Ruth Polachek, she codes; founder, who has been working vigorously to promote women in the world of hi-tech and technology in Israel, has an extensive history of success.

 

Polachek was chosen as one of the 40 most promising young Israelis and as GeekTime’s one of the most 100 influential figures in Israel’s high-tech scene. Polachek established a non-profit organization aimed at encouraging greater female presence in the hi-tech industry by creating a local community of female software developers and of other technological professions. At the onset of her activity, Polachek set a target for exposing the organization, aiming to reach 50% of female software developers in Israel within one decade. After only two years of activity, a substantial change has been apparent in the field.  

 

The goals of the organization are to support, escort, enrich and educate as many girls, youth and women as possible to advance in the technological world, with the purpose of giving them financial liberty and feminine independence. Further, to bond through the shared love for technology, to learn new technologies, to improve, to develop projects and ventures and to network with the hi-tech industry in Israel and around the world.

Having faith in oneself, perseverance and the community are key success factors advocated by the organization and by which it operates. She Codes currently consists of 10,000 female software developers, as well as future ones. Members of the organization meet once a week for HackNights – meetups which take place in the ~ 20 nationally deployed branches – from the north and down through the southern region of Israel, that include, inter alia, specialized tracks for learning different programming languages, for software development and for working in teams on various projects. The different "she codes;" branches are managed by female students and by software developers from hi-tech companies. Ruth herself became exposed to the world of technology from home and she began her career as a stock trader on Wall Street and later at Lehman Brothers investment bank, where she was able to deepen and expand her knowledge of the field. Polachek formerly established and ran several startup companies and founded the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Alumni Entrepreneurship Club (eClub HUJI).

 

According to Ruth’s outlook, which she implements in all the projects she’s involved with, success is attainable through hard work and perseverance and she believes that the means are no less important than the end. Helping others is Ruth Polachek’s way of enhancing her method and practice, and of achieving any goal.