The two communities WomenDevs and Lean In Groningen have joined forces to organise one of the few events in Groningen for Women’s Day for women, from women, about women.
“Both our countries, Italy and Greece, have a lot going on for International Women’s Day and celebrate our rights and achievements, but nothing was going on in Groningen, where we live. We needed to create a movement for the women in Groningen too,” Laura Damiano, from Lean In Groningen, told The Northern Times.
Damiano explains that they even have a symbol for women’s day, the mimosa flower, “It is one the few flowers that bloom it march and represents women’s strength, the yellow puffs on it make it look very delicate, but it’s very strong in extremely hostile conditions, I like that comparison.”
Stella Tsoutsouri, who is co-organising the event, says collaborating was a no-brainer for her, “Laura contacted me saying, ‘How about we organise something in the city together?’ and I immediately reacted with ‘Yes, let’s go, let’s make the effort and let’s bring this event to Groningen’.”
“We bring both communities closer, even though we have different focuses, we have the same purpose and goal in the end,” said Tsoutsouri.
Women devs
Women Devs, one of the communities, was started by Stella Tsoutsouri, who is a Lean In member too. She says she was inspired to create this community after she realised why she was the only woman developer among 50 men in the company she worked at.
“I started looking at numbers and I found out the Netherlands has the lowest rate of female ICT students in Europe,” she said.
Realising she couldn’t be the only one in the city, she wanted to connect these women in tech.
But Womendevs is not for women working in tech only.
“I also wanted it to be open, so not only for whoever already works in the field, but also for women that want to start working in the field, or that don’t know where to start, and students, to keep women inspired by each other from all different levels,” Tsoutsouri said.
They meet up monthly and have talks. Tsoutouri also brings research and scientific work or speakers from the University to discuss and show the other sides of the field.
Why exactly there are so few women studying ICT in University stems from society, environment, family, and school she says.
“Historically, women were the first in computer science, but then marketing happened and then suddenly job listings started asking for men and stopped asking for women. This started shifting the mentality and became a male-dominated field, including the environments you’re part of like University. All the new technological initiatives back in the 80s were always marketed to men and not women. The environment was not so welcoming to women and made them look like they weren’t capable of doing this job anymore,” Tsoutouri explained.
WomenDevs wants to change this, but it isn’t a quick and easy fix. “What needs to happen is the same, we need to shift the mentality again and remind women that there’s no biological difference that makes us less capable of being part of this field and sector,” she added.
Lean in Groningen
Lean In Groningen was an initiative, or ‘circle’, started by Laura Damiano as part of the worldwide Lean In community.
“I was living in the US and the book ‘Lean In, Women, Work, and The Will to Lead’ by Sheryl Sandberg just came out and I looked for Lean In circles to join. But then I had to move to the Netherlands, and when I moved here I was alone, you need to build your network again. When I looked for circles in Groningen, there were none, so I thought why don’t I just start a circle myself?” Damiano told The Northern Times.
In the beginning, Damiano invited some colleagues and there were eight women in total, but they started spreading the word to other women, and now, five years later there are a hundred members.
Lean In Groningen meets 4 times every year.
“Usually we have a dinner and then a topic that’s of interest to the members,” Damiano said. A different member organises each dinner and they bring a new topic, for example, imposter syndrome, and menopause.
The goal of Lean In is “to create a community where women can find each other, support, some have found jobs through it talk about things challenges and problems and empower each other”.
Meetup
The meetup highlights important topics and allows women to find each other and see other role models, to inspire and empower them to do things they might not be confident about. The meetup is open for everyone, men included, and entry is free. It will also be in English.
Ultimate goal
Damiano told The Northern Times that there is no absolute goal for the event, but multiple, which could all differ in regards to the participants themselves. Personally for her, the goal of the event is to join these communities together.
“It’s important to have an event like this in Groningen because there aren’t that many, it’s a very nice place to live but there isn’t much like this happening cause a lot of these things happen in the Randstad. It’s about creating a community in Groningen that stays here so we all feel like we belong,” Damiano said.
Tsoutsouri hopes the event will become a yearly event.
Speakers
The speakers for the event will be:
Qing Gong, coach and entrepreneur, on “Blooming Beyond Borders: My Journey of Integration in The Netherlands.”
Esther Metting, Assistant Professor and expert on eHealth, on “My mission towards accessible digital healthcare for everyone.”
Thrisanka Smaal, transformation expert and team coach, on “Authenticity: How I Found Mine and Strategies for Your True Self.”
Ayla Kangur, IT Lead, on From Efficiency to Essence: What I Learned after 15+ Years in AI.”
The WomenDevs x Lean In Groningen event will be held on the 8th of March, at 5:30 PM, at De Huiskamer, Suikerlaan 18. Joining the event is free but requires a signup on the website.
Everyone, regardless of gender, who is interested in supporting women, learning more about women in tech, or just wants to socialise and network is welcome to join.
