A Hackathon Gift to Women Worldwide: The Story of ‘When Women Understand’
Written by Arzu Caner
For a long time, Hackathons were something I heard about. I always wanted to experience the excitement they offered, but didn’t know where or how to start. Perhaps many of you can relate to these sentiments. The idea of bringing a project to life in a short amount of time, competing against the clock, the blurred lines between day and night, and the endless thrill is what Hackathon encapsulated for me.
When Women Who Code announced the Women Who Code Hackathon Social Good 2023, I thought, “Yes, the time has come, and I must participate.” Immediately, I delved into brainstorming ideas and exploring how my concept could contribute to social good.
The idea had to be inclusive, something that could make a difference for women worldwide. Recently, there was a topic that psychologists emphasised psychological violence towards women. I worked extensively on gathering scientific articles and statistics on this issue, contemplating how to turn it into a beneficial project. After much effort, the fantastic idea that everyone could resonate with emerged “When Women Understand.”
Detecting psychological violence is not an easy task for a woman. This is because, at times, they witness this violence from her loved ones and those they value the most. Therefore, struggling to put a name to it because we believe our loved ones and those we value wouldn’t harm us.
I started closely following the Women Who Code’s Slack channel and introduced myself, mentioning that I had an idea. Then, I received messages expressing interest in working together. I thought I could establish a team and bring this idea to life.
And there it was, a fantastic team was formed, and we immediately started working. I believe that the most crucial thing enabling our coordinated work during the hackathon was establishing our working system. We prepared the processes and discussed each person’s preferred tasks, and regular meetings ensured our work discipline.
First, Maryna and Onyinye prepared the design, and I simultaneously created the GitHub repository and prepared the UML diagram. Rose, Sara, and Rae quickly started coding. The coordination between the design and development teams accelerated our progress. Almost all processes were running simultaneously. While coding on one side, we were preparing the presentation with the design team on the other.
As time was running out, our excitement was increasing. Working in different time zones was challenging for all of us. To collaborate with the team at night, I could only manage a few hours of sleep each day as our deadline approached.
We were approaching the final days, and as our website began to take shape, our excitement grew even more. We were trying to take each step by considering what women feel and think.
On the last day, the entire team worked until late hours, becoming exhausted and sleep-deprived. However, in a short amount of time, we managed to create an amazing website.
In our project, “When Women Understand,” we’ve strategically harnessed a range of technologies to address the challenge of empowering women to recognize and combat psychological abuse effectively. Our choice of technologies includes Node.js, MongoDB, Jest for testing, JavaScript, React, Bootstrap and Passage by 1Password’s tool for user authentication.
Finally, it was time to present our project. With Maryna and Rose, we proudly conducted our presentation. As a team, we anxiously awaited to learn about the winning team. Our project won the “Outstanding Social Impact Award,” a source of great pride for us.
Actually, the CodeCrafters team wrote a success story. People who had never met before and lived in different countries came together for a social cause and accomplished amazing things.
We dedicated the designed website to women around the world who have experienced psychological violence.
Our next goal is to further develop the project and increase its impact!