Sonja Bernhardt

Sonja Bernhardt OAM is an Australian information technology industry identity and role model,^[1] founder and Inaugural President of WiT (Women in Technology) in 1997^[2] and co founder and Inaugural President of AWISE (Australian Women in IT and Science Entity) in 2005,^[3] two not for profit industry groups that run community based projects and programs specifically to encourage women and girls into technology careers. In addition, Bernhardt is responsible for a number of high impact (and usually controversial) initiatives to raise the profile of women in technology and break perceptions of technology careers as "nerdy" or "male", such as the 2007 Screen Goddess IT Calendar, IT's Million $ Babes Awards and Doing IT Around the World.

Career

Sonja Bernhardt (born 1959 in Launceston, Tasmania^[4]) was employed as a consultant by Mincom Limited^[5] prior to February 1999 when she established her own software development firm – ThoughtWare Australia. Bernhardt and ThoughtWare have won a string of awards and recognition – such as listings in multiple Australian Who’s Who publications.^[4][6][7] Bernhardt is notably the first Australian inducted into the WITI (Women in Technology International) Hall of Fame (2005).^[8][9]

Community projects
Bernhardt is active in the area of supporting women in IT especially addressing the under-representation of women in technology, and towards these goals both founded Women In Technology^[2] in Queensland and co-founded AWISE,^[3] a national Australia umbrella group. Through AWISE^[10] and WiT Bernhardt has been involved in many girl and women in technology perception altering, awareness raising, mentoring and role model projects. For example, Go Girl - Go For IT and the Board Readiness Program. Bernhardt herself has been featured as a female role model by both the Queensland Government^[11] and Australian Government.^[12]

In addition Bernhardt is the innovator of voluntary community projects including the controversial 2007 "Screen Goddess IT Calendar", which featured 20 female role models in poses inspired by famous movies,^[13] “IT’s Million $ Babes Award” recognising successful Australian female entrepreneurs,^[14] and “Doing IT Around the World”, a diary and series of e-booklets featuring the work and lives of 36 women in technology covering all continents around the world on 11 August (chosen as the date Hedy Lamarr was awarded the spread spectrum patent) 2008.^[15]

Volunteer Positions

Bernhardt has held several positions in the women and technology and IT policy community,^[16] including:

• 2010 Technical committee invited member of the ACIITC (Aged Care Industry Information Technology Council)
• 2009 Foundation Member of ACIVA(Aged Care IT Vendors Association)
• 2008 Regional Coordinator for the Asia Pacific Centre for Women and Technology (1 of 10 regional centres forming a global hub for Women and technology)
• 2007 Member of APEC Digital Forum committee (role is to seek solutions for APEC economies re: Building a sustainable e-future
• 2007 Appointed to the UN supported International Taskforce for Women and ICT’s (vision is to promote communication and information exchange; increase sharing of research, knowledge, and resources; develop a series of collaborative activities; and promote recommendations for policy and programming – globally)
• 2004-2005 Member of Federal ICT Summit Advisory Group^[17] - this group reported directly to the national Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
• 2003-2005 Appointed to Australian Government's Business Higher Education Round Table (B-HERT) - science & technology careers taskforce
• 1998-2004 Appointed^[18] to the prestigious Queensland Government ICT Ministerial Advisory Group – Industry Development^[19] – this group reported directly to the Minister and provided IT policy advice.

Awards
Bernhardt's volunteer work in IT especially increasing the career takeup and profile of women in technology has been recognised by these awards:

• WITI (Women in Technology International) Hall of Fame (2005)^[8][9]
• Optus ICT Achievement Award (2009)^[20][21]
• Queensland Government "Our Women, Our State" Awards - Industry or Business Category (2009)^[22]
• Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the IT industry (2011)^[23][24]

Publications
Bernhardt's publications include:

• IT Workers: Human Capital Issues in a Knowledge-Based Environment (2006: Information Age Publishing). Bernhardt co-authored a chapter of this book titled "Employment Sharing for IT Micro and Small Business."
• The Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology Bernhardt wrote a chapter for this encyclopedia: “Boards, IT Skills and Women - the Australian Context.”
• Regular contributor to The Education Technology Guide (published by the Australian Media Group). Topics have covered gender and ICT, ICT on school boards and nanotechnology.
• Regular speaker on ABC Local Radio (most regularly on 91.7 ABC Coast FM) discussing a range of technology and women in technology issues.
• Technology Diva's Top Tech Tips for Your Business: an interview with the Australian Businesswomen's Network (2009)

References