Women's History Month Computer Giveaway

Introduction

This is Women’s History Month, so I want to reflect on the achievements of women and girls across the centuries and pay tribute to the pioneers who paved the way. I want to recommit to help build a more equal society where every person has a shot at pursuing their dreams. Unfortunately, women are extremely under-represented in the I.T. field for many reasons. I want to do a very small thing to try to address that problem. That is why I am having a Women’s History Month Computer Giveaway during March.

Anyone who has spent any time working in an I.T. career can’t help but notice how few women are working in this field. If you have ever been at a large computer conference or trade show, this disparity just leaps out at you. A simple visit to the restroom between sessions will reveal a huge line of men while there is no line for women. This is in stark contrast to what you usually see at a concert or sporting event, where the situation is typically reversed. It just underlines the huge difference in numbers.

What is far worse are the many barriers and difficulties that women face in the I.T. field. These range from daily micro-aggressions to ongoing belittlement and harassment, all the way to physical violence. There is no excuse for any of this, but it is an ongoing experience for many women. I want to do one small thing to hopefully make it easier for at least one woman to enter or advance their career in the I.T. field.

Women’s History Month Computer Giveaway

As you may know, I really like to build and configure desktop computers. I often write blog posts and/or make videos about this. As a result, I have many more desktop systems than I really need.

I think it is very helpful to have a powerful, personal desktop computer that you can use for learning and experimentation, especially as you are starting off in I.T. Having a system that you can do whatever you want with is very handy.

Rather than giving away an existing system, I decided to build a new system that would be suitable for software or database development or for content creation. It would also be a very capable home lab machine, and it even has enough CPU and GPU horsepower for 1440P gaming.

What Are You Giving Away?

I have built what I would call a mid-range Intel content creation PC. This machine has an Intel Core i5-12600K processor, an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD. There are details about all of the components in this blog post.

• Building a Mid-Range Intel Content Creation PC

This machine has a lot of expansion and upgrade capability, so it will be useful for many years. You can easily add more RAM or storage and you can also upgrade the other components in the future. At current prices, the parts are worth about $1,750.00, so it offers a very capable baseline capability.

This machine is pretty fast as it is though…

This is just the actual computer and power cord. It does not include a monitor or any other peripherals.

Giveaway Rules

This will be a giveaway where the winner is randomly selected from all eligible entrants. In order to be eligible, you must be a woman, 18 years or older, who is a resident of the continental United States.

You have to supply your full name, and a valid email address (so I can contact you if you win). To try to reduce bots and spammers, you will also need to write a paragraph or two about why you want this system and/or what you plan on doing with it.

Don’t agonize over this. I will read every message to hear what you have to say, but the main purpose is make sure you are a human. The winner will be selected randomly, regardless of the entry message.

You must enter the giveaway between March 1, 2022, and March 31, 2022. The entry window closes at 12AM Pacific Time on April 1, 2022. You may only enter once.

The drawing will take place on April 1, 2022. I will contact the winner by email, and you will have 72 hours to respond. If there is no response, I will randomly select another winner and repeat the process as needed.

If you win, you will have to give me a valid shipping address so I can send the system to you. I would also like to be able to release your name and any blog or other social media presence that you wish when I announce the winner. You are responsible for any taxes that may result from winning.

I will not use, sell, or giveaway the contact information that you supply when you enter. You will not be getting spammed by entering this contest.

Once the contest is over and I have made contact with the winner, all of the contact information from the contest will be deleted.

Enter The Giveaway

If you want to enter the giveaway, please enter the information below. You may only enter once.

Final Words

Hopefully, this Women’s History Month Computer Giveaway will help a woman enter or advance in the I.T. career area in some capacity.

BTW, I have vetted this basic idea with a number of people that I know in the SQL Server community. I really appreciate the feedback and ideas that I received as a result. Any errors or omissions are my completely fault though.

If you have any questions about this post, please ask me here in the comments or on Twitter. I am pretty active on Twitter as GlennAlanBerry. Thanks for reading!