Women in blockchain and cryptocurrency

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

steem ladies .jpg

In honor of international Woman's day I would like to take some time to addresses issue of Crypto as a male dominated field. The next technological revolution has begun. Blockchain is slowly starting to make its way into our lives on a more everyday level. Those of you reading this here on Steemit are already engaged and interacting with it all the time. Beyond just a means of payment blockchain is starting to turn into social networks, music streaming sites and games. It will continue to spread into everything that can possibly benefit from the innovation that powers it. As this new wave of innovation grows it makes me wonder if we will see the gender gap in blockchain like the rest of the tech industry.

I am reminded of an amazing TED talk by Reshma Saujani about teaching girls to be more brave. She says:

We're raising our girls to be perfect, and we're raising our boys to be brave

She says that since girls are conditioned from birth to strive from perfection it puts them at a disadvantage with boys who are taught to take risks. We tell our daughters, “Be careful, honey. Don’t get your dress wet,” while we’re letting our boys crawl to the top of filthy monkey bars. I think by teaching girls to be [dainty], we’re silencing their voices and their ambitions. I want to encourage girls to be brave—and that’s not just about raising your hand or asking for more money at work. It’s doing what you love, even if it scares you.

She sites this as a major reason why Silicon Valley has been male dominated. She was so motivated by this that she started Girls Who Code in 2012 to help educate young girls on the power of coding and to help level the playing field.
You can watch her talk here:

The women of Steemit

Steemit really is an amazing community full of men and woman and many walks of life from around the globe. I have spent a lot of time online in various communities and can honestly say that the women of steemit are amazing. There are so many awesome women on this site creating tons of great content helping to grow this community. It would be great to see more of them in higher places though.

According to this post by @ladiesofsteemit https://steemit.com/witness/@ladiesofsteemit/ladies-of-steemit-volume-6-or-can-i-get-a-witness

Out of 318 active witnesses on Steemit only 2 of them are confirmed Women. These are the kinda numbers I want to see change. We are still in the early days of blockchain development. We have also started to see the importance of governance becoming more and more an issue in this space and I for one would definitely like to see woman have more power in shaping how things are governed and developed here on Steemit and the rest of the blockchain world.

I'm gonna continue to try and do my part by trying to help more women get involved and help them out as much as I can.

Are there any projects here on Steemit That focus on educating woman that I should check out? We need to have more woman in higher places in the blockchain world and I look forward to more and more joining this site and becoming a part of the already fantastic community that is growing here on Steemit. On that note I'm going to call call my sister to find out why she still has not signed up.

image credits https://steemit.com/@angielb

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Awesome post @rumble! I suppose women are less prone to making "risky" decisions. People are always surprised when they hear that I am the one that convinced my Husband to invest in crypto, and ill be honest he doesnt really know about it. And yet, some our friends talk to him about it right in front of me, like I'm not there. I had to interrupt and say "he doesnt know anything, I am the one that knows about crypto!" lol

Haha, yeah that is not the status quo for sure. I'm sure you handled it really well though. I really do think that it is awesome to see more women getting involved in this space. There is risk to investing in crypto but in can be handled in a responsible way. Beyond investing there are plenty of ways to be involved in this space and still benefit from it . There is no risk to using Steemit and as more opportunities like this site arise those here now will be in the best position.

So when I see things like that the North American Bitcoin Conference only had three women speakers onstage out of more than 80 speakers and then hosted its after party at a strip club it really bothers me. There really needs to be a push to educate woman on this stuff and to put the spot light on the ones that are already doing amazing things. We need to encourage more to enter this space.

Yes, I agree! Although its kind of hard to get anyone encouraged in this space right now..considering the state of the market! Lol

As a woman myself, I appreciate your post. I’ve just recently become interested in the whole block chain technology, and am still trying to navigate my way around Steemit! I’d love to see more women getting involved. With the way the world is changing...I think this will become a reality!

I’m still learning new things everyday. Stick with it and you will help make it a reality!

Glad you like it! I recommend checking out https://steemit.com/@emmyem84
She has some great posts with quality information for beginners.

Thanks for the info! I’ll check her out!

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This post has received a 6.41 % upvote from @boomerang.

This amazing post went overlooked for some reason... lost in the crowd. I did what I could to help. Substantive and passionate content should not go overlooked! Best of luck in the future and keep up the contributions!!!!