I heard through the grape vine about 3-months ago that DigitalEve Toronto, the rebranded Webgrrls founded by a few Canadian women about 5-years ago to encourage women to pursue careers in technology, was going down the tube.

Wired Woman seems to be going strong with 2 chapters (although they had about 3 or 4 chapters about 2-years ago).
Well, rumour no more. I just visited the DigitalEve Toronto website and they have a final message from the board of directors. The final word?

It has been decided by a unanimous vote by the board members to officially close the Toronto Chapter due to lack of interest and income.

Jeepers, Batman! Although frankly, it comes as no surprise that Digital Eve Toronto has closed up shop. In my opinion, women’s technology associations are no longer relevant for many reasons.

• Women in tech still focus on the problem and not the solution. I stopped going to monthly networking sessions at women’s technology associations because every month, we lamented over the lack of women in the industry. Because I like to spend my energy on the solution, I found those meetings draining. So, I stopped going. The meetings were no longer relevant simply because I needed solutions on how to climb the technology corporate ladder and how to do my job better. Yes, I was self-absorbed, but those were the solutions I was looking for.

• When there’s too many interests to serve, it’s hard to build a community. In the case of DigitalEve Toronto, they were trying to be everything to every woman. Just like a podcast, you have to focus on a niche problem and service it. As I said above, because I was in the tech sector, my only care was to be better in my career. I didn’t care about HTML training or teaching young girls at a computer camp. At that point, I only wanted career tips specific to being a woman in the tech sector. You can’t be all things to all people and still be relevant.

• After all this time, there’s still very few women in technology. While attending the Mesh meetup last week Wednesday, I did some interviews. While putting the podcasts together, I noticed that I only interviewed 1 woman out of 10. Upon reflection, I could count on 1 hand the number of women who attended the Mesh meetup. If only 10% of every gathering of tech people contain women - and it’s been like this for the past 12-years since I’ve been in technology - then how relevant can these women’s tech groups be?

• At the end of the day, women in male dominated fields don’t support other women in the same field. It’s the sad truth, ladies, but we don’t. Now, I’m not saying that women don’t want to learn from other women. For example, in my podcasting courses, at least 80% of attendees are women. When it comes to a subject that women find intimidating - money, technology, cars - they rather learn from another woman as it’s more comfortable. However, if I’m a web designer and I meet a female computer programmer, we won’t trade business with each other. It’s not our first instinct.

• With the way Web 2.0 is going, there’s no need to separate on the basis of gender anymore. For the first time in 12-years, I feel a sense of inclusion in technology that I have never felt before. There’s many reasons why this is, but when the power is in the people’s hands, there’s a sense of abundance in the air. In other words, everyone can share in the bounty called the Internet and there’s still alot left over for everyone else. Although there’s very few women in the podcasting space, I have never felt as if I don’t belong. Never. If you want to feel a sense of belonging, just launch a blog or podcast. I promise you that others will embrace you with open arms better than your in-laws ever could.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying there’s no place for women to band together over shared interests. However, if you’re not relevant to the very people you’re trying to serve, then no matter how much money you invest in your enterprise, it will slowly fizzle and die out.

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