Ada Lovelace Day
{{Short description|Annual event celebrating the contributions of women to STEM fields}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{unreliable sources|date=November 2022}}
File:Cake from Ada Lovelace Day 2013 Editathon Oxford.JPG held in Oxford, England]]
Ada Lovelace Day is an annual event held on the second Tuesday of October to celebrate and raise awareness of the contributions of women to STEM fields. It is named after mathematician and computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace. It started in 2009 as a "day of blogging" and has since become a multi-national event with conferences.{{Cite news |date=11 October 2022 |title=Celebration of women in science and tech ending |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63201313}}{{Cite news |date=13 October 2020 |title=Ada Lovelace Day: We should never forget the first computer programmer |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/ada-lovelace-day-first-computer-programmer-forgotten-women-a8557416.html}}
History
The day was founded in the United Kingdom in 2009 by Suw Charman-Anderson on the second Tuesday in October as a means of raising awareness about the contributions of women to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.{{Cite news |last=Gage |first=Suzi |date=13 October 2015 |title=Why Ada Lovelace Day matters |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2015/oct/13/why-ada-lovelace-day-matters |access-date=3 November 2022}}{{Cite news |date=14 October 2014 |title=Ada Lovelace Day: how much do you know about women in science? – quiz |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/quiz/2014/oct/14/professional-development-academics |access-date=3 November 2022}}{{Cite news |last=Sait |first=David |date=14 October 2014 |title=Ada Lovelace Day |work=Royal Society of Chemistry |url=https://edu.rsc.org/opinion/ada-lovelace-day/2010007.article |access-date=3 November 2022}}
Charman-Anderson later said of this:{{Cite web |title=Royal Institution to host Ada Lovelace Day 2023 {{!}} Royal Institution |url=https://www.rigb.org/explore-science/explore/blog/royal-institution-host-ada-lovelace-day-2023 |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=www.rigb.org |language=en}}
{{Blockquote|text=I launched Ada Lovelace Day in 2009 because I felt passionately that we needed a way to celebrate and highlight women’s work and achievements in STEM, which frequently don’t get the recognition they deserve.|author=Suw Charman-Anderson|source=2023}}
In 2022, Charman-Anderson announced that this would be the last year in which the organization that she founded, Finding Ada, would organize an annual flagship Ada Lovelace Day event in England.{{Cite news |title=Last Ever Ada Lovelace Day |work=www.i-programmer.info |url=https://www.i-programmer.info/news/150-training-a-education/15786-last-ever-ada-lovelace-day.html |access-date=3 November 2022}}{{Cite news |last=Bulbul |first=Nuray |date=11 October 2022 |title=Ada Lovelace Day: who was the mathematician and what is she known for? |publisher=Evening Standard |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/ada-lovelace-day-mathematician-b1031781.html |access-date=4 November 2022}} However, the Royal Institution stepped in with funding, due to its alignment with their mission to bring scientists and the public together.{{Cite web |title=Ada Lovelace Day – Celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths |url=https://findingada.com/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=findingada.com}}
Since its inception, Ada Lovelace Day has become international in scope,{{Cite news |last=Barbaschow |first=Asha |date=7 April 2022 |title=A Group of Aussie Women Are Editing Wikipedia Pages for a Good Cause |language=en-AU |work=Gizmodo |location=Australia |url=https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2022/04/women-stemm-wikipedia-edit-a-thon/ |access-date=3 November 2022}} with events organized by groups ranging from museums,{{Cite news |date=28 October 2011 |title=Women Innovators in Aviation and Space: Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon |work=National Air and Space Museum |url=https://airandspace.si.edu/events/women-innovators-aviation-and-space-wikipedia-edit-thon |access-date=3 November 2022}} professional societies, universities, colleges and high schools. While Ada Lovelace Day is the second Tuesday of October, events celebrating women in STEM typically span the period of October and November, and include diverse activities ranging from in-person and virtual Wikipedia Editathons{{Cite news |last=Hern |first=Alex |date=4 March 2014 |title=Wikipedia 'edit-a-thon' seeks to boost number of women editors |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/04/wikipeadi-edit-a-thon-boost-women-editors |access-date=3 November 2022}} to panel discussions and film screenings.
File:Uta Firth and Katie Chan at the Wikimedia UK Ada Lovelace Day.JPG and Katie Chan at an Ada Lovelace Day event sponsored by Wikimedia UK in 2012]]
File:Suw Charman-Andrerson at Wikimedia UK Ada Lovelace Day.JPG, founder of Ada Lovelace Day, at an event in 2012]]
While this celebration of the often overlooked contributions of women in STEM was named for Ada Lovelace,{{Cite news |last=Maggs |first=Sam |date=14 October 2014 |title=Ada Lovelace Day: A Brief History Of Her Extreme Radness |language=en-US |work=The Mary Sue |url=https://www.themarysue.com/ada-lovelace-history/ |access-date=3 November 2022}} activities have expanded since 2009 to highlight the diverse contributions of women in STEM over time and different countries. Events have featured policy initiatives and scholarship relating to equity, diversity and inclusion that provide spaces and platforms for dialogue and discussion about how unconscious bias(es) function to create barriers to women's participation and advancement in the professional fields of STEM.{{Cite news |last=Thomson |first=Freya |date=2 November 2022 |title=Why is Ada Lovelace Day so important? |language=en-GB |work=Open Access Government |url=https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/why-is-ada-lovelace-day-so-important/146719/}}
References
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External links
- {{Official website|https://findingada.com}}
{{Science commemorative events}}
Category:2009 establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:Recurring events established in 2009