DEI writing for Girls in Tech

Between 2021 and 2023, I had the honour of writing content for Girls in Tech, via Oliver Grace – a very excellent creative studio with experts across UX, design, branding and marketing. (You should definitely work with them to make your digital stuff look GREAT.)

I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but this is some of the most exciting work I’ve done in my life!

Practically, it looked like writing:

fortnightly articles and newsletters
ad hoc social captions
campaign copy
program descriptions
web copy, and
promotional materials.

But beyond the deliverables, writing for Girls in Tech involved:

honing my research skills
challenging my own subconscious biases, and
tailoring my writing to a global (mostly US-based) audience.

It was a chance to rail against the patriarchy (sometimes), and presented opportunities to start insightful discussions about important issues – like ageism and gendered language! This deep, meaningful work just makes my heart sing.

Writing about Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

Confession: I DID NOT know what DEI meant before I started working for Girls in Tech. It means Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, for those in a similar boat.

This is at the very core of Girls in Tech. It’s a nonprofit organisation that was started in San Francisco in 2007, and exists to champion the diverse tech workforce the world needs. ‘Diverse’ refers to diversity of gender, race, ability and experience. Because if our tech workforce is building the platforms and systems our societies rely upon, it needs input from ALL people (otherwise it’s all skewed towards rich, white men amiright?).

Here’s a wonderful piece I had the pleasure of writing about how the field of Machine Learning, specifically, needs more women and diverse people in it: Machine Learning: Where are the women?

Writing in the tech space

I’ve written in the tech space before – but never like this.
For Girls in Tech, I wrote in-depth articles on the Metaverse, researched upcoming tech trends, and celebrated the achievements of women in the tech community. The content itself wasn’t too technical, but I had to wrap my head around a lot of new concepts and language in order to write for this audience.

Writing about gender equality

When I started writing for Girls in Tech, I was myself navigating returning to work from maternity leave, running my own business, and trying to manage work during lockdowns in Melbourne, when ‘non-essential workers’ like myself weren’t permitted to send their children to childcare.

I was absolutely blasted with the inequality of my life’s situation. I wanted desperately to use my brain, contribute my skills to society, and escape the mundanity of lockdown by working, but I came up against constant barriers like:

Needing to be the main caregiver for our son, who was still breastfeeding and very reliant on me.
The government not valuing my work and not giving me access to childcare (obviously it was for public safety reasons and that’s okay, but it felt wildly unfair and I felt undervalued).
Challenging gender norms within my own family setting, where my husband is very supportive and open to helping with childcare, but felt uncomfortable taking time away from HIS work to do so.

I could go on… but I won’t.

As a working mother myself, I associated a lot with the content I wrote for Girls in Tech around gender bias in the workplace. Here are some of my fave examples:

Impactful words, with bloody amazing feedback

Because the content I wrote was circulated on social media, I would sometimes peek on what people said about it! And by jove has it been a delight to see the words I’ve written genuinely helping women with their career journeys. These comments are a couple of examples!

Need an awesome freelance writer that can make your agency shine?

Well here she is!

Me. She’s me.

Disclaimer: The Oliver Grace team provided incredibly detailed briefs, which always helps me do my best work.

I loved working as an agency freelance writer with this particular agency, and would welcome the opportunity to work with other solid agencies like them :)

So… hit me up if you need a hand delivering great content to your clients!