Here's an Interesting App for Women
Dear friends of women in science,
I just got an iPhone and am not yet into "apps" but I know what they are and this one sounds very intriguing. The Department of Labor recently announced a sort of contest for people to develop apps that make it clear that we have a gender gap in pay rather than pay equality. In announcing this challenge, Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, highlighted the persistence of the pay gap. Aneesh Chopra, the White House Chief Technology Officer, said "Today's employers and employees are more resourceful and technologically savvy than ever before, but too many remain unaware of how the pay gap affects them. By encouraging developers to help us solve this problem, we're leveraging the unique ability of the federal government to provide mountains of valuable data as well as the innovation power of the private sector."
As we noted on Equal Pay Day in 2011, women still make only 77 cents for each dollar men earn. We need to solve this discrepancy and I think the challenge, which ends on Equal Pay Day in 2012, can help them do that. If you are an App developer, I encourage you to take this on. The more people who know how bad it is, the more we have a chance to make the gap disappear.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Laura,
I think Aneesh Chopra is in the process of leaving DC to go back to Virginia and run for Lt Governor, so he's not likely to be involved in this despite his name in the press release. I don't know, maybe his leaving has thrown a monkey wrench into the announcement process. I couldn't find the link for competitors either.
MKR
What ex-CS said. I might like to give this a whirl but I could not find the exact directions to it. Found a nice speech by Hilda Solis about it and a ref to the guy you mentioned. Maybe they haven't got it up yet?
Hi Laura,
I went to the article and tried to track back to find the directions but the links on the DOL site are funky and lead to places where I can't find this challenge. Interesting, though, that the government evidently sponsors a whole bunch of challenges. They have an entire website for them, as well as one for software developers who want to take on some of the challenges. If you get a clearer link, please post here.
thanks,
Ex CS
Hi Laura
I'm not sure the men Gina mentioned WILL compete. I suspect the women of CS will be the ones who step up here. But if the apps they create are any fun (which I hope they are), who knows? BTW I heard on NPR the other day that in India they are fighting dowries (which are illegal but still occur) via a new app that is similar to Angry Birds! And they think it's helping raise awareness, too! Pop culture has its uses, apparently.
best,
MKS
Hi Laura,
I think this is a nifty strategy because most of those who could win it are: men in CS, part of the problem!! Learn while you compete, huh? I love it!
GK
