Hackathons have historically had low representation by women for a variety of factors from lack of women in STEM to outright sexism by other participants. To address the gender imbalance, many organizers have made efforts to encourage more women to participate, but with mixed results. Forbes offers up five ideas that can be applied to virtually every event to help organizers rethink events from within.

Medical equipment and healthcare products are designed mostly by men, and in many cases for men – surgical tools, for instance, designed for larger hands to operate. While striving for significant advances in medicine we’re failing to address some basic human considerations, often in flagrant disregard of the field’s heavy balance of women. It’s a systemic problem requiring women to adapt. So despite the fact that healthcare is a great sector for women to enter we hear ongoing complaints. The misfit problem may get worse before it gets better.