Many of us attending Hopper this year are members of the Systers email list. It’s a huge online community of women in computing, but do you know how it started? Do you know why? How about what the world was like for women in computing at the start? This session gave some background on Systers and perspectives from several members (new and not so new to the community).
It was a very different world in 1987, especially for women in computing. Carla Ellis, one of the original Systers (and my PhD Advisor!) told the story of how it all began. It’s a great story to hear at GHC, because this is really the only place you get the right image for perspective. Imagine the same female to male ratio as the one at GHC. Now invert everyone’s gender. THAT’S what it was like. The only places women ran into each other at the conference tended to be at the bathroom.
Through word of mouth, the 12 women at SOSP that year got together for lunch, exchanging email and raising suspicions of conspiracy! And now, 20 years later, Systers is a huge online community that has had far-reaching impact, both personally for many women, as well as through activism.
After hearing from Robin Jeffries (Her Syster’s Keeper) and Carla, we also heard from Dale Wolff, a long time syster with a background outside of academia (and thus has a different perspective). Finally, Laurian Vega, a new-ish syster, discussed the impact systers has already had in her life.
We heard some personal stories from the panelists and the audience, pretty much all bringing home the message that Systers keeps us from feeling isolated. We’re all in this together and Systers offers a unique community to support each other throughout our careers in computing.
Angela Dalton
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