Digital Women Rising

I'm raising money to cover the publication of this new book on why there are so few women in computing and IT. 

I'm a former university lecturer in Computer Science who has campaigned for over thirty years to raise the profile of women in computing.  Throughout the 1980s and 90s and into the noughties I campaigned hard with many colleagues to raise awareness of the shortage of women in IT. We organised conferences, publicity campaigns, and workshops and published books and articles. Indeed I published a book in 1996 entitled Women and Computers. But sadly in spite of all our efforts not much has changed since then.  While attitudes to women’s skills in some human endeavours have moved on since then, they have not progressed so much in many technological fields particularly this one.  It is now high time to produce another book.

This new book Righting the Wrong: Closing the Gender Gap in Computing is a collection of my papers, some old and some new. It is wide-ranging and covers many relevant and important topics. Presenting all these together in one publication serves to emphasise just how much still needs to be done. Rather than providing simple answers, the book looks at the masculine foundations of computing and how these still pervade the fundamental structures of computing and how the discipline is viewed by the world at large. The book also suggests that we should be wary of what we women are asked to accept and work with in the world of computing. We should continuously question if what we are given is what we really want.   We should announce loudly if it fails to meet our needs in some way that the designers have failed to address.

We now see women using all sorts of electronic devices and engaging in social media on a huge scale sometimes to their own detriment. The logo for this appeal, which is the design for the book cover, conveys whatever the viewer wants to see in it.  But one possible interpretation is of digital women rising up to have their say and to determine the future on their terms.

I am looking for £1000 to cover the cost of producing this self-published book: fees to the publishers, fees for proofreading and a fee to the artist who designed the cover. Sales through worldwide distributors for self-published books typically yield minimum revenue to the author, but I shall be very happy and appreciative if I can cover the initial outlay and then sell the book at a cost most people can afford.  There will be an E-book as well as the paperback.

The paperback is currently available from Lulu:

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/frances-grundy-and-greg-genestine-charlton/righting-the-wrong/paperback/product-njdn8e.html

and via Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Righting-Wrong-Frances-Grundy/dp/1716780659/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1599470362&refinements=p_27%3AFrances+Grundy&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Frances+Grundy

However, if you donate £10 or more I will ensure that you receive a free copy. 

Make sure you send me your postal address!