With the creation of several new clubs this year comes the Women in Tech Club, primarily focused on supporting girls interested in technology and engineering career paths, a predominantly male field.
The club’s creation stands out as one of the few clubs dedicated to a specific gender. Although the club allows all people to join, this is currently the only club on campus with a gender-specific focus. Despite its recent creation, the club managers have put effort into ensuring that students are aware of its existence by hanging flyers and posters around campus, as well as attending club rush. Club leaders have also delivered presentations during class in order to bring additional awareness.
“[We] really want to show girls that they can have careers in tech…and provide resources,” club Vice President and junior Sofia Kalberer said.
Meeting every Friday in G-2, the club is run by President and junior Megan Xu, Vice President and junior Sofia Kalberer, and Treasurer and junior Tessa Niu.
“Over the summer, I attended this STEM camp, and the camp itself gave me this idea of how can I share what I’ve learned at this camp with the rest of my peers,” Xu said. “I was thinking about how can I make this more inclusive, more like a club. Then my dad inspired me to make it all about women in tech.”
Women in tech-related jobs are far fewer than men in tech-related jobs, with US tech jobs being held by 75% men and 25% women. The club hopes to address this disparity to their members and offer solutions.
“We want women to feel included, because a lot of times in these fields, they feel intimidated by all these men who think they have something over [women],” Niu said.
Through presentations, guest speakers, group projects, and fundraising, the club aims to improve awareness among Woodside girls on how to secure jobs in technology-based fields.
“We’re going to have speakers come in, [and] make lessons plans,” Kalberer said. We want to hear what people want to learn about, and then we’re going to focus on that.”
Club leaders plan to center meetings around members by gaging their specific interests using tools like Google forms. While the name of the club may suggest that only women are invited to the club, this isn’t the case.
“During club rush, I got a lot of feedback on [the name],” Xu said. “If its women in tech, then I can’t join. But no, it’s all inclusive,” Xu said.
Woodside clubs are even forbidden from including only one group, with the official Woodside Club Charter Form stating: “the Sequoia UHSD, Woodside High School and student organizations prohibit discrimination…based on…gender, gender identity, gender expression.” Club managers insist on negating barring based on gender, mentioning that it is truly open to everyone.
“We accept all backgrounds, all experiences, and you don’t have to know what [kind of] tech you’re into or [worry] about people who are more experienced than you,” said Niu. “We can teach you at any level.”
Club members who participated in the clubs first meeting on September 16 gave overall positive feedback, stating they enjoyed the experience.
“I like how there are a lot of people that are interested in computer science and engineering career paths, so I’m excited to work with them,” junior and club member Sophia Cancilla said.
With groups of students chatting and eating lunch, the clear-to-observe communal aspect of the club was appealing to several members.
“Join either way, because you get more experience, and you get to build [a] sense of community,” Niu said.
