IBM's #HackAHairDryer Women In STEM Campaign Suffers Massive Backlash On Twitter

IBM Wants More Women In Tech So Asks Them To Hack A Hairdryer. We're Not Joking.

Update: IBM got in touch with the Huffington Post UK via Twitter to inform us that the campaign has since been dropped.

The update follows on from an initiative which IBM had originally created ironically to encourage more women to join the technology and science industry. It was called Hack-a-Hair Dryer.

Claiming to be 'dismantling stigmas in tech', the program challenged women to take an everyday hairdryer and then reinvent it as something new, sharing their new creations on Twitter and Facebook.

IBM's campaign has been ruthlessly shot down on Twitter as being sexist, patronising and misguided.

The campaign said it aimed to drive away the misconceptions that have plagued an industry where in the UK just 15 per cent of the STEM industry is comprised of women.

"Girls don't like science? Women can’t code? Only men wear lab coats? It's hair-raising misperceptions like these that keep bright minds out of research labs, scrum teams and engineering tracks—leaving untold innovations on the shelf." says a statement on its site.

The campaign has received a huge backlash on Twitter with people lambasting the company for 'missing the point'.

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