212. How Women’s Audio Mission is Closing the Gender Gap in Creative Technology Careers with Cristina Ibarra

Cristina Ibarra from Women's Audio Mission is going to share with us how they are getting women and girls more involved in the areas of creative technology, audio and STEM. Right now, less than 5% of the audio and music we have is created by women. WAM has been able to help over 2000 women per year to be involved in the Creative Audio Arts. They were able to help more women during this pandemic through doing virtual conferences. Go to womensaudiomission.org and check how you can get involved.  

Women's Audio Mission (WAM) is based in San Francisco and Oakland, CA. They are a non-profit organization that use music and media to attract over 4000 women, gender non-conforming folks and girls for music, audio and STEM studies. They have the only built-in studio entirely built and run by women and gender non-conforming folks. Audio is a critically underrepresented field and their mission is to amplify voices of women and gender non-conforming folks in this field.

My friend, Fett, has been sharing to me how women have been producing but their work is not being highlighted and how girls are not realizing that this is a field they can go into. Through WAM, when they see themselves represented in the studio, in the instructors, on stage and behind the board, they begin to realize that this is a road they can choose to take. 

The 8th WAMCon is coming up and this has been an iconic way for Women's Audio Mission to take their mission and community to tap into existing communities. There is such a need for this and this is why they are figuring out how to push it further and reach out to more people in 10 countries using virtual.  

They offer a membership program for $40/year for professionals and $30/year for students. With that, you get access to courses, access to the job board and get to work with our great community. 

The gap between equity inclusion and the challenge is now moving from conversations about that gap to actual change. WAM's mission is being part of the conversation. We have to keep going to push that change and make a difference.

If you'd like to know more about membership or events of WAM, find us at womensaudiomission.org. They are also on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. WAMCon is coming on October 23rd and 24th and it's a fantastic way to drop in and get some fantastic workshops. They'll also have 3 top engineers talk about their journeys followed by a whole day of workshops.

Link mentioned in this episode: womensaudiomission.org