ChiHacks

Earlier this year, my friend and I attended a Hackathon in Chicago. Excited as I was, I was nervous being one of the only girls there. I tried not to think about the lack of girls as we paired up with a boy we met and begun coding. As the night went on, it became more and more apparent to me that the boy we were working with did not think I was capable of making the app. No matter what I asked to help with, the answer was “no”. He aimed all his questions to my male friend, clearly believing that he would know more than I did. I felt underappreciated and begun to believe that maybe I was not cut out to be a computer scientist. Earlier in the day, Gemma Busconi had given a presentation. Gemma is a powerful women that excelled in her dreams and became an incredible engineer in VR. Remembering this made the night a lot more bearable. I began my own project and realized that women in STEM have to work to not only to make scientific discoveries, but also to overcome the gender disparity in the workforce. This Hackathon opened my eyes to the gender oppression that women face everyday and make me proud to be a women in science.