Through her
highly accomplished career, mostly in email and communication systems, she established a number of initiatives to make sure technical fields were places where women would be equally represented at all levels.
After attending a symposium with almost no women in sight, she worked together with the few that were present on an idea that in 1987 became
Systers, an emailing list to provide a safe space for women with technical training to seek input and share advice.
Together with
Telle Whitney, she founded the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in 1994, a conference by and for women computer scientists. Its first edition brought together 500 technical women!
In 1997, Borg founded the
Institute for Women and Technology (renamed in 2003 to the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology by Whitney). The organization had two major goals: to increase the representation of women in technical fields and to enable the creation of more technology by women.
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