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March 9, 2021
Today, Google Cloud celebrates International Women’s Day #IWD2021 and stands with those who #ChooseToChallenge inequality, call out bias, and question stereotypes. Together, we can forge an inclusive world that accurately reflects the people and communities who live in it.
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. To achieve this, we believe that a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences lead to better decision-making within our teams and company, resulting in more relevant products for our customers.
As part of our ongoing commitment to support women in tech, Google Cloud is proud to announce new partnerships with Women Who Code, Women in Cloud, Yielding Accomplished African Women, Pink Programming, and Coding Black Females. These communities support women (cis, trans, non-binary) developers and entrepreneurs by offering hands-on training, leadership workshops, a support network, job matching, and events and programs to advance women in technology all throughout their professional development journey. Our partnerships will primarily focus on hosting educational events and workshops, supplying technical content for their bootcamps and training programs, mentorships, asking Google Cloud developers to speak at their events and conferences, co-authoring blogs, and providing financial support.
Throughout the month, we’ll also use our platforms to spotlight exceptional women developers who support the broad developer community and use Google Cloud services in innovative ways. Learn a little about each of these fascinating women below including how and why they became Cloud developers, their experience as a woman in tech, and their advice to other female developers. Follow along with #WomenAreExperts on Twitter throughout Women’s History Month as we spotlight the women in our Google Developer Experts program.
Please join us in working towards eliminating gender bias by participating in one of the many worldwide IWD events, including TECK(K)NOW where Google Cloud is a Gold Sponsor and Women Techmakers’ annual IWD North America Summit 2021. Register now to hear exciting keynotes, technical talks, and workshops hosted by Google Cloud developer advocates, all hosted through the lens of what it means to be a woman in tech today.
Community Partnerships
Women Who Code
Global Partner
Women Who Code started as a community group in 2011 when a handful of technologists decided they wanted to change the industry experience for women engineers. Since then, it has become a global non-profit organization and the world’s largest and most active community dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers.
Women in Cloud
Educational and Mentorship Partner
Women in Cloud is a source of inspiration and support that connects and empowers women, helping them to realize their potential and reach new growth through our leading cloud industry, community, and government partners. They bring together the voices and insights of a diverse range of female luminaries from the worlds of business, technology, and politics for the betterment of women who are carving their path in the cloud economy.
Yielding Accomplished African Women
Content Partner
Yielding Accomplished African Women will serve as a talent accelerator to harness economic opportunities for women. The Yaa W. program provides comprehensive certification courses, extensive online training software, and experience with hands-on social impact projects, constructed to ensure every participant masters the fundamental skills requisite for employment at top financial and technology corporations. A speaker series consisting of internationally recognized female executives and entrepreneurs will spur hope and provide examples of success. Additionally, their mentorship program provides professional socialization and personal support.
Pink Programming
Pink Programming is a non-profit association whose goal is for more women to program. Founded in 2015 by three women developers, they wanted to create an inspiring environment where women who are interested in programming can learn to code or build on their existing knowledge in a fun and comfortable environment.
Coding Black Females
Community Sponsor
Coding Black Females was created in 2017. They are a nonprofit organization with the primary aim to provide opportunities for Black female developers to develop themselves, meet familiar faces, network, receive support and build relationships through having regular meetups.
Spotlight: Women Developers on Google Cloud
Diana Rodriguez
Google Developer Expert, USA
Diana Rodriguez is a Full Stack Developer/DevOps, Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies, Google Cloud Platform, Google Maps Platform and Firebase, Women Techmakers Ambassador, GDG Durham Organizer and Auth0 Ambassador.
With 20+ years experience and a strong background in backend and infrastructure, Diana likes to bring together the best of both worlds, spreading DevOps culture. As a Chief DevOps Architect, she has a passion for automation, IaaS, and containers with strong proficiency in Kubernetes and Docker. She’s very enthusiastic about anything that encourages people to start a career in development and a huge advocate of female developers and DevOps.
Connect with Diana
LinkedIn | GitHub | Personal Website | Twitter
Tell us about your path to becoming a Cloud developer
My journey started at the age of 6. My parents were “nerds” and my mum had access to test c64’s without any storage so we had to manually type the game code from magazines and started modifying things like colors, etc. I became passionate about infrastructure when I was 17. Shortly after, I landed my “first big gig” within a data centre and ever since then, I’ve gotten to experience the evolution of the cloud!
Can you provide any advice to other women in tech?
As a woman in tech, my best advice is to carry on and move forward! The road has been paved for future generations and we need to continue inspiring others. Let’s work together to bring everybody to the table.
Victoria Mutai
Member of Google Developer Group: Nairobi, Kenya
Chief Technology Officer | Yielding Accomplished African Women
Victoria is a software developer with expertise in Python and JavaScript. A STEMIST with a life goal to narrow the gap between boys and girls in STEM, she is an active member of the Nairobi Google Developer Group, mentor in Wezesha DADA Initiative which empowers African women and children, volunteers with Rural Women Peace Link, is the Chief Technology Officer for Yielding Accomplished African Women, and is starting a company called Legacy Softwares which will introduce young kids to coding.
Connect with Victoria
Tell us about your path to becoming a Cloud developer
My interest in cloud computing began in December 2019. I had applied for the first Women in ML conference by YaaW and one of the prerequisites for the conference was a course on Google Cloud Platform. Going through the content, I wanted to know more about Cloud Computing and all its work arounds. This also led to my passion in training and mentoring and researching more about Cloud Computing.
