NCWIT at the Colorado Technology Association Women in Tech Conference
NCWIT Social Science Advisory Board Did You Know: NCWIT’s work and resources were represented at Women in Tech Conference presented by the Colorado Technology Association?
In mid-June, NCWIT BOD members Nancy Phillips, CEO and founder of ViaWest, and Trish Jones, principal of eMentor Connect and former Chief Emerging Officer for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. spoke to over 500 attendees at the Colorado Technology Association Women in Technology conference. Themes of the conference included thriving in the male-dominated technology industry and “making one’s own opportunities.”
Phillips and Jones encouraged attendees to think about workplace challenges differently — as an issue of culture, not an issue of gender. They attributed difficulties women may have in the workplace to (sometimes invisible) structural issues or cultures, such as stereotype threat and unintended/unconscious biases that everyone experiences. Therefore, workplace structures and cultures are challenges for everyone to solve, not just women.
Attendees were introduced to several NCWIT resources to supplement the discussion including ‘Top 10 Ways Technical Women Increase Their Visibility’ and ‘Male Advocates and Allies: Promoting Gender Diversity in Technology Workplaces.’
NCWIT’s Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action
On Tuesday, June 24th, at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in Denver, CO, Ruthe Farmer represented NCWIT on stage with Hillary Clinton to announce a Commitment to Action in partnership with Intel, Google, the Northrop Grumman Foundation, Microsoft, Sphero, the UC Irvine Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, and Tata Consultancy Services. The commitment is a formal announcement of expansion for NCWIT Aspire IT, the middle school component of Aspirations in Computing. A press release was distributed detailing the “near-peer” approach that allows young women to become role models and mentors and build leadership skills while encouraging younger girls to pursue computing.
NCWIT Announces Expansion of Pacesetters Program
NCWIT Entrepreneurial Alliance Did You Know: NCWIT will add 3,500 new technical women to the U.S. talent pool through the NCWIT Pacesetters Program?
On Monday June 23rd, NCWIT announced, via press release, a plan to add 3,500 new technical women to the U.S. talent pool by 2016 through the NCWIT Pacesetters Program. In this unique program, senior change leaders come together across academic, corporate, and entrepreneurial organizational boundaries to try innovative approaches to increase women’s participation in computing fields and careers.
The announcement took place as part of the White House Summit on Working Families, where NCWIT BOD member Avis Yates Rivers represented NCWIT on a STEM panel focused on job access. NCWIT has two resources related to technical job ads that help with analysis and creation of unbiased ads with balanced language.
NCWIT Pacesetters is made possible by generous contributions from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Qualcomm. Find out more at www.ncwit.org/pacesetters.
NCWIT and Google’s New Made With Code Program
On Thursday June 19th, Google launched Made With Code, a $50 million initiative to teach middle and high school girls to code. The initiative’s website lists coding events for girls, which include NCWIT AspireIT programs.
NCWIT took part in a large social media promotional campaign to announce the project; we were also featured in Google’s press release. NCWIT BOD member Avis Yates Rivers, President and CEO of Technology Concepts Group International, represented NCWIT at a large NYC event for the announcement.
Additionally, a related blog post was published on the Aspirations website, which highlighted Josie Lamp, an Award recipient who made an Arduino based LED lighted tutu that . Two Award for Aspirations In Computing recipients, Tesca Fitzgerald and Brittany Wenger, were also are featured in the Makers section of Made With Code website.