Women in Data: Reasons to Be Optimistic. Really.

Image Credit: Women in Data UK

Optimism, I know, is not our most abundant resource right now.

But this week I’d like to hover over a noticeable counter-current that has brightened my outlook for the future.

It has to do with sources of encouragement, and finding slivers of hope. It has to do with the data side of the wine + data equation. Most of all it has to do with the women in the room where the work of data happens.

This week that room for me, and the other women in it, was occupied literally by doctoral students and their program director in Data Science, talking about some forty thousand wine tasting notes from Wine Enthusiast.

This week another room, virtual this time, was occupied by young women in data from multiple industries who had asked me to talk about Enolytics’ work in data for wine. Their main areas of curiosity, as they asked their questions? Data about climate change, and also the reality of being a woman entrepreneur in the tech space. To me it seemed like they were thinking ahead and looking for milestones to recognize on their own paths.

This week, too, were more intimate conversations with women on the opposite end of the experience spectrum — women at the C-suite level who are Chief Information Officers, for example, and senior managers at enterprise data platforms, and editors for publications about machine learning.

Women like this take up space in data. I’m not saying that the room is crowded with them. But I am saying that there’s a lineage ahead of where we are now, and an even bigger lineage coming behind us as well.

Have you noticed that too?

I’ve been inspired by these data-oriented interactions this week — by evidence of a broadening base of practitioners, and by the optimism that’s rooted in that base that’s bound to bloom.

I’m grateful to be part of it.

And I’m grateful to you, as always, for reading.

Cathy