Peer Talk Episode 17: Anne Halsall of Winnie

Software engineer Anne Halsall is the co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer of Winnie, an online directory for quality local child care services in metropolitan areas across the country. Since childhood, when her father bought an Apple II computer, Anne has been fascinated with the world of technology. After college, however, she noticed a disconcerting lack of women at the tech companies where she worked. The gender gap in tech motivated Anne to hire women employees when she co-founded Winnie. In her own words: “  I deliberately chose to go work for organizations that had women in leadership, that had women in engineering, and that weren't just, like, teams of all men. My company is majority women and is also majority engineering. So that, to me, says when you walk in a room and it's all men, that was actually a choice.” For this episode of Peer Talk, we brought in Mx. Oskar Soderberg’s 6th grade English class, the youngest group that we’ve worked with so far. The students had just read Hidden Figures for class, and were eager to learn more about the experiences of a woman in STEM. Anne and the students connected right away, thanks to both the students’ curiosity and Anne’s warm yet candid answers to their questions. We hope you’ll enjoy listening to their spirited conversation!