Programmers, students, project managers, analysts, engineers are part of the group Women in Technology (MNT): there are already 241 “official members”. Photo: Marina Marques

It was after a harmless chat session in the Debian users community that the three women had the idea of creating a group exclusively for them to discuss issues related to the technological world. “We were thinking of doing an event similar to those carried out by http://women.debian.org. That was when we started to question the low attendance rates by women at IT events”, mentions Andressa Martins (@catoze), one of the founders of “Women in Technology” (MNT).

The group grew and what in the beginning was limited to the state of Goiás gained national dimension. There are currently 241 “official” members, in addition to others participants in the group’s discussion rooms and social networks. The profile is very diversified: programmers, students, project managers, analysts, engineers, etc.

Last year, only two members participated in Latinoware, but they represented the group well when they were called to come up on stage and celebrate – next to Jon “Maddog” Hall – Linux’s 20th Anniversary during the event closing ceremony. “The organization is concerned in discussing women’s role on the IT and Free Software market, I found some lectures on this issue”, remembered Christiane Santos (@angel_chris).

In 2012 seven women will be at the conference, involved in an intensive activity program: they will be speaking on women’s participation in IT, participating in a round table with the Nerds de Batom – Nerds in Lipstick (and other leaderships), in addition to, as a user group, exchanging ideas with the community, attracting and registering new members and exhibiting accessories they have developed.

In 2011, only two members participated in Latinoware (both wearing blue), but they represented the group well when they were called to come up on stage and celebrate Linux’s 20th Anniversary next to “Maddog”.

In 2012 seven women will be at the conference, involved in an intensive activity program: they will be speaking on women’s participation in IT, participating in a round table with the Nerds de Batom – Nerds in Lipstick (and other leaderships), in addition to, as a user group, exchanging ideas with the community, attracting and registering new members and exhibiting accessories they have developed.

Contest: New year, new logo!

Heads up, guys! MNT is promoting a cultural contest to choose the new logo for the group. Anyone over the age of 12 can take part. “We need an exclusive logo; something that will identify us a women’s group acting in the area of technology and striving for gender equality”, stressed Márcia Almeida (@marcia_sa). “Since we lack funds to contract a professional from the area and we work in collaboration, we have chosen to go with the contest and we hope the community will show its talent and help us with our visual identity”.

The expectation that Latinoware will yield good proposals for the group. Submissions are open to November 5th, and the notice with all the information is available link: http://goo.gl/ZLSte.

MNT Social network

Ideas, discussions and activities are also present in the group’s social networks. And they raise an important note: “Men can also participate in the group, as long as they support our action, after all, we are striving for gender equality and this will only be accomplished with contributions from both sides”. Worth visiting!

List of discussion topics: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups&hl=pt-BR#!forum/mulheres-na-tecnologia

Twitter: @mulheresti

Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/mulheresti/

Website: http://www.mulheresnatecnologia.org

E-mail: contato@mulheresnatecnologia.org