Once upon a time, the author attended two technical meetups where only 3% of attendees were women. At a larger regional conference, the percentage of women attendees was also only 3%. The author and another woman discussed the lack of women in the community and came up with a plan to start monthly workshops teaching women Ruby. They hoped this could triple the number of women at future conferences and reach 50% women attendees by 2010. With help organizing workshops, hack sessions, and teaching, they started their efforts to increase diversity in the technical community.

1. Once upon a *me…
By Sarah Allen

2. Once upon a *me,
I went to a technical meetup…

3. Seeing only a few women wasn’t
unusual at small gatherings.
The year
before, I
went to a JS
Meetup
where there
were only
two women.
I had hoped
that it was an
off night.

4. Both meetups had only two women
About 70 aFendees
2 women
= 3%

5. I expected to see more women at a
larger regional conference

6. No luck.
200 aFendees
6 women
= 3%

7. Two of us started to talk…
…and did some math:
If we held a workshop to teach women Ruby,
with 10‐20 women / month,
12 months = about 200 women
Assume that 10% s*ck around
= 20 new women in the Ruby community

8. We decided to do something.
Conserva*vely, we thought we could triple the number of women at the conference….
but my personal goal is to reach 50/50 by 2010.

9. With a lot of help…

10. We put on a workshop

11. Next we are having a hack session

12. and planning another workshop
If you want to help organize, teach or volunteer in any way, join our google group:
hFp://groups.google.com/group/railsbridge‐workshops

13. Anyone can do this. Anywhere.
All of the workshop materials are open source
hFp://wiki.railsbridge.org/projects/railsbridge/wiki/Workshops

14. We don’t need to wait *ll next year…

15. for things to be different