The PyLadies come to Dublin – creation of the first PyLadies chapter in Ireland
It wasn’t that long ago that I was the only female turning up to the monthly Python Ireland meetups, even when I took over organising its events from mid-May 2005. For a few years there were a couple of female Pythonistas that would turn up and disappear, but it did get better, little by little. 2013 was the year I took the lead on encouraging more women to speak and attend PyCon Ireland with our Diversity Programme[1]. With a sold out conference of nearly 320 delegates this year, we had over 30 female delegates, an increase from just over 20 the year before. We invited three female speakers including one as a keynote speaker: an improvement of a total of one in the past three PyCon Irelands.
PyLadies Dublin was launched on the second day of the PyCon Ireland’s Sprints, which coincided with Ada Lovelace Day[2][3], a day of celebrating women researching, studying and working in STEM. We had a number of women attending the sprints, and turnout overall was pretty satisfying and the hard work was starting to pay off. PyLadies Dublin is the first PyLadies chapter in Ireland – I encourage women who love to code or curious about Python to come along with their laptops. We get together, learn, create and code together, and hopefully we will contribute something back to Python open-source community in the near future.
PyLadies[4] itself was founded in Los Angeles in April 2011 by seven women. It’s an international mentorship group with a focus on helping more women become active participants and leaders in the Python open-source community. Their mission is to promote, educate and advance a diverse Python community through outreach, education, conferences, events and social gatherings. PyLadies also aims to provide a friendly support network for women and a bridge to the larger Python world.
Those who attended the PyCon Ireland female sprints have now joined PyLadies Dublin, and I was very happy to take charge in this initiative. I’m looking forward to our inaugural meetup on Monday 18th November[5].
[1] http://python.ie/pycon/2013/diversity/
[2] http://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/item/34563-way-to-code-adult-coding/
[3] http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9d20e0bc6bc0e88a076738c6f&id=6581ce67b3&e=b19397e723
[5] http://www.meetup.com/PyLadiesDublin/events/147478282/
PyLadies Dublin Founder and Organiser: Vicky Twomey-Lee / Email: dublin@pyladies.com
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