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      "body": "![Venezuela.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQkQ1ZTPUyKWGzRFMizamZjderz7LmZ79xkPN2uLQiadg/Venezuela.png)\n\nIn a country with the largest oil reserves in the world, its people are unable to buy food. The national currency, the Bolivar, devalued by 95 percent this week wiping out people’s savings. And millions of Venezuelans have fled their country overwhelming the borders with Colombia and Brazil. There are even stories of Venezuelans who have walked to Argentina – a journey of thousands of miles.\n\n![Eugenia Alcala Sucre.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaNG3cMnCHSvSoESuXXupnSCDUjA4oSfUdAH8xbyEpVCQ/Eugenia%20Alcala%20Sucre.jpg)\n\nEugenia Alcala Sucre\nEugenia Alcalá Sucre, Founder of Dash Caracas and Dash Venezuela\n\nAmidst such a distressing panorama, Eugenia Alcalá Sucre, founder of Dash Caracas and Dash Venezuela tells us what it’s really like living in Venezuela on a day-to-day basis. And why she believes that cryptocurrency–specifically, Dash–can provide a solution to the growing humanitarian crisis.\n\n“Like many Venezuelans,” she says, “my husband and I left in 2015.” Thanks to rising food shortages, inflation, crime, a crumbling economy and political uncertainty, “we felt that our country didn’t have opportunities for us anymore.” They moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, risking everything to go there and leaving all that they owned behind. Yet due to illness, she was forced to return to her country.\n\nA Country in Ruins\n\n“When I came back, I had a different perspective, like moving to another country is not always the only solution,” she says. “But when I returned [in 2016] I was really shocked by the deterioration. My country was devastated. We started to see things like entire families eating out of the garbage on the street and people not being able to buy food or their basic necessities, even though they were professionals with jobs.”\n\nShe continues, “In 2017, we had a difficult time in Venezuela, with many uprisings and protests.” Massive anti-government demonstrations, widespread violence, and a death toll in the hundreds unfolded after several months of unrest. Eugenia says that’s when she “realized that it was not only an economic crisis anymore but a social crisis as well.”\n\nBeyond the demonstrations and the political oppression, we’re not just talking about homeless people without jobs who can’t afford to buy food. Eugenia explains that there are multiple barriers preventing everyday people from accessing their money. Not only is there rampant hyperinflation the likes of which has rarely been seen in modern times, but on top of that, Venezuelans have no way of shielding their wealth from devaluation as they are forbidden from purchasing foreign currency freely.\n\n“We’ve had exchange controls for many years now,” she says, “we cannot freely buy dollars with bolivars. We need a special permission from the government and that has become harder and harder to obtain, which drives people to other measures.”\n\nThe Black Market\n\nA black market for buying dollars and other foreign currency has existed in Venezuela for many years but has become especially necessary since high inflation became hyperinflation. “We buy tomatoes today for one price and tomorrow it might be the double of that price,” Eugenia explains, “We don’t know how much it’s going up but we do know it’s going up. Our income is buying less and less every day.”\n\n![black market.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXrw7WavBwJGyc83mbHRSbrhRtiUya9vmLmUQ4cD55wzK/black%20market.jpg)\nVenezuelans have to use the black market\n\nSo regular people, even working professionals, simply cannot put food on their tables. “When you see all these barriers,” she says, “sometimes people have turned to the black market, but that is dangerous because it is illegal. There have been cases of people put in jail for using the black market.”\n\nA Lack of Cash\n\n“If that wasn’t enough,” Eugenia adds, “we also have the problem of a lack of cash. That is a serious problem as there are a lot of services we can’t pay for in any other way than cash, such as public transportation.”\n\nThis sounds unbelievable but it’s actually true. Many working professional Venezuelans are sleeping on the streets because they can’t access the cash they need to take the bus home. Even though they have it in their bank.\n\n“There are a lot of people living on the streets even though they have a job. But they don’t have enough cash to go to work and go home every day. They work from Monday to Friday and go home on the weekends. Bills are really, really scarce. You go to the bank and they only give you a little amount. They have limits. Even though you have the money in the bank you can’t take it out.”\n\nLimits on Debit Card Spend\n\n“On top of that,” she adds, “there is another problem. The debit card and wire transfers are also limited, so with hyperinflation prices go up and up but my debit card only allows me to spend so much in a day. Even though I have the money in my bank, I cannot spend it.”\n\nMany of the members of the Dash Venezuela team share similar stories of being unable to keep their heads above water. “There is one woman,” Eugenia says, “who was a General Manager of a bank. Although she had all those years working there and the highest rank in that office, she could not afford to feed her two kids.”\n\nCryptocurrency as a Legal Alternative\n\nWhen people are dying, children are starving, crime rates are skyrocketing, and the borders with neighboring countries overcome, you have to have a pretty iron-cast will to remain. But Eugenia was resolved to help her country find a way of overcoming these problems. She says:\n\n“So, we started thinking of overcoming economic barriers without breaking the law. Cryptocurrencies are not a crime in Venezuela. I had heard about Bitcoin a few years ago but I didn’t pay attention to it; I thought it was a university project or something.” But in 2017, when the situation looked particularly dire, she started to research more deeply. That’s when she came across Dash.\n\n“I fell in love with Dash not only because of the characteristics of the currency that makes it easier to use but because of the DAO. That blew my mind. I started investigating Dash and thinking about how I could make a difference that would help Venezuelans to know about this.”\n\nEugenia is not a programmer, developer, economist, or engineer. She’s a psychologist, who’s worked for many years in training with teenagers, adults, children, in companies, and with entrepreneurs. In fact, it was her experiences working closely with entrepreneurs that helped her idea of Dash Conferences in Venezuela to gain momentum.\n\nSpreading the Word About Dash\n\nAgainst such an overwhelmingly dismal backdrop, how could Dash even begin solving the problem? “So,” she explains, “Dash helps with hyperinflation since people can use it to shield their wealth. It helps with the cash problem, and it helps also with the velocity of the transaction as Dash is so quick.”\n\nTransaction speeds are important to many people around the world but even more pressing in Venezuela with a currency devaluing by the second.\n\n“More importantly,” she says, “Dash can help as a means of everyday payment. And the governance system of Dash has made it possible for us to hold conferences and speaking engagements for Venezuelans about cryptocurrencies and Dash. The goal is to educate people about how to use it as a solution to the problem.\n\nWe have over 5,000 people coming to conferences and we do a conference every month. After the conference is done we have this activity called Dash City which is an entrepreneur fair where products and services are bought only with Dash. This is a practical way of seeing Dash work and it’s fundamental because we can talk about cryptocurrency in theory but until you see it working really, download your own wallet and buy something with Dash, that’s what makes people realize it’s really possible.”