Designing Tech for Young Women with InnovateHer
Tell us about InnovateHer
Chelsea: InnovateHer exists to get girls ready for the tech industry and the tech industry ready for girls. We run school programs and we also work with the industry on that mission.
What led you to start InnovateHer?
Chelsea: Prior to InnovateHer, I was doing a Masters in Social Media and also working in a tech company in Liverpool. Whilst at the tech company, I realised I was the only woman there. Although I loved the work, I realised that we really needed diversity because my voice wasn’t being heard, even though the products we were working on were mostly for female audiences. I also wanted more people like me to experience technology and the role that I was in. So as I began to realise how few women there were in tech, I started Liverpool Girl Geeks – an event series, trying to get women into technology. Over a couple of years, the community got big and they began asking for more events, and to teach them the skills to work in tech. So I quit my job to run this community full time and InnovateHer developed from there. I met my cofounder who was also passionate about tech and had faced and witnessed sexism within the sector too. . We set up a social enterprise and employed people to make change. We recognised that we had to work with young people and influence change in education because that’s where we saw a lot of the girls in school were not getting the opportunities to even start thinking about a career in tech.
What makes InnovateHer successful at designing for women/girls?
Including the girls in our research and co-creation process
Leanne: Something I was extremely impressed by at InnovateHer when I joined the team was the story of how the brand was created. They had used focus groups of young girls and involved them from the very beginning to come up with the colours, the language and terminology. User research allowed us to see what they related to.
Looking at equality broadly
Leanne: The content is designed by women, and led mainly by women. Although we don't discriminate and encourage male advocates, there’s always an equality standpoint – we are moving towards not just girls, but non-binary genders as well.
Measuring success beyond stats
Leanne:
We want young people to really benefit from the program, so we do in-depth analyses with young people from the start to the end. For us, it’s not just about the stats, but more about confidence. They might love presenting, they might have found their voice as a result of the program. It’s really about their journey.
We’re not focused on the numbers, but on our journey:
Chelsea: Many other organisations that work with girls do one-off big events to which they invite a lot of girls. When we design, it’s more about the journey that they go on and the quality of the program, rather than the number of people that are on the program. At the end of the day, we want our girls to feel confident enough to go and get a role in STEM – so if you’re working with a 12 year old girl, you can’t do that with the one-off event. We have to work with them over a number of years to get there. It’s our main focus and our biggest challenge.
Working systemically – not just the girls, but the industry too.
Leanne: There’s always a connection with industry in our work. So while we run the school programs, we are also talking about D&I in industry, and that’s a strong link to the second part of our mission – to get the tech industry ready for girls. In these conversations with our industry partners, we are asking them if they have thought about unconscious bias, mental health at work, shared parental leave, menopause – these really key topics that industry need to be considering. We’re also supporting female led businesses, and charities like the Black Curriculum.
A real commitment from industry partners
Chelsea:
As you know there’s a huge retention problem, cultural issues, so much bias [in the industry]. When we work with industry partners, they sign up to a pledge, they commit to learning with us and funding us. The end goal is for them to create change, so that their workplace is a better place to work in.
One of our values is integrity. We benchmark our partners at the beginning and at the end. We’re very clear from the beginning that if they’re not committed to making a change, we will remove them from our program. We haven’t had to do this yet, because I’ve noticed that if a company decides not to join us, it’s because our values aren’t aligned or they were joining for the wrong reasons, such as PR. I can sense that they get put off with the amount of time and work they’d have to put in. When they haven’t come on board, it’s because they can’t commit to the learning and change part. They can commit to the funding, but not to the actual work.
What are some key design principles to create a successful community & service focused on and for women?
Creating a safe space is key to increasing confidence
Chelsea: Our program is as much focused on creating an empowering & supportive environment for girls where they can feel confident, as it is on the tech skills. Designing to increase confidence underpins every part of our program. Girls and non-binary folk in our cohorts have felt comfortable sharing about their sexuality, or things that are happening at home and in school. We do safe-guarding training with all the mentors to make sure the space is safe. One girl, for example, found the confidence through our program to go to an all boys school across the street from her all girls school to study computer science, she’s now gone on to become a web developer. We’ve also had parents share similar stories about their children becoming more confident. This is why we built the community in the first place.
Working systemically creates a positive ripple effect
Chelsea: When we go into a school, we’re not just talking to the girls, but also the boys in the class, and with the teachers and parents. So, we’re changing the stereotypes & beliefs not just of the girls, but the teachers and parents as well – who have had ingrained beliefs and barriers on these issues. 29% of male teachers say that they would not recommend STEM careers to girls. So when we talk with teachers, we share information in the hopes that changing their mind can inspire many students in the future. We’ve had boys ask us why these programs are only for girls. We’ve learned that if you tell them exactly why you’re doing it and you show them the stats, or ask them to think of a person they know in tech, which they realize is often a man – then it clicks in their minds and then they get on board to support their female friends. By designing for girls and being intentional about working with those around them, we create a positive ripple effect.