What has your experience been like as a woman in tech?
Being a woman, especially in a male dominated field, is tough, but also comes with its advantages. One of the advantages I have includes better opportunities that match up with my skills compared to my male counterparts. I have faced many challenges such as people who have a predetermined opinion that women can’t code. I have also faced Imposter Syndrome, where I feel I am not good enough, but getting to interact with other young women like me, especially from my YaaW community, has taught me to become confident and believe in myself.
Can you provide any advice to other women in tech?
My advice to other women developers would be we rise by helping each other. I would also add that technology keeps changing, which gives us more reason to keep learning. Find a community that supports your thoughts, join it, and build yourself. Believe in yourself always. Do not listen to anyone who tries to bring you down, you only need to surround yourself with positive energy.
Adriana Moya
Google Developer Expert, Columbia
Cloud Engineer | Globant
Adriana is a Cloud Engineer, Google Developer Expert in Google Cloud Products, Women Techmakers Ambassador and GDG organizer for the Botogá chapters, and also a coach for the non-profit Django Girls which provides women in tech free programming workshops, tools and resources, and support.
Connect with Adriana
LinkedIn | GitHub | Personal Website | Twitter
Tell us about your path to becoming a Cloud developer
I studied computer science and software engineering from early on. I started my career as a software developer where I faced many challenges, including suffering from Imposter Syndrome as I was always the only woman on the team. I was fortunate to have a great mentor who always inspired me to study and learn. Thanks to him, I was able to meet a large technology community in my city. After working for several years as a developer, I decided to change my career path and orient it towards Cloud Computing. I was very excited to be able to translate architecture problems into new opportunities for large-scale improvement. It was a difficult decision that I took a lot of time debating, but looking back, I do not regret it.
I have always liked being involved in the cloud community where I could contribute, motivate, and empower more women in technology. This is where I was nominated as a Google Developer Expert for Google Cloud. At first, I was afraid and felt I was unable to achieve this status. Despite my fear, I started the process and I was able to become a GDE. It has been an incredible opportunity that has taken me out of my comfort zone and has helped me grow a lot. Most importantly, I have been able to contribute to my region in many new ways.
Can you provide any advice to other women in tech?
Some tips if you want to be GDE
- Work on your public speaking and communications.
- Study, study and study.
- Start creating something small – your personal blog, podcast, etc.
- Support a local community, this will connect you with the right people.
- Don’t be afraid to think big.
Maria Tjahjadi
Google Developer Expert, Indonesia
Maria has 10+ years of experience working with Data and is a Google Developer Expert in Google Cloud Platform. She is often a guest lecturer at universities speaking to students about data, analytics, and cloud technology and educates other lecturers on how to close the gap between industry needs and university curriculum.
Connect with Maria
Tell us about your path to becoming a Cloud developer
I started my career as a business intelligence consultant and prior to that, I was a private tutor. I continue to teach students from various levels, especially in STEM subjects. As a business intelligence professional, I was involved in end-to-end implementations, from gathering requirements to full server installations and end user enablement. After that, I spent almost 6 years as a data warehouse consultant where I helped customers cleanse and integrate their data, created reports based on the data, and enabled users to gather insights from the data to help to grow their businesses. I was involved in data ingestion development, leading the technical team, marketing system and process implementation, while also designing the data solution to solve the customers’ toughest problems. Those systems and applications were once running on premise and we were able to migrate them to the cloud.
What has your experience been like as a woman in tech?
I was introduced to cloud technology when I joined one of Indonesia’s biggest ecommerce companies. As a Data Warehouse Senior Lead, my job was to lead the optimization and migration of the existing data warehouse to Google Cloud Platform, and then enhance the analytic data architecture and governance. Since then, I have designed data platforms and built and managed teams to implement data and analytics on cloud for several starts up in Indonesia. To support the community, I also joined a local Google Developer Group, so I can share how to effectively design and implement a data analytics platform on Google Cloud, and introduce cloud technology to a broader audience.
Can you provide any advice to other women in tech?
For other women developers, I would like to share a quote from Ginny Rometty, “Don’t let others define you. Define yourself.” Keep learning and be curious – and remember that we need to solve business problems, not just develop something.
Events & Opportunities
Join Google Cloud at one of the following events to celebrate International Women’s Day.
TECH(K)NOW Day
March 8, 2021
Google Cloud is a proud Gold Sponsor at TECH(K)NOW Day, a bi-yearly conference that showcases women in tech (cis, trans, non-binary) and their craft. Join Googlers, Aja Hammerly, Anna Potanina, Emma Twersky, Hava Babay-Adi, and Jessica Earley-Cha for their talks as well as our Google Developer Experts, Charmi Chokshi, lamis chebbi, Rihanna Kedir and Sharmistha Chatterjee.
Learn more, share the invitation and sign-up for free.
IWD North America Summit 2021
March 12-13, 2021
Join us on March 12-13 to hear from keynote speaker Melonie Parker (Chief Diversity Officer, Google), Dr. Jen Welter (first woman NFL coach), community leaders, and developer advocates on Google Cloud, AI, Android technologies—all through the lens of what it means to be a woman in tech today, focused on having the #CouragetoCreate.
RESERVE YOUR SPOT → goo.gle/iwd-northamerica
#IWD2021 #CouragetoCreate #WTM #GDG #GoogleDevelopers
