One year of building up Hacker Society at CWRU and making the space more welcoming for women. Presented at PyOhio 2015 in Columbus.

1. You Gotta Want It
One Year of Building Up CWRU’s
Women in Computer Science
Stephanie Hippo (@stephhippo)

2. Why I’m Here
● I just graduated from Case Western Reserve
● Spent the last year as part of Hacker
Society’s leadership
● Things got kinda bad. They’re less bad now.
● This talk is a lot about me
● When you leave, I need this talk to be about
you.

3. Finding Hacker Society
Freshman BME who was going to revolutionize
healthcare and change the world
Until I hated my major and department
Took a summer internship with MIM Software
Changed my major to Computer Science
Boyfriend’s friend recommended Hacker Society

4. Hacker Society Then
Welcomed with open arms
Normally one of a few or only woman in the room
Went to talks even when I didn’t understand them
Kept going until I understood them
Became a better programmer and student
Helped me make friends in my classes

5. Flash Forward 3 Years
Hacker Society main source of friends.
I only make new girl friends when the guys get
new girlfriends.
If you have to date someone who is friends with
the club to feel comfortable going to the club,
something is broken.

6. Culture
Common Excuse:
None of us were trying to keep people out.
We weren’t actively pulling people in, either.
We made a bad assumption that the only
hurdle to joining was caring about what we
cared about.

7. Why This Matters
CS curriculum makes more sense hands-on
Hacker Society is a big gateway for opportunities
Being on the outside isn’t fun.
People stay for communities.

8. Excuses
Too much class
Too much work
All in my head

9. Summer 2014 - I Go On Co-Op
Too much class
Too much work
All in my head

10. Reaching Out
● Reached out to Facebook Group for freshmen
● Answered questions about college while
occasionally plugging Hacker Society
● Gained their trust and interest
● Accidentally became a campus celebrity
● Started getting messages
○ Mostly from women

11. All in my head
"I know you guys have OpenHacks today at 2, but I am not that experienced of
a coder, can I still check it out and ask you some questions?"
"I really don't have much/any experience in programming, hacking or what it
involves (I'm not exactly sure). I was just wondering what you guys do and if
maybe I could like sit in sometime (like just observe from the back). I repeat ‘I
have like no experience’ (the real only computer experience I have is from the
classes I have taken which is not much)"
"Is it ok if I've never really programmed before?"

12. Out of Excuses
Too much class
Too much work
All in my head

13. You can’t change
what you don’t measure.
● If losing weight, you would step on a scale,
get a FitBit.
● If training for a race, you would time
yourself.
● If you’re looking to change your culture, you
need to think about what numbers you need
to look at.

14. The Data:
Student Population

15. The Data:
Role Models - Staff

16. The Data:
Role Models - Speakers

17. Change We Needed
Role Models
Welcoming Environment
Amplification

18. Role Models:
Grace Hopper 2014
Approached by Division of Engineering Leadership
and Professional Practice
Asked what CWRU did to support women in
Computing
Suggested biggest gathering of women in computing

19. Role Models:
Grace Hopper 2014
Needed to convince women it was worth missing
three days of class
Fundraised like crazy; alumni were incredible
Most incredible 3 days. GHC attendees came back
inspired and ready to lead.

20. Role Models:
Grace Hopper Conference

21. Talk Adjustments
xkcd.com/1053/

22. Talk Adjustments
● Intro Talks
○ Git
○ Linux/Virtual Machines
○ Unix + Dev tools
○ :(){ :|:& };:
● Workshops
○ Ruby
○ GitHub Pages

23. Community Changes
● Start calling out interruptions, condescension
● Social Nights
○ Capture the Flag
○ Ice Cream
● Hung out in student lounge, answered questions
● Can’t be there 100% of the time. Plenty of stuff
we missed

24. Social Media
● Encouraged our women to blog
○ Dear Family, I Hack
○ Adventures In Game Design
○ Ladies Storm Hackathons Medium Collection
● Started posting about what our students were
working on

25. Hacker Society Now

26. Hacker Society Now
● All majors welcome
● Outreach that starts early
● OpenHacks - Saturday Workshops
● HacSoc - Wednesday night talks
○ Introductory talks that then ramp up
● HackCWRU - Spring Hackathon
● Link-State - Fall Conference

27. Social Events

28. OCWiC

29. Hacker Society Now:
#TwentyToTexas
● Wanted to send 20 to GHC 15 in Houston
● Next group of HacSoc women organized trip
○ I took a backseat, helped navigate bureaucracy
● Registered 15 women
○ GHC registrations sold out IN RECORD TIME at the
largest number of attendees ever at 12,000
○ Still 6 more than last year
● CWRU women selected as GHC Scholars

30. Not all sunshine and daisies
Numbers higher, but still low
Crude, anonymous tumblr messages
Condescending attitudes
University support still scattered

31. Not all sunshine and daisies
Long road to go
While rewarding, the work drained me
mentally/emotionally/physically
Still need help

32. Actionable Things You Can Do
Amplify the women you already know.
Be an involved Mentor. Branch out networks.
Sponsor them → GHC, Conferences, Workshops

34. Actionable Things You Can Do
Dig up your data.
Ask meaningful questions and look at your
numbers. Set goals.
Figure out what you’re going to do about the
numbers you aren’t happy about.

35. Actionable Things You Can Do
Review hiring policies processes, and filters.
It’s not enough to not deliberately keep people
out. You also need to encourage them to come in.
Be specific in exit survey questions to get a better
idea of why people are leaving. Then fix them.

36. Lesson Learned
None of this is unfixable.
It is a ton of work.
You just gotta want it.

37. Questions?
Stay in Touch:
My Twitter: @stephhippo
Hacker Society Twitter: @cwruacm
Hacker Society Website:
http://hacsoc.org/