\n\nBut how practical is Dash today? Are there stores in Venezuela that actually accept it as a form of payment? How to everyday people get access to Dash if their currency is worthless?\n\n“We have over 900 merchants today that accept Dash in Venezuela,” she says. “That is an achievement of a conjoint effort of Dash Venezuela and entrepreneurs in over 20 communities and projects in Venezuela that are also raising awareness and working to explain to merchants what is Dash and how to use it.”\n\nDash Conferences in Venezuela\n\nThe Dash Conferences are aimed at entrepreneurs as “their personality traits are good for spreading this information as they are bolder and prone to taking risks. They’re more likely to experiment, as they have the liberty of doing it compared to a big company that has to overcome a lot of processes and policies. Entrepreneurs just have to make their choice and just do it. They have been a part of our success.”\n\nIn fact, Eugenia says that many small entrepreneurs have even been an inspiration to bigger businesses. “They think, “if this little entrepreneur can do it then why can’t we?” They not only talk about it but are leading the example.”\n\nEugenia and her team have already held 10 conferences so far this year and will close with the 12th next month. After that, she has plans for other kinds of activities that are more targeted to merchants, such as training events, to help more and more entrepreneurs to use Dash. Although, they will still hold conferences, “maybe three or four times a year,” she says.\n\nDo Most Venezuelans Know About Cryptocurrency?\n\nYour average European or American probably isn’t familiar with blockchain. Those that are familiar often have mixed definitions and a lack of complete understanding. But that isn’t the case in Venezuela. “The best-known cryptocurrencies in Venezuela are Bitcoin, Petro, and Dash,” says Eugenia.\n\nAnd what does she think of Petro? She hesitates, displaying a certain reluctance to speak freely about government initiatives. “Petro is an interesting project,” she says, “The most important of all, though, is that the government has incorporated the word cryptocurrencies in their speeches.” This has served to help Eugenia and her team spread the word about Dash more easily and educate the wider Venezuelan public.\n\n“When we start to speak about Dash, people have already heard of cryptocurrencies,” she says, “so, Petro has been a step forward in helping people know there is something called blockchain and there is something called cryptocurrencies.”\n\nIncreasing Acceptance of Dash\n\n“We now have merchants being able to buy materials from China and pay in Dash and sell their products in other countries and accept Dash. Venezuelans have been using cryptocurrency for years now to protect their capital from inflation, but now with Dash, it has opened a new window as a means of payment. It is an easy way to receive something that is stronger than the Bolivar and is within the law.”\n\nSo what types of merchants accept Dash? “We have a huge variety, from little ones like coffee and ice cream sellers to grocery stores, and a company that makes and sells motorcycles… There are also health centers that are accepting Dash, schools, universities, and clothing stores… there are a whole lot of options.” (Check out https://discoverdash.com/)\n\nIs Eugenia concerned at all that if Dash gets too strong and becomes a threat to the government they may make it illegal?\n\n”I hope not,” she says, “I think it’s possible because of the characteristics of the government that is in Venezuela right now, but there are people in the government that understand cryptocurrency and know this is a tool they have to use. I believe that they are not going to stop it because it serves them as well.”\n\nAnd what about the conferences she holds that amass thousands of attendees? “We have to be alert, but they haven’t taken any action to stop the events, we have to be on guard, but I hope that it is going to be okay.” After all, she stresses, the conferences are about teaching entrepreneurs about Dash–not an anti-government movement.\n\nHow About Being Non-Technical and a Female?\n\n“Actually, my not having a technical background, I think has helped people relate to me and to understand cryptocurrency when they don’t have technical or development background. There is a phrase I use a lot in my conferences. I do not understand blockchain in a technical point of view and I do not understand the economy from an economic point of view, but I am a person and I earn money and I understand that this kind of money has a value.”\n\nShe says that this relatability helps people to relax when they realize that they don’t need a developer background to understand it. And as for being a woman? Eugenia doesn’t consider herself a feminist–she just does her job. “People are listening not because its a female or a male voice, they are listening because it is useful for them.”\n\nShe says that the only time she saw being a woman as a problem was with “one particular journalist in Venezuela, a specialist in technology. He’s never wanted to have me in his interviews although he has had my male colleagues. Maybe if I was a man this guy would like to talk to me.”\n\nAnd the Biggest Challenges That Lie Ahead?\n\n“We have built a momentum with the conferences. I think we have to embrace that momentum, we cannot let go, we need to keep going. Also, we have to work on the next projects for how people can get Dash and other cryptocurrencies directly so that they don’t have to use the Bolivar. We need to develop different ways for Venezuelans to receive Dash.”\n\nMany Venezuelans who work online are accepting payment in crypto and can work with people all over the world, using it freely to pay for goods and services. This needs to be extended to other types of workers. And there’s still a long way to go before Venezuelan public transport will accept payment in Dash. But we’re at the tip of the iceberg after all.\n\n“It’s not like this is the solution to every problem,” Eugenia says, “but there is some sort of hope that spreads with the using of Dash.”",
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      "author": "cheetah",
      "body": "Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:\nhttps://allcoinshome.com/5-disturbing-statistics-that-prove-millennials-are-addicted-to-tech/",
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      "body": "![cup-2218405_640.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaL6wcDSzBdqjASLzR48EJHPgwZb2QQnX1QkvLakoJv2X/cup-2218405_640.jpg)\n\nHow important is your smartphone to you? How many hours do you spend staring at the screen, and what lengths do you go to in order to make sure you always have it on you? Hopefully, you won’t end up falling over the edge of a cliff for it, but if you’re like one in ten millennials, you might just sacrifice a finger.\n\nYes, you read that right. According to research carried out by mobile app developer Tappable, 10 percent of millennials would rather permanently give up a body part than their smartphone. Check out these top five disturbing statistics that prove how addicted millennials are to tech:\n\n1. 23 percent of millennials would rather keep their smartphone than all five senses\nIt sounds incredible, but it’s true. Almost one quarter of the 500 males and females surveyed would rather give up touch, taste, hearing, sight, or smell than their iPhone. Although that poses the question of how they would actually watch the videos they’re addicted to or listen to the podcasts they can’t get enough of. It seems most respondents thought that through in advance, with 64 percent opting to give up smell.