How ‘Girls In Tech Indonesia’ is Aiming to Engage and Inspire [INTERVIEW]

The photo on the right shows a #StartupLokal community meet-up last month. Many people usually attend, your correspondent included, this kind of networking event/meet up. Count the number of women in that photo. How many of them can you see?

Yes, that’s the problem – it’s far from being a fair balance of genders. We’re not sexist, but this is an unfortunate fact. From developers, start-up founders, and CEOs, to investors & VCs; from informal meet-ups to technology-related conferences – the majority of people we meet are men. Where are the women in this industry?

Yeah, it’s true that women dominate the mobile Internet and also the social media. But we can’t easily find women in the tech industry itself. Are their numbers significant but just too low profile? Or is the tech arena really male-dominated?

Now’s the time to rethink the belief that ‘males are dominating the tech world.’ Women in the technology field are gathering to show that they not only exist, but can contribute something meaningful to the industry. Which brings us to the Girls In Tech (GIT) community.

Founded by Adriana Gascoigne in February 2007 in San Fransisco, California, GIT is a community to empower women in the technology sector. Here is the description from their ‘About‘ section:

‘Girls In Tech’ (GIT) is a social network enterprise focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology. As young women with the capacity to inspire, we made it our personal desire and passion to create and sustain an organization that focuses on the collaboration, promotion, growth and success of women in the technology sector.

There are now 57 branches of the GIT community spread around the globe with their own activities and programs. Girls In Tech Indonesia (GIT ID) is one of them, formed in January 2011.

Soft launch of Girls In Tech Indonesia, February 17th, 2011

To find out more about this community, particularly the Indonesian chapter, we talked to the co-managing director of GIT ID, Anantya Van Bronckhorst (pictured below), via email. She is also the executive director of Think.web, a digital marketing agency, and a self-proclaimed digital analytics lover.

1. GIT ID is a branch of the large, global GIT community/network. Why did you decide to bring this to Indonesia? Are there any issues pertaining to women in technology that are particular to Indonesia, and how are you trying to overcome them?