Telling Women's Stories with Data

We’re bringing together prominent women in Data Visualization – to talk aboutusing data and design to tell women’s stories, examine gender inequality, and create awareness of injustices that intersect with other forms of discrimination.

Why do we do this?

Popular culture is dominated by stories by, for and about white heterosexual men. In movies, men talk~70% of the time, advertising perpetuates harmful stereotypes, and Alexa has trouble understanding female voices.

In the introduction of her book Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay writes: “When women are involved, they are sidekicks …. Rarely do women get to be the center of attention. Rarely do our stories get to matter.”

We want to have a look at the state of affairs in Data Viz. What are the gender dynamics in this field? How do we get attention to those issues? Since the proof is supposed to be in the data: Is data-driven storytelling an effective medium to be heard?

Sarah Aoun is a data activist, operational security trainer, and Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow working on data privacy and security. Her work lies at the intersection of tech, human rights, and transformative justice. She’s collaborated with activists, journalists, grassroots social movements, and NGOs in the US and MENA region on digital security, ethical data & privacy, and data-driven storytelling.

Amanda Montañez is a graphics editor at Scientific American, where she works in both digital and print media. In addition to producing and art directing information graphics, she writes regularly for SA Visual, a staff blog focused on visualizing science. Amanda has a graduate degree in biomedical communications from the University of Toronto and a B.A. in studio art from Smith College. She previously worked as a freelance medical illustrator.

Amanda Shendruk is an award-winning visual journalist and data designer. She currently works at the Council on Foreign Relations finding ways to visually explain complex topics on foreign policy. Amanda has worked in newsrooms around the world, including at Maclean's Magazine in Canada and at the Guardian in the UK.

Julia Wolfe works at FiveThirtyEight as a visual journalist where she has covered politics, economics, and sports. She is also an adjunct lecturer at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism. Before FiveThirtyEight, she worked at The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, and The Toronto Star. She has won several awards, including the 2016 Statistical Society of Canada’s Excellence in Data Journalism Award and a 2015 SND award of excellence for digital design.

Youyou Zhou is a visual journalist on the Quartz Things team. She designs for the web, writes stories and builds data visualizations. Prior to Quartz, she worked for The Associated Press as an interactive producer, where she covered the U.S. elections and Venezuela crisis. Youyou graduated from University of Missouri with a Bachelors degree in Convergence Journalism.

Coffee, Tea and Snacks will be served.

Please reach out to Natalie Erdem at natalie@two-n.com if you have any questions.