She’s In CTRL: How women can take back tech – to communicate, investigate, problem-solve, broker deals and protect themselves in a digital world

by Anne-Marie Imafidon

'A practical and positive guide to using tech to change women's lives for the better' -Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible exposing data bias in a world designed for men'A powerful and inspiring call to action from one of Britain's brightest minds'- Yomi Adegoke, award-winning journalist, author of Slay in Your Lane etc.Why are women so under-represented in the tech world?Why does this matter?What can we do about it? A book that asks essential questions and provides long-overdue practical solutions. Perfect for readers of Invisible Women.Why do so many of us - particularly women - feel the tech world is beyond reach? Women are woefully under-represented in tech - they represent roughly a mere quarter of the UK STEM workforce. This means an ever-increasing series of big decisions are made by a small number of people, mainly men.So what are the challenges for all of us who want to wrest back control? How do we get past the gatekeepers? When we do, what are the opportunities that will open up - for us in our individual roles, and for the future of tech?.Dr Imafidon shows we have more agency than we think, drawing on her own experience and the stories of other pioneers and innovators to provide examples, exercises and practical guidance for how to get started and take control.There will always be problems. But, as we know, women are problem-solvers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Feminism

340 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2022

Reviews

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book lacked a lot of depth for me. I expected more research and more references. The examples often felt a little too oversimplified which I have to assume was decided in editing to broaden the appeal of the book. Sometimes I felt that the examples of some of the women were a little bit random, such as the salon-owner who created a beauty app. This is something I could probably Google. The book sets my expectations to hear about female pioneers in the Tech industry and unsung heroes who paved the way for women in tech. I sort of read that example and thought, so what? How did this impact and shift the entire Tech industry for women?

Secondly, I don’t think we should pretend getting your nails done at a beauty salon during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic should have been considered essential by government guidelines just because men got to have haircuts. It impacted women’s income, but the trade can hardly be considered essential. The argument regarding that just wasn’t compelling enough.

Thirdly, and this is probably the most important point – if you’re Gen Z or consider yourself a “Digital Native” – this book potentially might bore you. Its aimed at people who potentially did not grow up with the internet or having 24/7 access to a computer at home or at school. Here’s a quote from the intro on page 14, which assumes a technologically illiterate audience: “The first time you clicked or tapped around your smartphone or computer you probably used a step-by-step guide” its assumes the reader is not tech-savvy in the slightest.

You’ll probably already agree that women are underrepresented in Tech, and this should change. This is the main takeaway of the book. But, honestly, most of what’s in here can be Googled really quickly and easily. It didn’t really add anything new to fuel further curiosity within me. She ruthlessly plugs her social enterprise Stemettes throughout the book, mentions of it are sprinkled in ubiquitously – honestly, fair enough – it sounds like an amazing initiative to get young women from underrepresented backgrounds interested in STEM which I fully support.

Furthermore, sometimes I felt like the feminist discourse was a little bit oversimplified. It is 2023, it is not enough to just say, “When we consider the well-documented disadvantages of being female, intersecting with other factors such as age, literacy-levels, health or ethnicity, there are all kinds of things working against us.” Everyone already knows this and most likely already agrees with this. Also, sometimes the feminism is discussed really generally, other times it is discussed in an intersectional way focusing specifically on Black women. I wish the generic discussion of feminism connected better with the discussion of intersectional feminism.

My final thoughts are:

The audience of the book is slightly unclear – is it Gen Z? Is it the next generation of developers and tech entrepreneurs? Is it Gen X? Millennials? I feel like it couldn’t really decide who it was speaking to at times.

The Getting Started Chapters felt like filler to me. Telling me to “Google this” and “Google that” just seemed… lazy?

I would have preferred a memoir because Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon is obviously a very impressive woman with above average achievements; I feel like a foray into her life would have probably been more interesting than this.

I haven’t finished reading it yet, but these are my honest, unfiltered thoughts on the book so far. I am currently on page 200.

Update: I’ve just finished the book! I loved the section on the Future of Work! It’s something I studied during my undergrad. It’s inspired me to learn more about AI and how this might impact me as someone who is new to the workplace!

