Sheryl:              I think it’s really critical that we get more people worldwide and particularly in the United States into technical fields, and more women.

Sara:                 We want to have people in the workplace that look like the world! And the world isn’t just one gender.

Lori:                   I think women just bring a very different perspective to technology – the way that they use products, their experiences, the way that it’s built, the way that they think about the way other people are going to use the technology …

Andrew:           Uhm, people who aren’t necessarily a part of the process – that’s a loss for not just the rest of us who don’t get that perspective, but also for them who don’t get to shape the future that is going to come to exist.

Nair:                  The problems of the future – these are human problems, they’re not ‘men problems’. We’re going to need women to help solve those problems and we need them, uhm, to start now. 

Sophia:             It was an ‘Introduction to Programming’ class, and I walked into the class wearing a cheerleader uniform, and the teacher just cracked up. He thought it was the funniest thing to see a cheerleader in a programming class. That day, he also passed back the first test from that term. And he announced that the person with the highest grade in that class, with 100%, was me, the cheerleader. I kind of broke down the stereotype for him at that moment, where the idea that girls can’t programme, that cheerleaders are stupid, that women shouldn’t be in technology… it just takes a moment like that to really change someone’s mindset about where women belong in technology.

Alan:                  We’ve learned over time that you can’t build great products if you don’t have a team that empathises with and understands the audience that the product is for. And with the internet, the audience is literally the planet now.

Andrew:           As we grow to larger and larger audiences, y’ know, the different perspectives everyone brings to the table become increasingly valuable to be part of the discussion when you’re shaping what that product is going to look like.

Raylene:           It’s a product that’s really about connecting and being social and, uhm, engaging with your friends and family, so I think it’s, like, a very important product for women to be involved with making.

Lori:                   The one piece of advice I would give a woman in technology is ‘stick with it’. It is worth it to get to the end. 

Cat:                    It is very easy to look around you and feel intimidated because you don’t know anything about the subject, and there aren’t a lot of people who look like you, but the most important thing is to believe in yourself and to just not be afraid to do something that, er, you have no idea how to do.

Sheryl:              There’s nothing you can’t do if you believe you can do it.

Sophia:             You know, it’s easy to sit back and say, ‘Oh, the stereotype is that women aren’t good at engineering. They’re not good at math and science’, and to let yourself fall victim of that. But let that encourage you, let that push you forward and drive you to, y’ know, fight the stereotype, break the stereotype.