Verónica López at Women Techmakers Barcelona 2016

We live in a world where technology is changing the way we communicate, relate, entertain, travel, work and do business. Thanks to the technological advances in fields such as Mobile, Big Data, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing or Web Development, everything is simplified and it makes our life easier. Unfortunately, there is a gender inequality in the tech sector. With the aim of change that situation and to empower ladies in the industry, events like Women Techmakers Barcelona are arising nowadays. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, it emerges this Google’s global program that organizes several events and conferences around the world with the aim of increase the women’s visibility in the computing world and the information and communications technology. Last Friday, it was held in Barcelona one of these events organized by Tech & Ladies Barcelona, where several girls made its own conferences about programming languages, development methodologies, work experience, job and digital ecosystem. The responsibles for carrying out these speeches were:

• Gina Tost: CEO & Founder at Geenap who talked about how the international mobile ecosystem works from the point of view of a tech company where the fifty per cent of its employees are women.

• Victoria Yasinetskaya: Marketing Director of Strands who spoke about fintech industry and the female talent lack that exists nowadays.

• Toñi Herrero Alcántara: Tech journalist who explained how technology is helping the entrepreneur women through app design and successful startups.

• Davinia García: Software Developer who talked about Scrum which is part of the Agile movement.

• Elisa Gregorio: Android Developer, who spoke about her experience using Ruby on Rails in her daily routine.

• Verónica López: Android Developer and BTS student who share with the rest of the audience her professional experience within the technology industry.

With more of five years of experience in the sector, Verónica López has spent part of her professional career developing applications for the Banking sector. There, she was working in an environment where the majority of coworkers were men and according to her, that wasn’t an obstacle although she felt sometimes misunderstood by her mates because her opinion wasn’t taken into account. However, she considers that the experience was great and they helped her in order to face difficulties. They were like a little family. Currently, she is studying the Master in Digital Solutions Development at Barcelona Technology School and as a part of the international experience of this student program, Verónica is doing an internship at Strands, a global fintech company. Verónica, who is part of Tech & Ladies Barcelona, the co-organizer of Women Techmakers, is conscious of the female talent lack that exists in the tech industry. During her speech last Friday, she affirmed that the origin of this inequality starts during childhood. Verónica talked about Barbie phenomenon, in which the professions and roles of this doll are conventional, the ones that are supposed to be for girls. We are used to see the princess, the veterinary, the air hostess, but, what about professions like engineer or computer expert? Fortunately, time has changed and we start to see women performing new roles like Mobile Developer and barbie dolls representing these kind of careers. Verónica invites women to enter into the digital sector by affirming that computer engineering has great professional possibilities that permits girls to step into a sector with unlimited possibilities where they can invent everything. Many things are related to computing and we cannot imagine the world without Developers, Big Data or Cloud Computing experts. It is in continuous evolution, it allows people to keep learning and change the way of thinking. “In addition, girls meet all the requirements that this industry needs: they are brave, creative and curious, they are warriors, they provided positive impact in the society and they are constantly learning new things”, Verónica said. Some of the reasons that can create this female talent lack are the fact that computing careers are considered the most difficult and people associated them to the geek stereotype. Some education and gender researchers identified that some professors promotes these stereotypes and unconsciously they expect a man to be better in math, technology, programming although a girl also is capable to be successful in this area. Regarding this situation, Veronica invites to change the mentality of society by motivating girls to not be afraid. In order to change that scenario, Veronica suggest women to  challenge themselves, because every dare is an experience and girls can also expect to win. Technology is the world’s engine, why do not be part of that? Women are capable of becoming professionals within the digital industry and according to her they don’t have to feel fear. They have to be a referent for their friends and relatives, they do not have to be afraid to be the first ones to achieve something and they have to support each other. Just so, they will avoid the female lack. Both men and women are capable of make great advances within the digital sector and we should stop to talk about gender specific jobs, and say that women are capable of create wonderful digital solutions. A clear example of that is Verónica Lopez. Barcelona Technology School is proud that Verónica is forming part of Women Techmakers and we hope to see her in more editions of this event.