COLUMN: Letter from the editors
Women's fight for existence, respect, and freedom in public space
By Diane Golay
Magazine: Spring 2021 | Volume 27, No. 3
We know women face difficulties because of gender discrimination within the technology industry, when on the web, and even just gaining access to the web. On too many occasions women are not accorded the recognition they deserve for the work they do, are too often overlooked for promotion and career development, and still lag in web-based entrepreneurship because of all kinds of discriminatory factors. For example, women often earn less than their male counterparts for the same work, and for trans, Black, and Latinx women in the U.S. that number is even lower. Gender bias, racism, and transphobia account for who is more likely to be exposed to negative experiences like active harassment in online forums. We also know gender, sexuality, and race play a part in biases in areas such as online lending, advertising, and job applications. Indeed, simply getting access to the web is hard as a result of gender-based discriminatory gating factors. We also know biases exist within academia and that girls and women experience feelings of isolation in many educational forums in the world of engineering and computing sciences. Baldly, the endemic gender biases that are threaded throughout our societies, which pervade our business practices and the world of technology, are inscribed into the performance of and drive many web-based experiences. This issue of XRDS is about recognizing these issues, but it is also a celebration. These factors do not stop women from being highly successful on the web and in the fields of computing and engineering sciences. While challenges exist, for many being online is liberating, allowing us to look beyond pre-defined boundaries. In this issue we invited several women we know who have been and are still successful within the world of the web.
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SECTION: Features
On the future of computer science
Gabriele Kotsis, ACM President and full professor in computer science at Johannes Kepler University, shares her personal experiences and suggestions to shape the future of computer science.
By Elizabeth Churchill, Nova Ahmed
Stories from an autodidact
What does it mean to have a career that has been shaped by luck and learning? With no formal training in the software industry, the author shares a personal story of the ups, downs, and sometimes sideways moments in her career.
By Lisa Long
The women bricoleurs of technology
Understanding the value of reaching from theory to practice by revisiting the contributions of women before us and our assumptions about how we create valuable impact for the future.
By Deborah Schultz
Man on the moon (1969), women on the web (1991 and still going strong)
Whatever you do in your life, you can bring it all together to find your place. This is a story about the twists and turns of life---from architecture to HCI.
By Jeni Paay
Socializing the web
Though today we think of the web and social media as nearly synonymous, the technology of the early web made social interaction difficult. The author discusses her work creating some of the web's earliest social applications and asks why our interfaces for seeing and communicating with each other online are still so primitive.
By Judith Donath
Music, industry, and researching your own hidden curriculum
Whether working in academia, industry, or entertainment building a career means navigating a variety of challenges. The authors revisit a number of lessons learned while building systems (or records), how to transfer those lessons to new domains, how to turn your research skills on what you haven't learned yet, and build an extra curriculum for yourself.
By Henriette Cramer, Avriel Epps-Darling
The shape of our feminisms
Understanding agency and empowerment outside the Global North.
By Maryam Mustafa
HCI education of choice
This article is from the perspective of an Egyptian HCI educator who explores "designing" inclusive designers, and how decolonial thinking can address inclusion in HCI education as one possible critical lens.
By Shaimaa Lazem
Digital development in a remote paradise
International exposure impacts your views on technology, design, consumption, and adoption, and sometimes technology is not even the direct solution. Building a digital ecosystem entails the right policy mix to support the expansion of mobile broadband coupled with complementary policies to boost affordability and digital skills for underserved groups.
By Jimena Luna
