Dear Mark, I am sorry if this is an emotive post but here goes. I've just been sent a violent video of a man abusing a little girl. She is about a year old. It has a sexual component. I am not going to share it, but I would like to be able to report… Continue reading Letter to Mark Zuckerberg: Why is it so hard to report Facebook Messenger videos portraying violence, pornography and child pornography to the police?
Invisible voices of #diversity: being ignored, being hepeated, and what you can do to be heard and help others to be heard
On Thursday 27th September, I held an Unconference at Microsoft Ignite which was aimed at Diversity and Inclusion. I was incredibly lucky to be supported by the Diversity and Inclusion initiative by Microsoft, who have put it at front-and-centre of everything that they do. Although it is only one event, I was told that my event… Continue reading Learnings and Takeaways from my #Diversity and Inclusion Unconference at Microsoft Ignite #MSIgnite
Diversity myopia: what it is, and why it's wrong.
This is a personal blog and it is from the heart. This incident is separate from the MeToo incident that I wrote about previously. When I was 24, I moved to Aberdeen, in Scotland, to start a new postgraduate degree in Artificial Intelligence. On my last night in my home town before I left to go… Continue reading Why is it so difficult to report harassment, and what can you do to help?
As a follow up to my last post, I thought I'd share more details with you. Midnight As before, I'll start my day at midnight. I'm reading about motivation and reward, and it's role on organizational behaviour. If you're really interested, I'm reading Karabenick and Urdan's 2010 book, and specifically, it's chapter on expectancy theory.… Continue reading A Day in the Life of Jen Stirrup: Wednesday 25th July, 2018 #SQLCareer
I was inspired by Brent Ozar, Steve Jones and Iris Classon to write about my day. My work and life don't balance each other at all; my work is my life and I love what I do and I'm an unapologetic workaholic. I'm also a single Mom, so life crashes down around my ears on… Continue reading A Day in the Life of Jen Stirrup: Tuesday 17th July, 2018 #SQLCareer
After listening to Satya Nadella's BUILD keynote this year, I was inspired to do even more with my background in Artificial Intelligence. As a Microsoft Regional Director, I relish in sharing in the positive and forward-looking vision that Microsoft gives because I do think that they are changing the future in many ways. If you… Continue reading Artificial Intelligence Mentoring with Teens in AI
How do you inspire girls to make choices that inspire them? How can we inspire girls to be badass and yes, it is a compliment? How do you give them role models? There is nothing worse in the world that not having any choices. So let's give our daughters the chance to have options and… Continue reading So how many badass female inventors, role models do you know? Here’s a handy starter book list to share and inspire
If you're reading this, you are probably a decent person. You shouldn't read this thinking that you will be putting yourself in danger if you attend a tech event. I can tell you that I normally feel pretty safe at these events and you can read my story here and I've talked about it publicly since I… Continue reading Open Source Decency Charter Proposal for Dealing with Harassment at Technical Events
I have set up a Diversity Charter Slack channel to encourage user group leaders to talk about diversity and how we can encourage user group leaders to think about these issues.
On International Womens' Day, I think about my journey how I got here today. Other women may have similar experiences. Unlike Jenni Murray, I believe that you can be trans, proud and a real woman. Just saying. Over the years, I have had challenges as a female IT consultant. Here are a few choice examples… Continue reading Keeping the golf score card after 20 years in IT; reflections on International Womens’ Day