\n\n2. 38 percent would give up drinking alcohol\nInterestingly, 38 percent said they would give up drinking, which just shows how much the Brits enjoy their beer. Reading this stat the other way around means that 62 percent would rather keep drinking than give up their phones. Even Apple can’t beat a good night out on the town, it seems.\n\n3. 16 percent would never travel again\nWhy bother when you can travel vicariously through other people using your smartphone? It’s sad but true: for 16 percent of millennials, playing with apps and chatting with friends is more important than going out into the world and making real-life connections.\n\n4. 15 percent would sell their bodies\nYep. It seems that millennials have fairly low standards when it comes to their own bodies. According to the survey, some 15 percent of millennials would swap sex in order to keep hold of their mobile.\n\n5. 10 percent would give up a finger\nWhich finger wasn’t specified, although, without doubt, we’re not talking about thumbs here.\n\nMrs. Elli Denison, Ph.D., Director of Research at The Center for Generational Kinetics, says, “We talk a lot about how millennials are tech-dependent. Losing a finger or one of the senses is an extreme way to frame it, but the bottom line is younger generations are completely immersed in technology, particularly mobile devices.”\n\nOne survey respondent proclaimed, “My phone is integrated into every part of my life. I couldn’t possibly live without it.” So, diving off a cliff for a mobile phone might not be unthinkable after all.",
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      "body": "![decentralized-exchanges.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmbLsP4KZHSJzvRod4rVV4h4UU6ykA4LUBK6VcTGC9GiDZ/decentralized-exchanges.jpg)\n\nJohn McAfee is a man who likes to make bold statements. There are few people who haven’t heard his price prediction for Bitcoin by 2020 (and what he’ll do if he’s wrong), his controversial outbursts over the SEC, or his political ambitions.\n\nBut after a cryptocurrency journey as volatile as the market, the infamous Bitcoin Bull is still very much alive and kicking. And, according to him, decentralized exchanges are the future.\n\nYou don’t have to be as ambitious about the Bitcoin price as McAfee, or as enthusiastic about certain token sales. But, you have to admit, he has a point when it comes to decentralized exchanges.\n\nAfter all, if the vision laid out by Satoshi was to send peer-to-peer payments, sidestepping centralized authorities—why are we using layers of middlemen? It seems kind of ironic that we’re willfully adding centralization to a decentralized technology. Especially since the advent of Ethereum, smart contracts, and atomic swaps.\n\nBeyond a basic misunderstanding of the vision for Bitcoin, here are a few other reasons decentralized exchanges are the future.\n\nDecentralized Exchanges Are Surveillance-Free\n\nOf course, not having one single point of control will always present a predicament. On the one hand, all people should be allowed to be responsible for their personal wealth. They should have the right to operate without the intrusion of governments or centralized authorities. In short, they deserve the ability to maintain their privacy.\n\nOn the other hand, well, it’s also carte blanche for criminals to fund terrorism, carry out cyber crime, launder money, and evade taxes. Decentralized exchanges allow for all these things to happen. They are surveillance-free and censorship-resistant with no ability for any single entity or person to take control.\n\nIn a recent interview, John McAfee told NullTX:\n\n“WE ARE LOOKING VERY STRONGLY AT DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGES. WHY? BECAUSE WITH CENTRALIZED EXCHANGES WE WILL BE ALWAYS UNDER THE THUMB OF GOVERNMENTS.”\n\nThey Can’t Be Shut Down\n\nJust as decentralized exchanges can’t be monitored by prying eyes, they can’t be shut down either since there’s no single point of failure. This is simply not the case with existing centralized exchanges (as we’ve seen in China and other countries).\n\nWhile it’s true that centralized exchanges (think Binance and BitBay) can up sticks and move to a different jurisdiction, they’re still at the mercy of regulators. Just think back to December of last year when Coinbase had to share nearly 15,000 users’ information with the IRS.\n\nMcAfee states, “Until we get a functional decentralized exchange, we will always be at risk of being shut down.” And there ain’t no one who wants that to happen to their BTC.\n\nThey Allow for Truly Peer-to Peer Transactions\n\nDecentralized exchanges allow us to cut out the middleman and actually make use of the beautiful peer-to-peer technology created for us. To free ourselves from the shackles of oppression and shake off the parasites feeding off our blood.\n\nWith decentralized exchanges improving all the time, the atomic swap feature will soon allow for interoperability between Bitcoin and altcoins. This means that users can send funds with zero need for centralized parties. They can simply agree on a trading price from BTC to ETH (for example) and complete the transaction immediately.\n\nMcAfee told NullTX:\n\n“LUXCOIN, FOR EXAMPLE, TODAY CAME OUT WITH THEIR SMART CONTRACT OF FUNCTIONALITY ON THE LUX NETWORK… THEY ARE COMING OUT WITH A DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGE, AND I THINK IT WILL BE ONE OF THE FIRST DISTRIBUTED EXCHANGES THAT ACTUALLY FUNCTIONS USING THE ATOMIC SWAP FEATURE.”\n\nThey’re Much More Secure\n\nIf you’ve heard of the Mt. Gox hack and the multitude of others (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?), you’ll know that keeping funds in centralized exchanges isn’t a good idea. Bitcoins may be immutable. But the centralized exchanges where you buy, sell and store them are not.\n\nCentralized exchanges with their emails and passwords are huge targets for hackers. Since decentralized exchanges run over several nodes, they can absorb a breach without being compromised.\n\nMoreover, they don’t act as custodians of funds, so the responsibility for private keys is on the user.\n\nThe Downside\n\nThere’s always a catch, right? Unfortunately, most decentralized exchanges are either still being built, or are fiendishly difficult for users. Unless you’re a programmer with a ton of patience and a penchant for numbers, that is.\n\nThe matching engines are much slower than centralized exchanges, and validating each transaction on the blockchain takes time. Furthermore, interoperability hasn’t allowed for cross-chain transactions thus far.\n\nHowever, the interoperability issue looks like it will soon be a thing of the past—and developers are tirelessly working on the other issues as well. We’re at the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come—in cryptocurrencies and in the exchanges that list them.\n\nAfter all, when we can do things more efficiently without middlemen, human error, security issues, and commission fees, what’s the use for centralized exchanges? Decentralized exchanges will undoubtedly form the shape of the future—and even John McAfee thinks so.",