[Rin · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, about the kindle edition : white text over light gray background makes reading difficult, if not impossible. It was not the majority of the story, but I think I've missed a quarter of the book this way.

About the book itself: there were really relevant and inspiring as someone in the tech field, others that target more entrepreneurial people so I felt left out and not really engaged. It was also a lot of name dropping, and it's wonderful to have so many examples but it could be overwhelming at some point.

I did enjoyed the majority of the book, but something I found myself scanning pages as it was not my place.

It asks great questions though, about how technology exists everywhere and who build it, and how it impacts us if we don't change our point of view. But I'm wondering who was the audience of the book, as the first chapters were accessible for tech illiterates, explaining a lot of things, and after that, it sounds you should be some entrepreneur somewhere to be able to change things.

To conclude, no matter if I felt touched or not by the testimonies in the books, what matters is : it's actually really impressive and hopeful that so many women took ctrl and are building a future where everyone is included and I really wish it will be happening.

[nadine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* rounded down. let me preface this by saying my rating has much more to do with me being outside the target audience than it does the quality of the book. i added she’s in ctrl to my list as i have heard of anne-marie over the years, i think she’s hugely inspiring and wanted to hear more from her. i was also lucky enough to hear her talk (about the book and her life) at an event hosted by the trouble club around this time last year, and again it was wonderful hearing about her experiences and her mission to get more (young) women involved in the tech space. the book was a great continuation of this… but i realised i’m not that interested in tech.

✧ full review on my tumblr ✧

[Kit Wolverson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read from Anne-Marie Imafidon aka head STEMette with some really eye opening insights into how we can take back ctrl but also the forgotten herstory of tech that is so often the way.

Tech and the changing digital age including AI can seem like a scary prospect but Anne-Marie is clear with her explanations and provides handy tips and follow on information at the end of each chapter.

A longer read as it took time to digest and reflect (similar to invisible women) but fully recommend this to those in and out of the industry especially to our allies

[Sarah Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is an interesting book with some pertinent points.

I did find the book repetitive, though. I also found it a little juddering, as though some points had been forced in because they didn't naturally fit elsewhere.

[Priya Goswami · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book covers various aspects on how women can keep themselves up to date in tech but the book is kind of repetitive across chapters.

[Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this on a whim, since the title got me interested. The imbalance and inequalities in tech regarding women (and pretty much every other marginalized group) is a known and ongoing issue. While not specifically interested in tech, I was very curious to see what the author had to say.

The author goes through what women can do to get into tech, learn about it, how to navigate the spaces, what to do when met with issues such as barriers to advancement, thoughts about tech spaces and more. At the end of each chapter are tips and tricks for how someone can take actions to advance.

While this has an audience, the negative reviews are on point. If you're completely new to the tech space (for example, you've been a stay at home parent for the last 20 years or whatever), this might be of use. Some of the information is admittedly simplistic: learning about tech through stuff like podcasts and YouTube videos, which is probably pretty standard nowadays with many who have grown up around the internet and cultures of stuff like YouTube and podcasts, etc. The action sections are also bizarrely formatted with white font on a light gray background, which made my paper copy hard to read.

The book is also repetitive: again, unless you've had no access to internet or have never used YouTube or listened to podcasts before, etc. and have zero access to tech spaces, this might be useful. Much of general HR/career development-type of advance can be adapted to tech spaces, so in many ways there really wasn't much here that was specifically new or fresh or insightful.

As mentioned, the book as an audience. Career-changers, young people out of school, etc. Perhaps not a bad read for say tech CEOs or other executives to understand not necessarily *what* was written in the book but *why* this book exists at all and how to make their spaces and circles more accessible. Otherwise, I would say this is probably skippable.

Library borrow was best for me.

[Mtendere Horea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great and eye-opening to all the great things women from the past and present have achieved technology (even without recognition) and this is ultimately a driving force as to what they can do in the future too. The chapter end notes are amazing, insightful takeaways, resources and advice which can really help more women navigate their way STEM and technology overall.

