Women in tech empowerment, inclusion & education: : interdisciplinary study in Portuguese and Brazilian communities

Since 2010 thousands of women in tech communities have emerged and developed. These groups have specific inclusion, empowerment, and education objectives. The covid-19 pandemic has brought new and major challenges in activist exercise and communication practices. This work aims to present preliminary results of data collection and analysis on digital platforms from more than 100 Portuguese and Brazilian women in Information Technology (IT) communities, observer participation in more than fifty face-to-face interviews and online events, three case studies and a focus group. The covid-19 pandemic was responsible for problems related to these groups’ engagement. This research work aims to discuss possible proposals to recover activism and improve communication in these communities.