Are you ready to hack and break the gender bias?
Imagine a gender equal world.
A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.
A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
A world where difference is valued and celebrated.
Together we can forge women’s equality.
Collectively we can all #HackTheBias.
Since 2016 The Expat Woman has been addressing the gender gap in hackathons and encouraging women to get involved in tech and create innovative tech projects by hosting all-women hackathons.
This is not your ordinary hackathon. This is a virtual, hackathon for women from across the globe where we take you on this journey from pitching an idea, creating a team, managing your project, collaborating and communicating, to building your product and pitching and promoting your final product focused on creating social impact.
Calling all coders, aspiring entrepreneurs, designers, project managers and anyone interested in building an app, website or game to join us in creating projects around helping break the gender bias. You do not have to have a coding background to participate
Who should participate
Rookie: You have never participated in a hackathon and are curious to see what all the hype is about. You may not have a tech or coding background but are open to getting out of your comfort zone to learn new skills, share your skills, gain experience as a hackathon participant and create a project focused on social impact.
Aspiring Entrepreneur: You have an idea that has a social impact aspect that you want to turn into an MVP at a hackathon. You are also looking for potential cofounders amongst the attendees.
Previous Participants: You have participated in our previous hackathons or other hackathons and you love hackathons because of the amazing connections you make, the skills you are constantly honing or acquiring and experiences and ideas you are exposed to. Also you are attracted to the idea of creating a project focused on social impact.
Why you should participate in our hackathon
Opportunity to use your coding, design, product expertise, ideas or creativity to find solutions to challenges faced by women
Access to our private hackathon Facebook group
Network with other professional women and mentors from diverse industries and share knowledge and expertise
Learn new skills by participating that you can add to your bio, resume, LinkedIn profile
Access to workshops on topics that will help with your hackathon project and also with your work as a creator, innovator, entrepreneur.
This hackathon’s theme is
BREAKING THE GENDER BIAS
Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day.
We can break the bias in our communities.
We can break the bias in our workplaces.
We can break the bias in our schools, colleges and universities.
Together, we can all break the bias – on International Women’s Day (IWD) and beyond.
Are you in? Will you actively call out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping each time you see it?
Will you help hack the gender bias?
Hackathon Challenge
Find innovative and applicable solutions to break the gender bias.
Here are some project ideas
Bread the bias – the gender gap in tech/STEM
Break the bias – the gender pay gap
Break the bias – diversity, inclusion and belonging especially for minority women and women of color
Break the bias – more women in C-Suite jobs and on corporate boards
Break the bias – support for refugee and immigrant women
Schedule
MARCH 22ND – MARCH 31ST
March 22nd: Pitch your idea at the hackathon kickoff at 9am PST/12PM EST
March 23rd – March 24th : Team formation ( minimum 3 – max 5 persons per team)
March 25th – March 30th : Build Period
March 31st : 3 min pitch to panel of judges + 2 mins Q&A from judges
April 1st – April 3rd: Upload project material online for judges
April 4th – April 7th : Judging period
April 8th : Results announced
FAQs
The hackathon is open to women and anyone who identifies as a woman from anywhere in the world. Read all Rules and Code of Conduct Here.
Minimum of four and a maximum of five members.
Yes. You have to have a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 6 members. Each of them will have to purchase a ticket
You do not need a coding background or hackathon experience to participate. Projects also often need people with diverse backgrounds including designers, project managers, business backgrounds and more. We will also have talks, workshops, and mentors to help you with your project. You need to have the interest, the enthusiasm and willing to put in the hard work and collaborate with your team to build your project.
After participants pitch their ideas on Nov.10th, the next two days are spent building teams . To keep the playing field fair, we ask teams not to begin building until Nov. 13th when all the teams are created. If your project is an upgrade to an existing project, please check with us beforehand.
This hackathon is virtual and the schedule is farily flexible. Hackathon teams normally break up the tasks among the team members. Participants usually spend 2 – 3 hours a day at a time that is convenient to them to work on the project.
2021 SPONSORS
Interested in sponsoring this hackathon? E-mail us at hello@theexpatwoman.com for more details.
Women Hack the Crisis 2020 Projects
100 + women. 11 time zones. 10 teams.
Here is a peek into their projects focused on finding solutions to challenges faced by women during COVID.
GiveLocal is a platform that directs gift cards from small local businesses to local organizations doing COVID relief. A donor will come to our website or app, select a type of donation (restaurant gift card, yoga class, morning coffee) and choose an organization to send it to.
Therapy Circles is a web application that provides free grief counseling for women/nonbinary communities who have been impacted by COVID-19. Patients can easily set up an account, match with a licensed therapist, and book virtual therapy sessions.
ThirdSpace is a platform that allows women to connect digitally while physically separated by keeping each other accountable with daily walks, sharing meditation minutes, tackling recipe challenges, or hosting music/movie viewing parties together.
Lily is a platform to support new moms by connecting them to local experienced moms.Many new mothers feel lonely, stressed and depressed. It is built to encourage learning, foster friendship between mothers and build a supportive community.
Women2Work is a platform for unemployed women to upgrade/learn skills, attend networking events, and connect with mentors. The focus is to build genuine relationships between mentors and mentees by connecting women with similar skills, interests, and hobbies.
Glittr is a platform that supports children’s wellbeing through creative outlets in art, dance, improv and more. Kids (ages 8-10) will be able to express themselves and share with others to help reduce anxiety, build confidence and cope with stress. So children have the space to sparkle at home– without a big glitter clean-up.
Hotel Haven is a platform that connects women, essential workers and anyone in need to hotel rooms for a safe space or to quarantine. In addition people can donate hotel gift cards to help support those seeking shelter.
EmpathicHealth is a team composed of brilliant-minded professional women who are innovators, pioneers, developers, designers, coders, business entrepreneurs, and who are mothers, sisters, and daughters. The team of women is working to develop and create a product and service to positively impact and support women with mental health challenges, eg, depression, suicides, and domestic violence during and post-COVID-19 crisis, as well as provide integrated support for the CareGiver and Care Provider.
Linqua is a crowd-sourcing app matching second language speakers for translation and clarification of COVID info for minority communities. Getting potentially life-saving information out to the harder to reach parts of society, lending them social support, and countering misinformation.
WHOW! (Women Helping Other Women) – BEBO (a shortened version of ‘Benefits Bot’) is a free conversational AI chatbot designed to assist those who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 seek information about unemployment benefits. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that over 12 million people did not apply because it was too difficult and confusing. BEBO is unique in that she was built on extracting knowledge base from real stories of people from the most vulnerable sections of the society (caregivers, immigrants, refugees, undocumented, etc.) who wouldn’t otherwise get information readily from government websites. BEBO is bilingual: she can answer questions in English and Spanish (she is live on the project link).
