Celebrating women in technology

Thanks to a post by Liz Lawley, I found out about the first Ada Lovelace day, which is “an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.”

I found out about it on March 25th, but because WordPress lets me backdate posts, I’m setting this post to look like it was posted on March 24th, the actual date of Ada Lovelace day. (Yes, I cheated by using technology. It’s the 21st century, baby! Now where’s my flying car and personal jet pack?)

Who was Ada Lovelace? I didn’t know until today, but she was the first computer programmer. Not the first female computer programmer, mind you. The first computer programmer ever, full stop. She wrote programs for a computer that was never built: Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.

She was born in 1815, and died at age 36 (partly because she had cancer, but also partly because the leading medical technique of the day was bloodletting). The fact that March 24 is a day celebrating women in technology (hello! that’s me!) in the name of Ada Lovelace is particularly meaningful to me: Today, March 25, 2009, I have outlived her, because it’s my 37th birthday.

Anyway, more than 1000 bloggers pledged to write posts honoring their female tech heroes on March 24, and I’m joining in, even though I’m technically a day late.

So who’s my biggest tech heroine? There are so many to choose from. So I’m going to choose more than one. The women who inspire me through their use of technology are My Perfect Clients. The brave, wonderful, curious women who have taken classes or training from me and learned to create and manage their own websites, launch email campaigns, start selling online, and more. You can meet them and visit their websites from my Testimonials page.

Yes, my personal tech knowledge is greater than theirs. So isn’t this just a sneaky way of praising my own teaching ability? goes the snarky voice in my head.

I honestly don’t think so. Want to know why? The world’s greatest teacher can “fail” when paired up with apathetic students, or students who aren’t a good personality fit, or people who won’t take responsibility and initiative in their own learning process.

Put simply, I could not have taught these women if they were not ready and willing to learn. Willing to take those first baby steps and say “yes, I can try something new, even if it’s scary.” These are women who were not only learning to build websites with no technological background, but in many cases launching whole new careers at the same time. Women who dared to reinvent themselves. Women who were courageous enough to say YES to themselves, to their own businesses, to following their hearts.

I am so proud and honored to have been there to hold their hands as they took those first steps.

See, what I do isn’t really about technology. It’s about connecting people. Connecting people to each other, to their own higher and better selves, to their dreams. Technology is just a tool that I happen to know how to use quite skillfully, to facilitate those connections.

If you see yourself in any of these powerful, creative women…

Or if you felt a stirring, a yearning to someday do what they did…

If you even think you might be ready to take a tiny baby step, or ask a question…

Take one small action today. Subscribe to this blog, ask me a question, leave a comment on this post, or do some more reading.

Take inspiration from Ada Lovelace, who described a machine she had never seen, and rightfully earned the title of the first computer programmer. What dream is waiting for you to bring it into the light?

Related posts:

1. Biggifying through Technology Choices (Heart-Centered Tech Tip #18)