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      "body": "We need more women in tech. That’s the general consensus. We also need to reduce our carbon emissions, but no one’s doing much about that either. So while I appreciate the trumpeting chorus of voices stating the obvious, wouldn’t it be better to see action rather than words? And better yet, should we actually talk about why we need more women in tech? Because if it’s just to make up the numbers, most of us would prefer the ladies to stay home.\n\nIf that sounded horribly misogynistic, stay with me; I’m coming to my point. More women in key positions in tech – and business in general – would be better for everyone. Women have proven their leadership skills time and again (even surpassing their male counterparts). But if we’re hiring lesser-qualified candidates to fill a quota or sprinkling women at conferences to sex up the stands, we’re going about it wrong.\n\nIn her article, The Bathroom Test for Women in the Cryptocurrency World, Crystal Stranger, Co-Founder of PeaCounts, makes an interesting point. After attending Consensus New York – the biggest blockchain conference of the year – she noticed that the number of women present increased by the day.\n\nCrystal Stranger\n\n![Crystal Stranger.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXrkwQBzCE3GuRh5B2QJCcGJdEUicNCatdXXE8vGsFDth/Crystal%20Stranger.jpg)\n\nCrystal Stranger of Founder PeaCounts\n\nThat isn’t because there was a sudden influx of female speakers, attendees, or investors; they were simply brought on for decorative purposes. As a tax operations director, co-founder of a cryptocurrency startup, UCLA grad, and published author, she found it a little insulting. “The blockchain industry can be a little distasteful as a woman,” she says.\n\nThe Situation in Numbers\n\n- In 2017, only 17 percent of startups had one female founder on the board\n\n- In VC-financed, high-growth tech startups, just 9 percent of founders are women\n\n- Only 1.76 percent of the entire Bitcoin community are women\n\n- In the US, only 2 percent of mutual fund assets are managed by women\n\n- 7 out of 10 fintech employees in the UK are men, and just 17 percent of women are senior executives\n\n- Only 18 percent of computer science degrees in the US go to women\n\n- In the UK in 2017, female fund manager bonuses were as much as 70 percent below men’s\n\nBut Women in Tech Don’t Want to Talk About Women in Tech\n\nPart of the reason that we’re getting this wrong might be because we’re reluctant to discuss the issue. And women are as much to blame as men, perhaps even more so. Women in tech don’t want to talk about women in tech. Although it’s not hard to understand their perspective.\n\nWhen you boast a kickass career trajectory, raise millions in seed capital, or run a flourishing business, you want to be asked about your achievements, not your genitalia.\n\nMoreover, being excessively vocal about the topic isn’t a good idea. In 2017, companies with female founders received just 2.2 percent of all VC funding. Even having a woman on your board appears to correlate to reduced funding. If we need more women in tech, no one’s told the VCs.\n\nOlga Feldmeier is founder and CEO at Smart Valor, a blockchain marketplace for tokenized alternative investments. She’s also worked for Barclays Capital, UBS Wealth Management, and BCG, and was Commercial Managing Partner at Silicon Valley’s Xapo.\n\nShe recognizes that being a woman in this industry is a challenge. “Everybody told me no,” she says, “and you know what? I never take no for an answer; perhaps that’s not the attitude of a typical woman. But many women are brought up in this way. They need more help. If you’re the only woman founder of a company, it might be difficult. If you have good businessmen that you can work with and create a company with, have two or three co-founders, the job is easier.”\n\nOlga Feldmeier\n\n![Olga Feldmeier.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVq2BhXtxYMTW87huPounb2MVFMjpM5MfjbZeJ3hr8Sow/Olga%20Feldmeier.jpg)\n\nOlga Feldmeier, Founder of Smart Valor\nThe founder and CEO of Meethappy, Joana Gutierrez, reinforces the sentiment of keeping it low-key. “I tend to take the stance that I don’t look at working in an industry and identifying and categorizing myself as a gender, but rather as Joana, the individual.”\n\nAre We Our Own Worst Enemies?\n\nPosing this question provokes a heated debate. Emily Arth, VP of Operations at Constellation, remarks, “I reject the notion that women in tech are the enemies of other women thriving and being accepted in our industry. I’ve been welcomed with open arms by every woman I interact with within this industry. The reasons we’re having trouble ‘getting on board’ are deep-seated and culturally ingrained.”\n\nSo, a childhood of playing with Barbies and watching commercials for baby dolls instead of discovery toys has something to do with it?\n\nEmily Arth\n\n![Emily Arth.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXitftgvqDGYRQDQnZcp3HDpRCJdYmYWA8zWdU3bassxW/Emily%20Arth.jpg)\n\nEmily Arth, VP Operations, Constellation\n\n“I believe that the cryptocurrency industry has a deep gender imbalance due to both the way children are raised, as well as a cultural imbalance of money management… This leads to an understanding beginning in early childhood that tech and science are ‘boy jobs’. In addition, historically, it has been assumed that the ‘man’s job’ is to handle both the household finances as well as Wall Street investments.”\n\nA Little Anecdote to Boil Your Blood\n\nYet could our upbringings be unconsciously making us work against each other? I pose the question because an incident at MoneyConf in Dublin made me spill my drink. I was approached by a woman from the Women in Tech movement who said, “We need more women in tech.” I agreed. “Could you write an article explaining blockchain to women, you know, in a way that they’ll understand?”\n\nI convulsed, wasting perfectly good champagne. If the very ambassadors for women in tech are implying that we need to dumb down the narrative for our lady brains, clearly we have a problem. What would that article even look like?\n\nLadies, so you know this whole blockchain thing? Think about it as a bunch of girlfriends linking arms, and they all have to agree for anything to happen. Oh, and you get to keep your digital money in cute little digital purses.\n\nEyes. Rolling.\n\nNancy Wang, Co-Founder, and CEO of Advancing Women in Product (AWIP) sees the issue raising itself time and time again. “So many women who approach me online and in person at AWIP events tell me how they are intimidated of taking the next step, even when it’s as tangible as applying for that dream role because they are afraid they’re not 100 percent qualified.”\n\nNancy Wang\n\n![Nancy Wang.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeXtbYuaffeRUpiPRsNSNzCp6jiX1WXPBf2KHyCd3pwKZ/Nancy%20Wang.jpg)\n\nNancy Wang, Co-Founder & CEO, AWIP\nIn fact, a Harvard Business Review study found that men will apply for a job when they meet just 60 percent of the criteria, but women will apply only if they meet 100 percent.\n\nA Toxic Environment for Women\n\nFor the handful of women working in tech, many report a “toxic” environment, akin to showing up at a frat house uninvited. Just consider Susan Fowler and the Pandora’s box she opened about Uber’s horribly sexist working culture. And many others followed.\n\nNot all tech companies are created equal. That’s for sure. And not all male coworkers are misogynistic. But Feldmeier makes a valid point when she says: “If you start working at a tech firm with 34 men and you show up as number 35 as a woman, you’re probably not going to feel very comfortable.”\n\nSa Wang is CMO of IOST, an enterprise-grade blockchain services company. She says, “The fact is that you have to work harder, project confidence even if you’re lacking it, find the right allies, and work on a project whose people understand your value.”\n\nBeing a woman in tech seems to imply that you have to force your way into a boy’s club, keep your head down, remove gender from the question, find tolerant males to align with, and work twice as hard just to prove your worth.\n\nWe End up on the Cutting Room Floor – and That’s Okay\n\nCindy Mallory is board advisor for blockchaingamer.biz and the VR/AR Association Blockchain Committee co-chair. She says, “As the CMO of a VR game studio, it pained me to time and time again hire the best-fit candidate… and in an application pool on the cutting edge, women are a minority. Throw in previous work experience on top of the portfolio and it pains me to say a lot of women wind up on the cutting room floor.”