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Little Miss Geek [1] is a campaign that aims to inspire young women to consider careers in the technology and video-games industries. Little Miss Geek is the non-for-profit subsidiary of Lady Geek, a campaigning agency which aims to make technology more accessible and appealing to women.
The campaign was launched on 3 October 2012 at the Apple Store on Regent Street by Belinda Parmar and her team at Lady Geek. [2]
The Little Miss Geek campaign has received coverage in BBC, [3] WIRED, [4] Metro, [5] The Guardian, [6] The Independent [7] and Computer Weekly. [8]
For 2013 Ada Lovelace Day, Little Miss Geek created a campaign to put the 'Her In Hero'. Saying that 'Brilliant successful women in technology exist, but they are not celebrated in the same way their male counterparts are', the campaign urged schools and MPs to celebrate great female technologists, scientists and inventors to inspire girls with brilliant role models. [9]
The campaign took place at over 15 schools across the UK, reaching out to over 10,000 students and gaining the support of over 40 MPs including Ms Jo Swinson MP, Hon Ed Vaizey MP, and Rt Hon Theresa May MP. The campaign received media coverage across Metro [10] and the Guardian. [11]
An event was held on the morning of Ada Lovelace Day at Highgate Wood School, featuring a talk from Siobhan Reddy of Media Molecule on her experiences with the games industry and how she got into it.
On 8 March 2013 (International Women's Day) Little Miss Geek ran the ‘Little Miss Geek ICT School Takeover’ [12] at two schools in London: Queen Elizabeth's School for Girls and St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School. MP Simon Hughes attended the session and Boris Johnson who commented on the day. [13] The events made use of Raspberry Pi computers in order to give girls actual software development experience, [14] and address the gender imbalance in the technology industry. [15]
According to Parmar, the Takeover events were intended to address an image problem: "girls think that people who work in technology are pizza-loving nerds who can't get girlfriends. The reality is technology is one of the most creative industries out there". [16] "[Girls are] dreaming of using the iPad mini and the latest smart-phone, but they’re not dreaming of creating it,” [17]
Parmar is a critic of British technology education. She states: "The education system should be the place where we convert childhood experiences with technology into an understanding about computing, where we lay the groundwork for a child to push on into adulthood with not only an interest in tech, but also the skills to start competing in the industry. As it is, however, we are failing our youngsters.”. [18]
On 25 April 2013 Little Miss Geek held a Wearable Tech Event [19] in celebration of International Girls in ICT Day at St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School. Justin Tomlinson MP spoke to the girls about why the British Economy needs more women working in technology. The event featured contributions from fashion designer Francesca Rosella, wearable-technology specialists Cute Circuit, [20] Microsoft [21] and speakers from the British Fashion Council [22] and was designed to shatter the "myth that technology is a boys-club". [23]
British Vogue described the event as a "Collision of Fashion and Technology", [24] however Metro questioned whether fashion can be used to introduce girls to technology. [25]
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She is believed by some to be the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and to have published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first to recognise the full potential of computers and as one of the first to be a computer programmer.
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of organizations that was founded in 1990 to provide communication infrastructure, including Internet-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for peace, human rights, protection of the environment, and sustainability. Pioneering the use of ICTs for civil society, especially in developing countries, APC were often the first providers of Internet in their member countries.
A hoodie is a sweatshirt with a hood. Hoodies often include a muff sewn onto the lower front, and (usually) a drawstring to adjust the hood opening.
Margaret Elizabeth Philbin OBE is an English radio and television presenter whose credits include Tomorrow's World, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and latterly Bang Goes the Theory.
The Fawcett Society is a membership charity in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights and gender equality. The organisation dates back to 1866, when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage. Originally named the London National Society for Women's Suffrage, and later as the London Society for Women's Suffrage, the organization was renamed as the Fawcett Society in 1953.
Fashion of the 1960s featured a number of diverse trends. It was a decade that broke many fashion traditions, mirroring social movements during the time. Around the middle of the decade, fashions arising from small pockets of young people in a few urban centres received large amounts of media publicity, and began to heavily influence both the haute couture of elite designers and the mass-market manufacturers. Examples include the mini skirt, culottes, go-go boots, and more experimental fashions, less often seen on the street, such as curved bad-shaped PVC dresses and other PVC clothes.
Sheffield High School (SHS) is an independent girls' school in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England part of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST).
