Decade of advocating for Diversity and Women Empowerment

2022 marks my 10th year of advocating for diversity and women empowerment. 2012 was the year when I felt the need to have women in tech community there were user groups and meet-ups both 90–95% of the attendees were male. I wanted to meet more like minded people (since I’m the only woman at the management team at that time) and inspire more women too. I wanted a safe space for women to learn and grow their tech skills and to hone their public speaking skills too.

Diversity and gender equality is important that’s why we’re still celebrating it to continuously educate, to fight discrimination, to open up more opportunities and visibility. Diversity provides a range of skills, the balance of voices which results to greater innovation and creativity.

2012 when I started Geek Girls Manila with the support from GDG, Googlers — Christine Songco, Stephanie Liu, Merci Niebres and Aileen Apollo. And telco and start-up friends — Michelle Santos who was part of GlobeLabs at that time and Ms. Minette Navarette of Kickstart (Happy 10th year Anniversary too!). I reached out to women who I don’t know but I researched that their stories and what they’re doing will inspire the attendees too at that time. There I met Leigh Reyes who was leading Mobile Mondays at that time and organized DigiCon for the past three years. Ria Lu who designs games, Michie Ang who was the only woman who participated at the Android Dev Camp and now leads Women Who Code Manila. Looking back some of the 150 attendees of that meet-up became community leads and organizers in differents parts of the Philippines.

A few months after that I learned about a new program in Google — Women on the Web which was launched in Singapore but PH wasn’t in their initial role out so I had to convince the program lead at that time that there a lot of women entrepreneurs in PH who will be benefitting from the program and the learnings as well can help improve for other rollouts. We were able to stage a 2 day conference where we got to help 400 women entrepreneurs. This wouldn’t be possible with my RescuePH friend Rosario Juan of CommunePH through the help of the Women Business Council — Ms Chit Juan, Jeannie Javelosa, Chiqui Escareal-Go who served as our mentors.

This and my other experiences in building and growing communities paved way for me to join the Developer Relations team in Google. There I grew the GDG communities in Southeast Asia eventually helping out as well in South Asia, India and APAC where each community have 1 or more women co-organizers also. Where local speakers were highlighted thus growing a vibrant tech ecosystem. It even made it more meaningful when I got to mentor women who wants to start their community in Africa, Latin America and connecting with organizers in Europe and in the US, learning best practices.

Over the past decade helping or guiding women to jumpstart their communities, sharing my knowledge or connecting them with speakers, mentors and possibly business partners.

I’m still active in community building at my free time. Being part of the Advisory Board of UXPH, I get to mentor and help with the internal growth of the volunteers and organizers. The community aims to help individuals and organizations learn that UI/UX are essential to their company or products success’. I also help organize meet-ups, mentoring and review sessions for AWSUG BuildHers+ it’s a community for women and LGBT+ where they can grow and hone their AWS and cloud skills. Recently 3 of the women and LGBT attendees informed us that they are now AWS Certified Cloud Practitioners.

Some of my learnings over the years on little things you can do on your own.

1. Never be shy to reach out and ask for help. Somebody will be willing to lend a hand or introduce you to another person.
2. When you have an hour or two to spare go mentor or teach other people. You can make a difference in one person’s life and that person can pay it forward too.
3. When you see an incident that needs to be called out don’t hesitate. It will be the only way to fight social injustices.
4. Be less critical to other women. Empathy and kindness should prevail.
5. If you believe that what you’re doing will make a difference, go take that leap. Fear is hindrance to progress.

I’m now part of Symph Inc., a software development and product company in the Philippines that aims to produce apps and products that will change the world positively. Symph, continuously hires amazing women and build a diverse team. I’ve never been so proud that each person’s opinion and idea/s is valued and heard. Anyone can take the initiative or lead a project as well.

Thankful to all women whom I met and worked with over the years creating awareness and visibility for women in tech and STEAM. We will continue to inspire more girls and a world where we are truly equal. And to the men that I got to work with as well thank you for the support and being an ally. Happy International Women’s month!