\n\nCindy Mallory\n\n![Cindy Mallory.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTw9N9tx5RjaftCQR9kuurJ8xjoBjoGxcSPSSXs8LrHjG/Cindy%20Mallory.jpg)\n\nCindy Mallory, Board Advisor, blockchaingamer.biz\n\nBut that’s the way it should be. Strategically placing women at conferences, hiring less qualified professionals because of their gender, and trying to sex up blockchain isn’t helping anyone.\n\nMallory adds, “I was the only woman that spoke at the NYC 4th Annual Blockchain Summit. I’ve attended conferences where they literally couldn’t find a woman speaker to hit stage diversity quotas. Now that I have a few blockchain talks under my belt, the sluice gates have opened and the requests to speak pour in.\n\nI’d like to think it’s because I have an amazing stage presence or present novel ideas in an earth-shattering way. More likely, it’s because I’m one of only a handful of women that meet the criteria for their speakers.”\n\nSo, What Is the Solution?\n\nReadjusting the gender imbalance isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s also not going to happen by forcing women to shapeshift themselves into a man’s world. For all the talk about women and tech, often the most obvious factor is left out: we are different, and as such, different methods need to be applied that don’t involve dumbing things down or filling quotas.\n\nAll the women I spoke to agreed that females in the STEM subjects are still highly underrepresented and that addressing the issue starts way back in school. And by thinking twice about the playthings we buy for our kids.\n\nSome headway is being made, with more and more governments understanding the need for diversity in tech. Ireland, for example, launched the Coderdojo initiative, which is about encouraging children (particularly girls) to get into programming.\n\nAnother response was to “bring your girlfriends along” and to encourage them to get into the industry. Surprisingly, not many women suggested what I would have thought was critical – tailoring the working conditions to make it possible for women to really make a dent in the workplace. We can educate our kids, we can help our fellow colleagues, but if we can’t balance a family life with a career, the door is only just inching open.\n\nFlexible Working Conditions\n\nWhile major behemoths like Apple and Facebook are blazing the trail for women, even offering part payment of egg freezing plans, the US still comes in last place on paid maternity leave. Out of all the countries in the world. Below Papua New Guinea and Oman. Women are expected to give birth and get back to work without missing a meeting – while missing their babies growing up.\n\nFor companies that understand the importance of maternity and even paternity leave, they still expect women to mold back into a rigid 9-5 (or 6, or 7, or 8, or 9…). Shouldn’t it be obvious that to get more women in tech – and in the workforce in general – some flexible working policies are needed?\n\nWomen in Leadership Positions\n\nWe also need to see more women higher up the ranks to make us realize that we can push through the glass ceiling, even with unfavorable odds. Diana LaValle, Director of Engineering at Ignyte Assurance Platform, says:\n\n“We not only need more women in tech but also in leadership. It all starts in high school or college by opening up pathways for the next generation of women to fill technology-driven leadership roles. There are many colleges today that are simply missing out on this piece, and it is critical to helping women. Locally in Minneapolis, we are now starting to hold women in leadership events and women in technology events, but this should have been happening long ago.”\n\nDiana LaValle\n\n![Diana LaValle.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdbwYWkj29HRAFN5s9akuvQAdLKNubEb1L6DXBworgy3w/Diana%20LaValle.jpg)\n\nDiana LaValle, Director Engineering, Ignyte\n\nWrapping It Up\n\nSome of the largest and most successful tech companies have women at the helm, including IBM and Oracle. And going back to the numerous studies, no one can argue the fact that we need more women in tech. But we also need to stop expecting women to achieve the impossible and shrink to fit a system designed for men.\n\nWomen are far more likely to want to work in tech and stay in tech if there are other females involved, especially at the top. So, why not put these ideas into practice? Let’s get more women in tech. As long as they’re not serving the drinks or decorating the booths.",
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      "body": "Thanks for reading, I hope it happens!",
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      "body": "I totaly agree on that. I try to learn my girlfriend everything about Bitcoin myself haha!",
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      "body": "We need more women in tech. That’s the general consensus. We also need to reduce our carbon emissions, but no one’s doing much about that either. So while I appreciate the trumpeting chorus of voices stating the obvious, wouldn’t it be better to see action rather than words? And better yet, should we actually talk about why we need more women in tech? Because if it’s just to make up the numbers, most of us would prefer the ladies to stay home.\n\nIf that sounded horribly misogynistic, stay with me; I’m coming to my point. More women in key positions in tech – and business in general – would be better for everyone. Women have proven their leadership skills time and again (even surpassing their male counterparts). But if we’re hiring lesser-qualified candidates to fill a quota or sprinkling women at conferences to sex up the stands, we’re going about it wrong.\n\nIn her article, The Bathroom Test for Women in the Cryptocurrency World, Crystal Stranger, Co-Founder of PeaCounts, makes an interesting point. After attending Consensus New York – the biggest blockchain conference of the year – she noticed that the number of women present increased by the day.\n\nCrystal Stranger\n\n![Crystal Stranger.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXrkwQBzCE3GuRh5B2QJCcGJdEUicNCatdXXE8vGsFDth/Crystal%20Stranger.jpg)\n\nCrystal Stranger of Founder PeaCounts\n\nThat isn’t because there was a sudden influx of female speakers, attendees, or investors; they were simply brought on for decorative purposes. As a tax operations director, co-founder of a cryptocurrency startup, UCLA grad, and published author, she found it a little insulting. “The blockchain industry can be a little distasteful as a woman,” she says.\n\nThe Situation in Numbers\n\n- In 2017, only 17 percent of startups had one female founder on the board\n\n- In VC-financed, high-growth tech startups, just 9 percent of founders are women\n\n- Only 1.76 percent of the entire Bitcoin community are women\n\n- In the US, only 2 percent of mutual fund assets are managed by women\n\n- 7 out of 10 fintech employees in the UK are men, and just 17 percent of women are senior executives\n\n- Only 18 percent of computer science degrees in the US go to women\n\n- In the UK in 2017, female fund manager bonuses were as much as 70 percent below men’s\n\nBut Women in Tech Don’t Want to Talk About Women in Tech\n\nPart of the reason that we’re getting this wrong might be because we’re reluctant to discuss the issue. And women are as much to blame as men, perhaps even more so. Women in tech don’t want to talk about women in tech. Although it’s not hard to understand their perspective.\n\nWhen you boast a kickass career trajectory, raise millions in seed capital, or run a flourishing business, you want to be asked about your achievements, not your genitalia.