Anina, also known by the pseudonym Anina.net, is an American-born German international fashion model, conference speaker, blogger, fashion technology innovator, wearables developer, and event producer. She is listed as #7 in Top 100 Women in Wearable and Consumer Tech. Anina is CEO and founder of 360Fashion Network, a network of fashion professionals bringing the latest technologies to the fashion industry. Anina evolved from a model to a fashion industry pioneer when she developed Intel Curie-powered shape-shifting robot dresses showcased on ABC7News. Anina went on to develop for Intel the 360Fashion Network's smart gloves worn by 162 dancers on CCTV's Chinese New Year Festival Gala show, "Spring Wind" performance. The smart gloves are powered by Intel's Curie with the LED light pattern generated using gesture recognition. PBS Television shot a documentary about Anina interviewed by Robert Cringely at the start of 360Fashion Network as the first fashion blogger network. PBS Television's Nerd TV interviewed Anina as the 9th guest and first woman in the series about the future of mobile technology. CRI Radio in China filmed a documentary titled "My China Life". CNet wrote, "In blogs, and Anina, we trust" citing her as one of the star attractions at Les Blogs 2.0.
BCSWomen is a Specialist Group of the British Computer Society The Chartered Institute for IT that provides networking opportunities for all BCS professional women working in IT around the world, as well as mentoring and encouraging girls and women to enter or return to IT as a career. Founded by Dr Sue Black, as of March 2020 the Chair of BCSWomen is Sarah Burnett. BCSWomen has the aim of supporting women working in and considering a career in Information Technology.
Kenzo is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1970 by Japanese designer Kenzo Takada and owned by parent company LVMH.
Sandra “Sandy” Carter is an American business woman, speaker and author. She was a general manager at IBM from 2013 to 2016, and in April 2017 she became a vice president at Amazon Web Services.
"Geek girl" is a 20th-century term, signifying a gendered subgenre within the modern geek subculture.
Take Back The Tech is a global campaign that connects the issue of violence against women and information and communications technology (ICT). It aims to raise awareness on the way violence against women is occurring on ICT platforms such as the Internet and mobile phones, and to call for people to use ICT in activism to end violence against women.
Belinda Parmar,, is a British entrepreneur, campaigner and activist.
The Ada Initiative was a non-profit organization that sought to increase women's participation in the free culture movement, open source technology and open culture. The organization was founded in 2011 by Linux kernel developer and open source advocate Valerie Aurora and open source developer and advocate Mary Gardiner. It was named after Ada Lovelace, who is often celebrated as the world's first computer programmer, as is the Ada programming language. In August 2015, the Ada Initiative board announced that the organization would shut down in October 2015. According to the announcement, the Initiative's executive leadership decided to step down, and the organization was unable to find acceptable replacement leaders.
Heathfield School was an independent day school for girls in Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. It merged with Northwood College in 2014 and the site was taken over by Pinner High School.
The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) is a public co-educational university spread over four campuses and made up of four schools, four research centers located at Greenhill in Accra, Ghana. The location of GIMPA, Greenhill, was named by the former Rector, Nicholas T. Clerk The name, "Greenhill", is a reference to the lush greenery and hilly topography of the main campus, as well as its location in Legon which was historically on the periphery of the Ghanaian capital, Accra. It was established as a public university by an Act of Parliament in 2004. The institute was established in 1961 by the Government of Ghana with assistance from the United Nations Special Fund Project and was initially called the Institute of Public Administration, intended as a specialist training graduate school for civil servants in Ghana. Today, GIMPA offers bachelor's, master's and executive master's degree programmes in business administration, entrepreneurship, law, public administration, development management, governance, leadership and technology.
Valentina Hvale Pellizzer is a sexual rights human rights activist and feminist internet writer. She facilitated seminars, conferences and workshops on ICT, technology, digital storytelling, citizen journalism, digital security and privacy throughout the world. She is known for connecting women's rights, sexual rights, the internet politically and practically and as an advocate for a feminist internet in Bosnia and Herzegovina and wider. She is also known for having founded the alternative feminist portal zenskaposla.ba in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Miss Geek Africa is an entrepreneurship competition that originated as Miss Geek Rwanda in 2014, but was renamed Miss Geek Africa in 2017 and has expanded to 22 countries in Africa. Girls and women between the ages of 13 and 25 submit apps that solve problems through technological innovations. The top three competitors receive cash prizes and business training, and the winner also receives financial backing.