The sky is the limit and we’re in the fourth Industrial Revolution. Technology is embedded in everything we do, have or encounter in different aspects of our everyday lives (noticeably and unnoticeably)

“Rather than focusing on what I don’t know, my learnings and knowledge from across the field allow me to apply what I do know to new situations. They allow me to have something technical to contribute and to approach problem-solving in a way that’s useful in these new situations”

[Aimée-Stephanie Reid · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn’t really what I thought it would be. Thought it would be full of useful advice and tips for someone as a woman in tech already, but it seems more aimed at young people to try and encourage them to consider tech as a career path. Did introduce me to some really interesting tech developments made by women though.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched!!

A really great insight into women in tech and how we can (and why) we can make a difference.
I purchased this book after hearing Ann-Marie at Microsoft Ignite 2022.

[Harri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really really enjoyed this! As a female, there is so much we can do to take CTRL, as the book (and podcast) reminds us!

As a side note too, I especially like the fact that there are recommended resources for afterwards, including books, podcasts, learning materials and more.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically well written, really enjoyable. Can't recommend it enough. Very accessible! The book made lots of references to women in technology I've never heard of and contextualised a lot if the trendy topics at the moment.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and stimulating. An incredible overview that the role women have played in technology, and a call to action to increase participation

[Alastair · Rating 3 out of 5]

She’s in Ctrl: How Women can Take Back Tech is a book that does not know what it wants to achieve. It covers women’s lack of representation in the tech industry; the structural issues facing women and girls; and how lack of representation leads to bad outcomes for society. But it also is a call-to-arms for women to learn more about technology and “consider how tech might relate to what interests you” as well as an appeal to everyone to change how they approach problems, ending as something of a corporate-speak pitch for inclusion and new 'ways of working'.

All of the book is vitally important, but its disparate parts do not coalesce into a coherent whole. Discussions of algorithmic bias or natural language processing sit awkwardly with basic advice to watch help guides on YouTube or try different search engines; advice about embracing diversity in general, pitched to those in power, does not gel with advice about discovering yourself more beneficial to younger readers.

At its best, the book makes a clear case for why women’s inclusion matters. It describes, for example, the work of Jenny Griffiths, a software engineer who identified a (stereotypically female) gap in the market for an image recognition app that helps people find similar clothing to items they see in the real world. This “visual search for fashion” tool was, in the author’s telling, unsurprisingly not identified as a gap by a male-dominated industry. But it has such obvious business potential that it is a wonderful example of how excluding women from technology spaces is clearly (in the parlance of tech bros) sub-optimal. As author Anne-Marie Imafidon succinctly puts it: “much bad tech is the result of a lack of perspective or experience, which limits the imagination of the person creating the tech”.

But where the book strays into what appears to be a sort of aimed-at-the-powerful advocacy, it is much less impactful. There is a chapter called “Be a Change Pioneer” and calls to work on your “growth mindset”. This is not only cringily buzzwordy but it is hard to understand who it is for. Corporate leaders, perhaps? Yet this sits at odds with the book’s ‘ you don’t know what technology is’ elements. The author’s Stemettes, attendees of events run by her organisation (of the same name) to inspire girls, young women and non-binary young people into STEM? It is hard to imagine many children being particularly engaged by this book’s adult-pitched discussion of structural bias in the technology industry.

I feel this book is best thought of as a memoir, with engaging passages about the author's experiences, but one that got away from itself. It wants to embrace total luddites with its simple introductions to technology but in a book no such person would ever pick up (the use of the keyboard shortcut ‘ctrl’ in the title guarantees this). It wants to describe the fallout from poor representation of women in technology, which it does well enough but not in enough depth (or as well as the book by an author quoted on the dustcover, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, which is a much better read for coverage of this topic). It wants to advocate to fix these problems, and to develop oneself, but in rather generic ways without an obvious audience in mind.

The writing is good enough, but this is not a well-planned book. I wanted to like it given the importance of its messages but, put bluntly, this is a slightly indulgent work in which the author tries to do too much and does not fully succeed at any of them.