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Over the years, Barbie has tried her hand at many different occupations: rock star, race car driver, astronaut... the list goes on.

This year, Barbie has a chance to be a computer engineer.

You can vote for your favorite occupation on Barbie.com

In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, I would like to recognize Ms. Henry, my first computer science teacher. I was quite privileged to have attended a high school where female teachers made up a significant portion of the math and science departments. In my opinion, nothing was more encouraging or empowering than filling the faculty with great role models.

What set Ms. Henry apart from other educators was her effective teaching methods. Her explanations were always clear and concise. I was turned on to computer programming because she made it seem easy.

She challenged the more astute students with programming competitions. For struggling students, she always had the patience to spend extra time with them, explain concepts again, perhaps differently until it would finally click. She was always very encouraging, never condescending and she would never give up until the material was properly understood. This was especially important because we had to cover the fundamentals.

Ms. Henry not only provided me with the nurture I needed to become a software developer, she also inspired me to become a teacher one day, so that I may show other girls that computer science is not scary or difficult.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Silicon Valley Girl Geek Dinner at Google. I've been curious about Women 2.0 and what they were about since I was supposedly in their target demographic. The event left me feeling disappointed because it felt more like a pep rally than a professional development event. Beyond all the slick marketing and corporate sponsorship, there was little substance.

This conversation I overheard at the conclusion of the discussion panel summed it up best:

Girl: Oh honey, this event was so empowering!

Girl's boyfriend: As long as it was empowering for you, dear...

I agreed with her boyfriend. The event wasn't particularly empowering.

Today, I received an invitation to participate in the second OpenSocial Hackathon.

One particular mandatory field on the registration form caught my attention (mostly because it wouldn't let me proceed without submitting an answer for it.)

My first reaction was, "I am a designer and developer who happens to be female, but I don't see what difference that makes, and why this question is mandatory. Are these people sexist?"

This question makes it sound like they're willing to lower the bar to accommodate women, which makes me feel insulted. I understand that they're trying to encourage more females to come out and participate, but the messaging isn't particularly empowering.

To quote Mike:

By trying to compensate for the historical mistreatment of a group you isolate it and reinforce the definition of the differences between that group and the rest of the world

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web discusses the discrimination that women in technology face.

Math Book Helps Girls Embrace Their Inner Mathematician