\n\nMoreover, being excessively vocal about the topic isn’t a good idea. In 2017, companies with female founders received just 2.2 percent of all VC funding. Even having a woman on your board appears to correlate to reduced funding. If we need more women in tech, no one’s told the VCs.\n\nOlga Feldmeier is founder and CEO at Smart Valor, a blockchain marketplace for tokenized alternative investments. She’s also worked for Barclays Capital, UBS Wealth Management, and BCG, and was Commercial Managing Partner at Silicon Valley’s Xapo.\n\nShe recognizes that being a woman in this industry is a challenge. “Everybody told me no,” she says, “and you know what? I never take no for an answer; perhaps that’s not the attitude of a typical woman. But many women are brought up in this way. They need more help. If you’re the only woman founder of a company, it might be difficult. If you have good businessmen that you can work with and create a company with, have two or three co-founders, the job is easier.”\n\nOlga Feldmeier\n\n![Olga Feldmeier.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVq2BhXtxYMTW87huPounb2MVFMjpM5MfjbZeJ3hr8Sow/Olga%20Feldmeier.jpg)\n\nOlga Feldmeier, Founder of Smart Valor\nThe founder and CEO of Meethappy, Joana Gutierrez, reinforces the sentiment of keeping it low-key. “I tend to take the stance that I don’t look at working in an industry and identifying and categorizing myself as a gender, but rather as Joana, the individual.”\n\nAre We Our Own Worst Enemies?\n\nPosing this question provokes a heated debate. Emily Arth, VP of Operations at Constellation, remarks, “I reject the notion that women in tech are the enemies of other women thriving and being accepted in our industry. I’ve been welcomed with open arms by every woman I interact with within this industry. The reasons we’re having trouble ‘getting on board’ are deep-seated and culturally ingrained.”\n\nSo, a childhood of playing with Barbies and watching commercials for baby dolls instead of discovery toys has something to do with it?\n\nEmily Arth\n\n![Emily Arth.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXitftgvqDGYRQDQnZcp3HDpRCJdYmYWA8zWdU3bassxW/Emily%20Arth.jpg)\n\nEmily Arth, VP Operations, Constellation\n\n“I believe that the cryptocurrency industry has a deep gender imbalance due to both the way children are raised, as well as a cultural imbalance of money management… This leads to an understanding beginning in early childhood that tech and science are ‘boy jobs’. In addition, historically, it has been assumed that the ‘man’s job’ is to handle both the household finances as well as Wall Street investments.”\n\nA Little Anecdote to Boil Your Blood\n\nYet could our upbringings be unconsciously making us work against each other? I pose the question because an incident at MoneyConf in Dublin made me spill my drink. I was approached by a woman from the Women in Tech movement who said, “We need more women in tech.” I agreed. “Could you write an article explaining blockchain to women, you know, in a way that they’ll understand?”\n\nI convulsed, wasting perfectly good champagne. If the very ambassadors for women in tech are implying that we need to dumb down the narrative for our lady brains, clearly we have a problem. What would that article even look like?\n\nLadies, so you know this whole blockchain thing? Think about it as a bunch of girlfriends linking arms, and they all have to agree for anything to happen. Oh, and you get to keep your digital money in cute little digital purses.\n\nEyes. Rolling.\n\nNancy Wang, Co-Founder, and CEO of Advancing Women in Product (AWIP) sees the issue raising itself time and time again. “So many women who approach me online and in person at AWIP events tell me how they are intimidated of taking the next step, even when it’s as tangible as applying for that dream role because they are afraid they’re not 100 percent qualified.”\n\nNancy Wang\n\n![Nancy Wang.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeXtbYuaffeRUpiPRsNSNzCp6jiX1WXPBf2KHyCd3pwKZ/Nancy%20Wang.jpg)\n\nNancy Wang, Co-Founder & CEO, AWIP\nIn fact, a Harvard Business Review study found that men will apply for a job when they meet just 60 percent of the criteria, but women will apply only if they meet 100 percent.\n\nA Toxic Environment for Women\n\nFor the handful of women working in tech, many report a “toxic” environment, akin to showing up at a frat house uninvited. Just consider Susan Fowler and the Pandora’s box she opened about Uber’s horribly sexist working culture. And many others followed.\n\nNot all tech companies are created equal. That’s for sure. And not all male coworkers are misogynistic. But Feldmeier makes a valid point when she says: “If you start working at a tech firm with 34 men and you show up as number 35 as a woman, you’re probably not going to feel very comfortable.”\n\nSa Wang is CMO of IOST, an enterprise-grade blockchain services company. She says, “The fact is that you have to work harder, project confidence even if you’re lacking it, find the right allies, and work on a project whose people understand your value.”\n\nBeing a woman in tech seems to imply that you have to force your way into a boy’s club, keep your head down, remove gender from the question, find tolerant males to align with, and work twice as hard just to prove your worth.\n\nWe End up on the Cutting Room Floor – and That’s Okay\n\nCindy Mallory is board advisor for blockchaingamer.biz and the VR/AR Association Blockchain Committee co-chair. She says, “As the CMO of a VR game studio, it pained me to time and time again hire the best-fit candidate… and in an application pool on the cutting edge, women are a minority. Throw in previous work experience on top of the portfolio and it pains me to say a lot of women wind up on the cutting room floor.”\n\nCindy Mallory\n\n![Cindy Mallory.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTw9N9tx5RjaftCQR9kuurJ8xjoBjoGxcSPSSXs8LrHjG/Cindy%20Mallory.jpg)\n\nCindy Mallory, Board Advisor, blockchaingamer.biz\n\nBut that’s the way it should be. Strategically placing women at conferences, hiring less qualified professionals because of their gender, and trying to sex up blockchain isn’t helping anyone.\n\nMallory adds, “I was the only woman that spoke at the NYC 4th Annual Blockchain Summit. I’ve attended conferences where they literally couldn’t find a woman speaker to hit stage diversity quotas. Now that I have a few blockchain talks under my belt, the sluice gates have opened and the requests to speak pour in.\n\nI’d like to think it’s because I have an amazing stage presence or present novel ideas in an earth-shattering way. More likely, it’s because I’m one of only a handful of women that meet the criteria for their speakers.”\n\nSo, What Is the Solution?\n\nReadjusting the gender imbalance isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s also not going to happen by forcing women to shapeshift themselves into a man’s world. For all the talk about women and tech, often the most obvious factor is left out: we are different, and as such, different methods need to be applied that don’t involve dumbing things down or filling quotas.\n\nAll the women I spoke to agreed that females in the STEM subjects are still highly underrepresented and that addressing the issue starts way back in school. And by thinking twice about the playthings we buy for our kids.\n\nSome headway is being made, with more and more governments understanding the need for diversity in tech. Ireland, for example, launched the Coderdojo initiative, which is about encouraging children (particularly girls) to get into programming.