Geeky Girl Reality

Geeky Girl Reality researches the needs of women entering the STEM field and addresses those needs by sharing resources and knowledge they need to enter the market. Our online community provides a space for women to discuss relevant issues and to reach out for guidance and support from each other.

1.Our solution is a simple online community with jobs and resources. We aim to use the web for what it does best, democratising access to knowledge and bringing people together. In this case, we want to bring together young women enrolled in STEM relevant coursework. We believe “geeky” girls are the gateway to women in technology. 

Geeky Girl Reality (GGR) started as a longitudinal, independent research project exploring how women’s experiences influence their interests in science and technology. We’re drawing on data from a spring 2016 survey of 163 women between the ages of 15-46 from 16 countries around the world. As a result of initial findings from our first survey, we formed the GGR community - a supportive, online space for women interested in STEM and STEAM careers. 

2. We are about to launch a  GGR “gig” board website because we realised that what the young women studying STEM subjects responding to our survey needed most was an opportunity. Our GGR gig board focuses on opportunities geared at women who are not yet starting a career - ads will be for internships, scholarships, work experience, mentor programmes, etc.

3. Have you met the internet? We know there are many opportunities for university women in the UK and USA, but what about South Africa, or Vietnam?  Those girls found our survey and shared their stories. They need internships and exposure, they need funds to attend conferences, they need support in seeing how they can carve out a real career. Our online products for the community forum and job board are currently white label. We want to gain momentum with the brand and secure funds to further invest in our own technology to build a dedicated mobile app or mobile friendly experience.

Women in STEM careers are under represented around the globe and attrition from STEM subjects at higher education stage amongst females is proportionately higher than males. Our research indicates that women in the field face biases and peer pressure, often feel isolated, lack mentoring and support, don’t get enough exposure to stories about women in STEM field. University women from countries outside of the UK and USA don do not have the same exposure to internship, scholarship and mentorship opportunities and lack guidance and support. 

The online community already brings together women from different countries; it would work as a platform that would equip them with the resources and knowledge they need to enter the STEM market. It would provide them with work, mentorship, scholarship opportunities they lack. It would help them to overcome their cultural limitations and to connect with their peers. Our longitudinal research compromises findings from a significant sample of more than 160 women from over 16 countries and bears insight into their needs. By sharing our insights we are helping to overcome the biases that women face in STEM field.

Our target below is 1000 gig ads sold on our jobs site and 500 women added to our community. The impact of our solution would be more and more opportunities for all to see. The research will help guide more useful content for the website and we hope that it will grow in-line with what the industry needs to see.

The overall outcome is that young women will have more quality opportunities to access and a support network of other women to share stories, experiences and access mentorship from. The outcomes are measured in terms of knowledge, opportunities and experience.  

site membership grows - 500 university aged women join the community

ads appear on the site, income from ad sales - 1,000 gig ads sold on the gig website

new members on the community engage and mod role funded from ad sales income - 20 GGR moderators are added to the community

We have yet to see a job site aimed at this target audience that had legitimate global and local opportunities. Also, we are not about jobs really, we are "gigs" and a gig can be anything, it has a potential to evolve around community needs and initiatives. The site aims to be a place where women also seek career advice, find knowledge about the issues they face, share their experiences and find support. Sharing is caring and we hope our forums will be a space where women find answers to their questions and share relevant information.

Our research is human-centred. This project is run by a user research and human factors firm. The entire product has been created around user needs - in terms of product goal, basic functions, and content. But sadly, the user interface is not entirely ours to define. We are relying on white label products and the real goal is to fund a custom build.

Our solution will be deployed through our online community that connects women from different countries interested in STEM field.

www.geekyreality.com

www.discuss.geekyreality.com

Ad Hoc Global funds the research currently as a social venture. We use the project as a training ground for our junior research team. They perfect their analysis skills. They also work on marketing and outreach. We have volunteer interns and moderators who assist with the online site.  We are a small but dedicated team. We hope to spin-off Geeky Girl Reality as a B-Corporation.

We need more funding to increase the exposure of Geeky Girl Reality. More funding is needed to build a more attractive, mobile friendly website or even an app. Securing more funding would also help as to involve more participants into our research and would make it even more significant.

https://twitter.com/geekyreality

https://www.facebook.com/geekygirlreality

We hope to gain exposure for our website and community and to meet other Solvers.

None so far, but we are willing to work with and promote other STEM related projects.

All the main job boards would be competitors, but few focus on early opportunities.