Iteration by listening keeps us relevant
Leanne: We keep the mentors heavily involved to help us be iterative, and change the program to be what the girls want and need. We survey a lot, and build in what our communities think, putting their feedback right back into the program. We have learned from the beginning to go beyond just chatting, and to put ideas into action
Showing, not telling – diverse mentors & role models
Chelsea: It’s not just about gender anymore. We’re also looking at race, ethnicity, sexuality and other minoritized groups. We’re making sure that our role models are from diverse backgrounds. We’re reaching schools in areas we haven’t worked in before, as a result. We want to make sure that the girls can see people who look like them in the industry.
Safe spaces is a topic that comes up in all my expert interviews. How do you create yours?
Taking boys out of the equation, for now
Chelsea: That we get girls together, and take boys out of the situation - even though in the future we don’t want to see that, I think at the moment it’s really needed. There’s a different dynamic when you put boys and girls together in the room, as if a competitiveness emerges. I think from when we’re born, there’s a boys vs. girls scenario, they’re often pitted against one another – so, for now, creating a girls only space has been extremely healthy.
Making sure everyone is heard
Chelsea: We make sure that everyone in the room gets heard and we have intentionally designed activities to do that. We’ve trained our mentors to work with different personalities, so they are able to recognize who’s shy and make sure they are heard in a different way.
Code of Conduct
Chelsea: We have a code of conduct and we speak about that a lot. We say “that this is a supportive environment. We want you to question and challenge each other, but here are the ways that you do that. This is a kind community and we need to be respectful of one another as we may not know what’s happening in someone else’s life behind the scenes. Think about what you say before you say it.”
Always do a check-in
Leanne: We do a check-in as well. You go around and say how you are feeling. For girls, they go around and use emojis to show how they are feeling and adult communities use descriptive words.
What are some misconceptions about designing for women/girls?
Chelsea:
That girls are not interested in technology
A lot of people just assume that young girls are not interested in tech. That is not the case, because when we share and talk to them about tech, they love it. We need to make sure that people are showcasing the opportunities to them. We should be talking to girls about tech in schools and at home.
That all women like stereotypical feminine words & colours
Although certain words attract more women to jobs for example, we have to be careful not to patronise women with stereotypical imagery, colours and text. Some words that we don't use include cute, or pretty, and other words that generally might get spoken to girls. We try to avoid anything stereotypically female because of the misconception that everyone likes it.
That women aren’t strong enough to deal with what the media often ignore
We try to portray women in non-traditional ways, through sport or cybersecurity or aerospace. We talk a lot about periods, menopause, motherhood — women’s issues that folks tend to not talk about. The misconception there is that we shouldn’t talk about these problems with the younger generation, but in fact we need to be talking to them about it the most, because we need them to feel comfortable & confident to face these issues that are often just ignored.
That Women have to be carers
This is one of the main barriers to success in the tech industry. The pandemic has highlighted the carer role and women have faced more work than ever, trying to do their jobs whilst homeschooling children and looking after vulnerable people. The pandemic however has also highlighted the need for balance and shares responsibilities, so hopefully the burden won’t get left to the woman as much moving forward.
What are some examples you’re seeing in the world that you feel are truly designing for women?
Leanne:
Tech Returners is a community for women in tech who had a career break, or were full time carers. The program is set up to get them back into technology. It’s exploring the question around motherhood and work, and how women of our generation are thinking that we can do it all - be an amazing mother, and also do a lot of work, and burn out.
Chayn - a charity for women suffering domestic violence
Clue – I like that they are focused on bringing science to you, and actually researching reproductive healthcare. They are also extremely transparent saying that we don’t know everything yet, we’re still learning, and I really appreciate that.
Fenty beauty - it is the first beauty brand to truly care about diversity and create action. They have over 50 shades of foundation to suit an array of skin colours. They’re cruelty free, they’re affordable. They’re designing for women.
About Chelsea Slater
Chelsea has dedicated her work to achieve gender equality within the tech sector. Her direct experiences of inequality within her previous roles inspired her and business partner Jo, to start InnovateHer — a social enterprise on a mission to “Get girls ready for the tech industry and the industry ready for girls.” InnovateHer educates and inspires teenage girls to have careers in tech, whilst helping companies to be more inclusive. With her team, Chelsea plans to become a leading tech education provider across the U.K and beyond.
About Leanne Atherton
Leanne is a Digital Product Manager for InnovateHer. She cares about creating products which have an impact on InnovateHer’s students in a positive way. She is personally passionate about design, and has a background in data and a/b testing. She likes to have a purpose and be authentic and hopes to help create this at InnovateHer.