\n\nAnother response was to “bring your girlfriends along” and to encourage them to get into the industry. Surprisingly, not many women suggested what I would have thought was critical – tailoring the working conditions to make it possible for women to really make a dent in the workplace. We can educate our kids, we can help our fellow colleagues, but if we can’t balance a family life with a career, the door is only just inching open.\n\nFlexible Working Conditions\n\nWhile major behemoths like Apple and Facebook are blazing the trail for women, even offering part payment of egg freezing plans, the US still comes in last place on paid maternity leave. Out of all the countries in the world. Below Papua New Guinea and Oman. Women are expected to give birth and get back to work without missing a meeting – while missing their babies growing up.\n\nFor companies that understand the importance of maternity and even paternity leave, they still expect women to mold back into a rigid 9-5 (or 6, or 7, or 8, or 9…). Shouldn’t it be obvious that to get more women in tech – and in the workforce in general – some flexible working policies are needed?\n\nWomen in Leadership Positions\n\nWe also need to see more women higher up the ranks to make us realize that we can push through the glass ceiling, even with unfavorable odds. Diana LaValle, Director of Engineering at Ignyte Assurance Platform, says:\n\n“We not only need more women in tech but also in leadership. It all starts in high school or college by opening up pathways for the next generation of women to fill technology-driven leadership roles. There are many colleges today that are simply missing out on this piece, and it is critical to helping women. Locally in Minneapolis, we are now starting to hold women in leadership events and women in technology events, but this should have been happening long ago.”\n\nDiana LaValle\n\n![Diana LaValle.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdbwYWkj29HRAFN5s9akuvQAdLKNubEb1L6DXBworgy3w/Diana%20LaValle.jpg)\n\nDiana LaValle, Director Engineering, Ignyte\n\nWrapping It Up\n\nSome of the largest and most successful tech companies have women at the helm, including IBM and Oracle. And going back to the numerous studies, no one can argue the fact that we need more women in tech. But we also need to stop expecting women to achieve the impossible and shrink to fit a system designed for men.\n\nWomen are far more likely to want to work in tech and stay in tech if there are other females involved, especially at the top. So, why not put these ideas into practice? Let’s get more women in tech. As long as they’re not serving the drinks or decorating the booths.",
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      "body": "We need more women in tech. That’s the general consensus. We also need to reduce our carbon emissions, but no one’s doing much about that either. So while I appreciate the trumpeting chorus of voices stating the obvious, wouldn’t it be better to see action rather than words? And better yet, should we actually talk about why we need more women in tech? Because if it’s just to make up the numbers, most of us would prefer the ladies to stay home.\n\nIf that sounded horribly misogynistic, stay with me; I’m coming to my point. More women in key positions in tech – and business in general – would be better for everyone. Women have proven their leadership skills time and again (even surpassing their male counterparts). But if we’re hiring lesser-qualified candidates to fill a quota or sprinkling women at conferences to sex up the stands, we’re going about it wrong.\n\nIn her article, The Bathroom Test for Women in the Cryptocurrency World, Crystal Stranger, Co-Founder of PeaCounts, makes an interesting point. After attending Consensus New York – the biggest blockchain conference of the year – she noticed that the number of women present increased by the day.\n\nCrystal Stranger\n\n![Crystal Stranger.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXrkwQBzCE3GuRh5B2QJCcGJdEUicNCatdXXE8vGsFDth/Crystal%20Stranger.jpg)\n\nCrystal Stranger of Founder PeaCounts\n\nThat isn’t because there was a sudden influx of female speakers, attendees, or investors; they were simply brought on for decorative purposes. As a tax operations director, co-founder of a cryptocurrency startup, UCLA grad, and published author, she found it a little insulting. “The blockchain industry can be a little distasteful as a woman,” she says.\n\nThe Situation in Numbers\n\n- In 2017, only 17 percent of startups had one female founder on the board\n\n- In VC-financed, high-growth tech startups, just 9 percent of founders are women\n\n- Only 1.76 percent of the entire Bitcoin community are women\n\n- In the US, only 2 percent of mutual fund assets are managed by women\n\n- 7 out of 10 fintech employees in the UK are men, and just 17 percent of women are senior executives\n\n- Only 18 percent of computer science degrees in the US go to women\n\n- In the UK in 2017, female fund manager bonuses were as much as 70 percent below men’s\n\nBut Women in Tech Don’t Want to Talk About Women in Tech\n\nPart of the reason that we’re getting this wrong might be because we’re reluctant to discuss the issue. And women are as much to blame as men, perhaps even more so. Women in tech don’t want to talk about women in tech. Although it’s not hard to understand their perspective.\n\nWhen you boast a kickass career trajectory, raise millions in seed capital, or run a flourishing business, you want to be asked about your achievements, not your genitalia.\n\nMoreover, being excessively vocal about the topic isn’t a good idea. In 2017, companies with female founders received just 2.2 percent of all VC funding. Even having a woman on your board appears to correlate to reduced funding. If we need more women in tech, no one’s told the VCs.\n\nOlga Feldmeier is founder and CEO at Smart Valor, a blockchain marketplace for tokenized alternative investments. She’s also worked for Barclays Capital, UBS Wealth Management, and BCG, and was Commercial Managing Partner at Silicon Valley’s Xapo.\n\nShe recognizes that being a woman in this industry is a challenge. “Everybody told me no,” she says, “and you know what? I never take no for an answer; perhaps that’s not the attitude of a typical woman. But many women are brought up in this way. They need more help. If you’re the only woman founder of a company, it might be difficult. If you have good businessmen that you can work with and create a company with, have two or three co-founders, the job is easier.”\n\nOlga Feldmeier\n\n![Olga Feldmeier.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVq2BhXtxYMTW87huPounb2MVFMjpM5MfjbZeJ3hr8Sow/Olga%20Feldmeier.jpg)\n\nOlga Feldmeier, Founder of Smart Valor\nThe founder and CEO of Meethappy, Joana Gutierrez, reinforces the sentiment of keeping it low-key. “I tend to take the stance that I don’t look at working in an industry and identifying and categorizing myself as a gender, but rather as Joana, the individual.”\n\nAre We Our Own Worst Enemies?\n\nPosing this question provokes a heated debate. Emily Arth, VP of Operations at Constellation, remarks, “I reject the notion that women in tech are the enemies of other women thriving and being accepted in our industry. I’ve been welcomed with open arms by every woman I interact with within this industry. The reasons we’re having trouble ‘getting on board’ are deep-seated and culturally ingrained.”\n\nSo, a childhood of playing with Barbies and watching commercials for baby dolls instead of discovery toys has something to do with it?\n\nEmily Arth\n\n![Emily Arth.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXitftgvqDGYRQDQnZcp3HDpRCJdYmYWA8zWdU3bassxW/Emily%20Arth.jpg)\n\nEmily Arth, VP Operations, Constellation\n\n“I believe that the cryptocurrency industry has a deep gender imbalance due to both the way children are raised, as well as a cultural imbalance of money management… This leads to an understanding beginning in early childhood that tech and science are ‘boy jobs’. In addition, historically, it has been assumed that the ‘man’s job’ is to handle both the household finances as well as Wall Street investments.”