My DIAC paper focused on the mistreatment and under representation of women in the technology industry and steps that companies and third-party organizations are taking to change it. As of this moment in 2018, women and men in the same job aren’t paid the same, there are still very few women in STEM fields, and Silicon Valley culture still points to a degenerative and derogatory image of women. A study by Banu Ozkazanc-Pan and Susan Clark Muntean showed that one of the great factors contributing to the lack of female success in entrepreneurship is their reduced access to informal social networks (i.e. “The Boys Club”). A different study by Stanford sociologists Alison Wynn and Shelly Correll reflected that technology company representatives (either intentionally or inadvertently) created a somewhat hostile environment towards women. Bluescape CEO, Peter Jackson, stated that in the workplace, women are often spoken over, patronized, stereotyped, or otherwise discriminated against.
However, the articles and research about the current standing of this situation referenced in my paper show that all hope is not lost. In my DIAC, I include sources that describe the efforts of companies like Bluescape – who incorporates inherently gender-neutral principals in their product, and foundations like the Anita Borg Institute which allows for men and women alike to support female progression in the tech industry. Today’s workplace is very far from where we need it to be, but due to the genuine interest of the public and with corporate leadership that truly cares, we’re moving in the right direction.
My DIAC remix paper titled “A Flower in the Window” attempts to incorporate all these particular issues as well as some of the solutions I’ve mentioned. I intended to reach children and/or young people who likely have yet to experience the hardships some women face in their day to day jobs. Kids would be more receptive of the material because they just want to hear a story and they likely don’t care where it comes from or about its content. Therefore, this would be the perfect opportunity to teach them about the struggles that women face in the technology industry and what they can do to be more accepting and respectful. Adults can be very stubborn with their ideals and their values so they’re less likely to want to promote change. Kids tend to me more receptive and empathetic, so I think this is an excellent time to be sharing these important principals, so they could grow into more caring and responsible adults who promote a society that is entirely inclusive of women and their skills. Conveniently, younger children don’t know how to read yet which allows me to reach an even greater audience: the adults who have to read them the story. Under a different context, adults might be lest receptive of the material, but if they’re reading a story to a child, maybe they will be incentivized to change their own values.
I highly doubt that any kid in their right mind would want to read my research paper, so I had to change this information into a different medium – a children’s book. I took important bits and pieces of information from my DIAC and transplanted them into a cute and wholesome story to connect the values of my paper to the creativity and imagination of a children’s story. One of the main constraints is that I would have to severely dumb down the contents of my paper while making sure it doesn’t lose its effectiveness in communicating certain ideas to children. Another constraint I faced is the fact that I haven’t been assigned creative writing since before high school so writing an entire children’s book that isn’t garbage turned out to be quite a challenge. From designing the original framework to writing each individual page, it was hard to write quality content that was interesting, captured the subject matter that I needed it to, and was concise enough to fit on the page and be read to kids. Furthermore, I had no experience with watercolors… well at least not since I was five. At first, my intentions were to paint the entire book in watercolors but when I started practicing for the project, I quickly remembered why I chose not to pursue art. This forced me to do the background as a wash, cut objects out of colored paper, and then cut out my sketches of the characters outlined in sharpie. By far my biggest constraint was time since I wasn’t able to work on anything but the story over Thanksgiving break and then I had a math exam I had to study for on the first few days of the week it was due. This left me with two days to complete all the artwork on the project and get it scanned, imported into Adobe Illustrator, and printed. Obviously, it was not enough time, despite the fifteen-hour grind session I pulled on the Thursday night before it was due.
As far as the literary content itself, I would say I was able to successfully translate all the articles of my essay that I wanted to. Mentioned at the beginning of this post, these articles included: women are excluded from informal social networks (DIAC ¶4), tech companies alienate women in recruiting sessions (DIAC ¶5), and women are spoken over/patronized/stereotyped/otherwise discriminated against in the workplace (DIAC ¶9). I showed each of these issues to the reader either through an experience relayed by Sara or Mama in the story.
I consider the strongest aspects of my project to be the emotional connection created between the reader and the characters, and the emotional affect of the artwork. Most people can visualize and relate to that parent-child bond demonstrated by Sara and her mother, so I think that helps draw them into the story and empathize with its dilemma. After all, on of the main points of this essay is to increase people’s capacity of empathy for women in the tech industry so they are more inclined to treat them with respect and kindness. Using the parallel between Sara’s issues with the mean boys in her class and her mother’s issues with men at her tech job, I generalize this issue and show how it applies to all people, young and old. This effect simultaneously increases the relatability of their plight to both a father and his son who he’s reading this book to, for example. The visualization of the plot through my artwork further enhances this emotional connection. That said, there are certainly many areas I could’ve improved this project. Most of these problems would be far less apparent had I been given more time like the slightly subpar writing and the bad illustrations, but other than that I’d say the main issue would be creating a more coherent story that better captures all of the values that I want to promote.
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