Women hold 25 percent of computing jobs, according to the National Center for Women and Technology. Who are these individuals? What lessons have they learned about gender, politics and profit in technology? The GroundTruth Project is a journalism organization exploring these questions through the personal stories of women in tech.

“We’re re-upping our women-in-tech-women-in-leadership fellowship this year, which we’re really excited about,” said Tori Bedford (pictured, left), field producer at GroundTruth.

The Boston-based non-profit organization promotes social-justice journalism around the globe. Bedford joined GroundTruth reporting fellows Hilary Burns (right) and Caroline Lester (center) during an interview at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Orlando, Florida. They spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio.

Democratizing product development

Reporting on women in technology revealed to Lester just how many different routes can lead to a career in tech. She recently completed stories on a number of “radically different women coming to tech in radically different ways,” she said. Some — such as Chieko Asakawa, the IBM Fellow who lost her eyesight at 11 — overcame incredible odds to succeed in tech.

Asakawa now develops technology that helps the blind live more independently. This inspiring example shows how some don’t just overcome obstacles, “but sort of utilize them to their advantage and stake out a place for themselves in this industry,” Lester said.

Yasmine Mustafa, another woman Lester profiled, co-founded Roar for Good LLC, a self-defense wearable technology.

These stories demonstrate how not only women, but many other underrepresented groups, can improve product development, according to Bedford. “You want someone to be able to say, ‘This isn’t going to work for me; this isn’t going to work for my child; this isn’t going to work for a range of people,'” she said. “That’s a really important and effective thing, and ultimately saves your company’s bottom line, because then you won’t have to go back and change your product in the future.”

Companies may choose to expand their notion of diversity or commit to hiring more women simply for profit’s sake, Burns pointed out. Research is suggesting “that does impact the bottom line. And, obviously, that’s what companies are most concerned about,” she said.

Here’s the complete video interview, and there’s more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo: SiliconANGLE