About Us

The Gender Chip Project is the product of the unique vision of director Helen DeMichiel and an extraordinary collaboration with Media Working Group and organizations throughout the country.

Helen DeMichiel, Producer and Director
In 1998 filmmaker Helen De Michiel brought together several young women majoring in the sciences, engineering and math at Ohio State University in Columbus. They agreed to meet regularly over their next three years of college, and create a community to share experiences and struggles as women stepping into traditionally male domains.

Ranging from their first year of college through to graduation, The Gender Chip Project is a rare and subtle portrait of five extraordinary young women attending this mid-western university who take up the challenge to succeed in fields which are now only reluctantly accepting of women.

The documentary reveals how women are finding new ways to honor their own growth, motivations and experience as they imagine how to make the science and technology workplace a comfortable environment for women to stay in and influence - - for the better of everyone.

Media Working Group
Media Working Group is a non-profit, collective of artists and educators who are engaged in a diversity of artistic and education practices informed by multiple perspectives (cultural, perceptual, dimensional). As an artist driven organization, production, education and research projects are fueled by individual creativity, passion, vision, innovation, and concerns for media democracy. Reflecting the MWG mission, projects tend to be critical inquiries informed by a particular social environment, a cultural intervention, interaction or dialogue within a community. The Gender Chip Project is just that, so Executive Producers Jean Donohue and Fred Johnson joined the project in 2001 to assist Helen DeMichiel as she began the post-production phase and fundraising for the public engagement campaign.