IT ladies create their own support community

Latvian women programmers' society She Can Do It


She Can Do IT was founded by 11 women who are programmers. They are all united by the fact that they previously worked in another industry. And what they missed most on their way to information technology (IT) jobs was mentoring and support to fight stereotypes.

""You worked at Hesburger when you were at school? No? Thank you." "If a woman doesn't learn to code as a child, she never will." "How many children do you have?" "We will still give preference to a candidate who is not potentially going on parental leave." "We have a colleague who cannot accept the fact that he will have a woman programmer in his team." These are not fictional fragments of dialogue. They are real answers in job interviews that women programmers tell me about. That is why I decided to support the creation of this movement, because it should not be like this. Especially because we need highly skilled professionals in the IT sector," says Sandris Artemjevs, CEO and founder of Codelex. It was he who encouraged female graduates to start talking about the reality of IT and attitudes towards women in technology by founding She Can Do IT.

Baiba Niparte is one of the founders of She Can Do IT. After completing her Master's degree in Materials Science, she worked in several IT companies in different positions - as a salesperson, customer service specialist and project manager. And almost two years ago, she realised that she wanted a job that would be more about her. "Since I've been on the 'other side' of programming and my technical thinking is strong, I decided to be a programmer," Baiba recalls.

But the reality was stark. "There are organisations that offer training, that offer retraining. It's a great opportunity for women, but it doesn't end there. For us, the founders of She Can Do IT, support was the key to a successful career start. We were each lucky enough to have friends, mentors and teachers in our training and then in our job search, who gave us one-to-one support and helped us to find the right fit in the vast field of IT professions. 

However, talking to other women, we see that many of them lack this personal support. We believe in the power of collaboration and community. We want to provide an environment where knowledge can be safely shared and where not only community members, but also mentors and industry professionals want to get involved. We want to share our personal stories to inspire other women to not only learn a career in IT, but to actually find a job and build a career in IT," says Baiba.

Any woman is welcome to join the "She Can Do IT" community when the idea of working in IT or having IT as a hobby is still "in the air". The members will introduce you to the opportunities, help you understand your interests and help you choose the right training for you. If needed, mentoring support will also be available during the training and afterwards when looking for a job.

At the moment, we are identifying where to start and what kind of help would be most needed. Anyone interested is therefore invited to register with the community on the She Can Do IT website and fill in the questionnaire, indicating both their interests in IT and sharing their insights and what support they would need. The organisation's website address is: https://www.shecandoit.lv/ 

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