Representation in a field runs deeper than a simple matter of numbers. Those who are under-represented must deal with issues of perception, social climate and a certain loneliness that makes them reluctant to express themselves to their peers. Culture is a vital part of any workplace experience. Those locked outside the prevailing culture by gender, race or beliefs can’t perform at their highest potential.

To understand this effect of culture on women in the tech field, John Furrier (@furrier) and Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-hosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, visited the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in Houston, TX. There, they spoke with a number of TechTruth reporting fellow and junior fellows from the GroundTruth Project.

More than a career fair for women in tech

The Grace Hopper conference was more than just a career fair for women. Fellow Pooja Sivaraman mentioned that the people there weren’t just searching for jobs. They were looking for career advice, talking to each other and creating a culture of their own around the career fair.

Fellow Karis Hustad then related one of her top stories of the convention, the importance of intersectionality about women in tech. It wasn’t just about gender, but race and a variety of backgrounds. She gave the example of a panel showcasing the effects of bias in data, where the discussion touched on both anonymizing the data and pushing companies to be more diverse so the data doesn’t need to be anonymized.

A safe place for today, a goal for the next generation

For the Grace Hopper convention, a key thing was creating a place for women to be around women. Hustad spoke about how everyone she talked to said the event was the only place they could look around and everyone else was a woman in tech. For so many of these women, this is the only time they feel like a part of the tech community.

Following the point, Fellow Tori Bedford stated that people say the youth are the future. She felt there were so many intelligent, exciting people who should be recognized for their ideas regardless of their age. Age is another factor to get past, the same as gender or race.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Anita Borg Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo by SiliconANGLE