Celebrating women in analytics

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Wednesday 8th March (earlier this week) marked another year we celebrate the historical, cultural, and political achievements of women on International Women’s Day. 

A bit of a different newsletter this week highlighting the women in STEM who I follow and who continue to inspire me as a woman in the field of analytics.

Start.

It’s no secret that there are fewer women and females represented in the field of STEM (that is, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). In fact, only 27% of women make up the STEM workforce in Australia according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The influences for this are many, starting with how traditional gender roles often encourage young boys to play with planes, trains and roads while young girls are often given dolls. 

Fortunately, as a topic and a movement, many are doing their bit to encourage access to more STEM based occupational influences across a diverse range of individuals. 

An article I spotted earlier in the week spoke to a seemingly small but poignant effort for women in STEM to make an appearance in the lives of little girls. A new campaign and doll release by Barbie to celebrate International Women’s Day this year heroes some of STEM’s most admirable women and personally, as a little girl who adored her Barbie’s, I really appreciate this effort to celebrate diversity. 

Beyond the work still to be done at a global level to make STEM roles feel more accessible to young women, there are women in the community whom I have learned from through their generous contributions to the analytics community in particular. 

So if you have subscribed to my little effort to do the same via this weekly Attribution Gal newsletter (thank you for your support), I thought you may equally enjoy the efforts of the women I follow who teach me new ways to think about data and analytics problems. 

As an ode to International Women’s Day, see below for a list of women I admire and why they’re worth adding to your follow list.

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Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, Data Storyteller

Cole wrote a book in 2018 called Storytelling with Data which continues to be one of the most loved visualisation bibles for all analytics professionals. She has since created a workbook and presented on the topic of data visualisation many times – one of my favourite ever frequently watched talks being one she gave at Google. Watch it here. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colenussbaumer

Website: https://www.storytellingwithdata.com/

Moe Kiss, Co-Host of Analytics Power Hour Podcast

Moe takes the title of my Analytics Girl Crush. I always look forward to the latest episode of the Analytics Power Hour Podcast, not only because she is full of practical advice, but because girl knows how to keep it real. Moe is always happy to share how things work behind the curtain whether it was through her experience working as Analytics Manager for The Iconic or her recent work as the Marketing Data Lead at Canva. In particular, Moe has shared and inspired me with many tips for executive storytelling and influencing analytics operations initiatives. Follow her, learn from her, you won’t be disappointed. 

Some pointers on where to start.

• This keynote she gave for CXL on Why Experiences Across Device Matters
• This episode of Analytics Power Hour with Moe, the rest of the Analytics Power Hour Crew and Eric Weber on “Data as a Product”
• This episode of Analytics Power Hour on Quant + Qual with Moe, team and Jenni Bruckman

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/moekiss

Website: https://www.moekiss.com/

Christina Stathopoulos, Data Evangelist, Advisor & Educator 

Christina is a powerhouse. Leaving Google as an Analytical Lead late last year to build her own freelance data empire, Christina is one of the most generous data & analytics thought leaders and cheerleaders for all people in STEM. Beyond analytics, she’s run the #bookaweekchallenge on LinkedIn for years and generously shares her synthesis of each read at the end of every week. Anyone with 658 current and “to read” books on their Goodreads is one well-read individual. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinastathopoulos/

Juliana Jackson, Digital Analytics Architect

What I love most about Juliana is that like me, we both found a passion for analytics later in our careers. Juliana is one of the most passionate women I’ve seen to become laser focused on not only establishing a new career path for herself, but having the vision, commitment and dedication to becoming one of the best in the game. There honestly isn’t much Juliana won’t put her hand up for if the topic is on analytics and there’s an opportunity to connect and give back to like minds in the community. From her time as the “CLV Lady” while at Omniconvert to leading Growth for CXL (which appears to have sparked her now incredible obsession with numbers) to now working in analytics full time as a Digital Analytics Architect – it’s been a joy to follow Juliana’s journey. 

Her standout contribution to the community takes the name of the “Standard Deviation Podcast” where she sits down with some of the best and brightest minds in analytics. People like Simo Ahava, Charles Farina, Tim Wilson and Jane Li. Listen to the audio or subscribe to her YouTube channel. 

If you prefer to read, she also pens her frequent learnings over on her “technical marketing blog” which you can find here.

Jana Marlé-Zizková, Co-Founder & CEO of She Loves Data 

I’ve only just recently met Jana but find her to be an incredibly warm individual, passionate about supporting diversity in STEM and building the literacy of all with numbers. Jana co-founded She Loves Data as a non-for-profit movement to help more women enter the world of tech, data & analytics. She works tirelessly with her team of volunteers to offer free meetups, workshops, webinars, networking events and even education modules (complete with certifications). 

Beyond her efforts with SLD Jana also somehow finds time to run Meiro CDP Platform as their fearless leader too.

I am excited to work with Jana and the team at She Loves Data this year to support them with their upcoming new education modules (stay tuned for more on this). 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janamarlezizkova/

Website: https://www.shelovesdata.com/ and https://www.meiro.io/

That’s it for this week. A little word of encouragement to expand the list of brilliant women you subscribe to, learn from and support. 

And to each and every one of you who takes the time to consume my lessons learned from the week in my little corner of the internet, thank you. Your support and the ongoing dialogue of how we can improve the craft that is analytics is why I get up in the morning. Thanks for being part of the little community in my life. 

Until next week.