What are the difficulties of being a woman in Tech? What are the most discouraging behaviors from the opposite gender? How does being a woman impact our careers? On 14th June 2024, Ivana Nanevski, PhD candidate in the field of Machine Learning, organized a workshop on female empowerment in the IT sector at the ECDF. The workshop was funded by the ECDF Gender and Diversity Network Project Funding Scheme which is intended to provide rapid and easy support for smaller projects that aim to promote a critical debate on diversity in the context of digitalization and advancing inclusion and diversity in digitalization research and practice.

Ivana Nanevski’s application was chosen as number one among many other applicants and was funded with 2000 euros. The goal of the workshop was to create a safe space for women* in tech in order to learn from each other, get inspiration from each other and raise awareness towards the many issues women face on a daily basis. Male attendees were encouraged to take part in order to gain awareness for female struggles in tech. The four-hour workshop, which included a keynote session from Prof. Amy Siu from the Berliner Hochschule für Technik. She spoke about obstacles in her career as a female in tech, and shared her retrospective thinking of how she would act in her career now. The goal of her talk was to motivate the participants, which she achieved by sharing personal stories and lessons learned. Following the keynote, interactive sessions among the participants were held, concluding with the recognition that actively addressing biases in technology and AI systems, including data selection and model training, is vital. Additionally, building a supportive network of allies and advocates for diversity and inclusion can amplify efforts and drive substantial change. Also, implementing policies and practices that promote equality, such as bias interrupters and inclusive hiring practices, can create a more equitable work environment. “In my opinion, the workshop was a big success as it created a safe space for discussing several important points, such as that addressing any problem requires making it tangible through data collection and the urgent need to scrutinize and improve AI models to eliminate biases”, Ivana Nanevski summarizes.

Ivana Nanevski, herself a female machine learning PhD candidate at the BHT, supervised by ECDF-Prof. Felix Biessmann, is also deputy women’s representative at the BHT for the department information technology and media. Her motivation to organize this kind of workshop came from previous personal experiences: “I have experienced discrimination myself and have witnessed it towards others in my field of study and in the professional world. I planned this workshop in order to create a space for exchange for people affected”, she explains her motivation. The primary aim of the project was to understand and address the challenges faced by women, especially those from diverse ethnic backgrounds, across various areas of society. Ivana Nanevski therefore also used the project funding to conduct further research in this area and take part at topic related summits in order to organize the ECDF workshop, such as the Level UP summit, Women in Tech Global summit and EmpowerHER+.