\n\nA Little Anecdote to Boil Your Blood\n\nYet could our upbringings be unconsciously making us work against each other? I pose the question because an incident at MoneyConf in Dublin made me spill my drink. I was approached by a woman from the Women in Tech movement who said, “We need more women in tech.” I agreed. “Could you write an article explaining blockchain to women, you know, in a way that they’ll understand?”\n\nI convulsed, wasting perfectly good champagne. If the very ambassadors for women in tech are implying that we need to dumb down the narrative for our lady brains, clearly we have a problem. What would that article even look like?\n\nLadies, so you know this whole blockchain thing? Think about it as a bunch of girlfriends linking arms, and they all have to agree for anything to happen. Oh, and you get to keep your digital money in cute little digital purses.\n\nEyes. Rolling.\n\nNancy Wang, Co-Founder, and CEO of Advancing Women in Product (AWIP) sees the issue raising itself time and time again. “So many women who approach me online and in person at AWIP events tell me how they are intimidated of taking the next step, even when it’s as tangible as applying for that dream role because they are afraid they’re not 100 percent qualified.”\n\nNancy Wang\n\n![Nancy Wang.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeXtbYuaffeRUpiPRsNSNzCp6jiX1WXPBf2KHyCd3pwKZ/Nancy%20Wang.jpg)\n\nNancy Wang, Co-Founder & CEO, AWIP\nIn fact, a Harvard Business Review study found that men will apply for a job when they meet just 60 percent of the criteria, but women will apply only if they meet 100 percent.\n\nA Toxic Environment for Women\n\nFor the handful of women working in tech, many report a “toxic” environment, akin to showing up at a frat house uninvited. Just consider Susan Fowler and the Pandora’s box she opened about Uber’s horribly sexist working culture. And many others followed.\n\nNot all tech companies are created equal. That’s for sure. And not all male coworkers are misogynistic. But Feldmeier makes a valid point when she says: “If you start working at a tech firm with 34 men and you show up as number 35 as a woman, you’re probably not going to feel very comfortable.”\n\nSa Wang is CMO of IOST, an enterprise-grade blockchain services company. She says, “The fact is that you have to work harder, project confidence even if you’re lacking it, find the right allies, and work on a project whose people understand your value.”\n\nBeing a woman in tech seems to imply that you have to force your way into a boy’s club, keep your head down, remove gender from the question, find tolerant males to align with, and work twice as hard just to prove your worth.\n\nWe End up on the Cutting Room Floor – and That’s Okay\n\nCindy Mallory is board advisor for blockchaingamer.biz and the VR/AR Association Blockchain Committee co-chair. She says, “As the CMO of a VR game studio, it pained me to time and time again hire the best-fit candidate… and in an application pool on the cutting edge, women are a minority. Throw in previous work experience on top of the portfolio and it pains me to say a lot of women wind up on the cutting room floor.”\n\nCindy Mallory\n\n![Cindy Mallory.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTw9N9tx5RjaftCQR9kuurJ8xjoBjoGxcSPSSXs8LrHjG/Cindy%20Mallory.jpg)\n\nCindy Mallory, Board Advisor, blockchaingamer.biz\n\nBut that’s the way it should be. Strategically placing women at conferences, hiring less qualified professionals because of their gender, and trying to sex up blockchain isn’t helping anyone.\n\nMallory adds, “I was the only woman that spoke at the NYC 4th Annual Blockchain Summit. I’ve attended conferences where they literally couldn’t find a woman speaker to hit stage diversity quotas. Now that I have a few blockchain talks under my belt, the sluice gates have opened and the requests to speak pour in.\n\nI’d like to think it’s because I have an amazing stage presence or present novel ideas in an earth-shattering way. More likely, it’s because I’m one of only a handful of women that meet the criteria for their speakers.”\n\nSo, What Is the Solution?\n\nReadjusting the gender imbalance isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s also not going to happen by forcing women to shapeshift themselves into a man’s world. For all the talk about women and tech, often the most obvious factor is left out: we are different, and as such, different methods need to be applied that don’t involve dumbing things down or filling quotas.\n\nAll the women I spoke to agreed that females in the STEM subjects are still highly underrepresented and that addressing the issue starts way back in school. And by thinking twice about the playthings we buy for our kids.\n\nSome headway is being made, with more and more governments understanding the need for diversity in tech. Ireland, for example, launched the Coderdojo initiative, which is about encouraging children (particularly girls) to get into programming.\n\nAnother response was to “bring your girlfriends along” and to encourage them to get into the industry. Surprisingly, not many women suggested what I would have thought was critical – tailoring the working conditions to make it possible for women to really make a dent in the workplace. We can educate our kids, we can help our fellow colleagues, but if we can’t balance a family life with a career, the door is only just inching open.\n\nFlexible Working Conditions\n\nWhile major behemoths like Apple and Facebook are blazing the trail for women, even offering part payment of egg freezing plans, the US still comes in last place on paid maternity leave. Out of all the countries in the world. Below Papua New Guinea and Oman. Women are expected to give birth and get back to work without missing a meeting – while missing their babies growing up.\n\nFor companies that understand the importance of maternity and even paternity leave, they still expect women to mold back into a rigid 9-5 (or 6, or 7, or 8, or 9…). Shouldn’t it be obvious that to get more women in tech – and in the workforce in general – some flexible working policies are needed?\n\nWomen in Leadership Positions\n\nWe also need to see more women higher up the ranks to make us realize that we can push through the glass ceiling, even with unfavorable odds. Diana LaValle, Director of Engineering at Ignyte Assurance Platform, says:\n\n“We not only need more women in tech but also in leadership. It all starts in high school or college by opening up pathways for the next generation of women to fill technology-driven leadership roles. There are many colleges today that are simply missing out on this piece, and it is critical to helping women. Locally in Minneapolis, we are now starting to hold women in leadership events and women in technology events, but this should have been happening long ago.”\n\nDiana LaValle\n\n![Diana LaValle.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdbwYWkj29HRAFN5s9akuvQAdLKNubEb1L6DXBworgy3w/Diana%20LaValle.jpg)\n\nDiana LaValle, Director Engineering, Ignyte\n\nWrapping It Up\n\nSome of the largest and most successful tech companies have women at the helm, including IBM and Oracle. And going back to the numerous studies, no one can argue the fact that we need more women in tech. But we also need to stop expecting women to achieve the impossible and shrink to fit a system designed for men.\n\nWomen are far more likely to want to work in tech and stay in tech if there are other females involved, especially at the top. So, why not put these ideas into practice? Let’s get more women in tech. As long as they’re not serving the drinks or decorating the booths.",
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