Mark Zuckerberg earned some serious feminist brownie points this weekend for using his platform to inspire women in STEM.
On Sunday, the Facebook founder shared his 2016 plans to build an AI to help him at home and at work.
“At Facebook I spend a lot of time working with engineers to build new things. Some of the most rewarding work involves getting deep into the details of technical projects… But it’s a different kind of rewarding to build things yourself, so this year my personal challenge is to do that,” Zuckerberg wrote.
But one woman's 1950s-esque dating comment risked overshadowing his announcement. Thankfully he turned it on its head to fly the flag for women and girls in STEM.
"I keep telling my granddaughters to date the nerd in school, he may turn out to be a Mark Zuckerberg! Thanks for FB, I’ve reconnected with family and old friend and classmates," the grandmother wrote.
Zuckerberg took the opportunity to hammer home his firm belief that woman should get stuck in to STEM, rather than waiting around for Prince Charming.
He replied: "Even better would be to encourage them to *be* the nerd in their school so they can be the next successful inventor!"
Well said 🙌