s the effect tech events have on most women (myself included).

The whole reason it’s labelled “female-friendly” is because it encourages women who otherwise would overlook coding workshops and events because they feel they are not good enough to attend/participate or even help out. I’ve been getting feedback from partners of friends (and my husband) that they wouldn’t have signed up if that label wasn’t there.

I would love to just have workshop with no labels bar what the workshop is about and what level it’s targeting at.

Until then, yes, guys are welcome as long as they come along as a +1, because at least the worst case scenario is that we end up with 50-50 male/female ratio.

I’m Vicky, by the way. As you can see, I organise tech workshops outreaching a more diverse community run by a diverse community. I have many hats e.g. Python Ireland organiser, Coding Grace co-founder/organiser, GameCraft co-founder/co-organiser of game jams, PyLadies Dublin founder/organiser, and more… Phew

And now I’m merging all the hats (so to say) into one big hat, and created EventGeekie. It’s still relatively new, no mega bling bling launches or anything. It’s the logical step in helping me stay sane amongst all the juggling of events I organise and run. I love organising events bringing the right people together and we all get something out of it, be it a new skill, a new friend, a new hire. For me, it’s finding courage and confidence to do things, and it’s not impossible.

Now, who’s up for some coding! ;-)