Let today, International Women’s Day, boost your change-leading, revolutionary spirit for women in tech throughout the rest of Women’s History Month and year round.
About International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day (March 8) is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day designed to recognize women for their achievements without regard to national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic, or political divisions. It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women. For more information about the history of International Women’s Day, visit the United Nations.
How You Can Act for Women in Tech on International Women’s Day (and the other 364 days of the year)
Given the increasingly vital role technology plays in today’s economy, any efforts to improve conditions for women must consider women’s access and contributions to computing. NCWIT can help you do your part to revolutionize tech.
Identify and address barriers to girls’ and women’s participation in technology, including:
- environments that are uncomfortable for girls. The décor of physical spaces conveys messages about the kinds of people who belong there and the kinds of activities that should be done there. Understanding this influence allows us to actively craft an environment that makes a broad range of people feel welcome in computing.
- computing curriculum that is disconnected from student interests. Computing is often taught in the abstract, preventing students from recognizing how technology can help address relevant social problems. Culturally responsive computing (CRC) programs help educators connect computing curriculum to the interests, prior experiences, and needs of students diverse in gender, race, class, ability, and sexual orientation. One such promising program is COMPUGIRLS.
- unconscious bias. This video will take you through a series of engaging, interactive experiments that introduce the concept of unconscious bias and explain why this information is vital for technical companies to understand.
- promotion and performance review processes. Employees report that the supervisory relationship is one of the most significant factors in their decision to leave or stay with an organization. Are you, as a supervisor, adequately prepared for this responsibility? Supervising-in-a-Box can help you reduce employee turnover.
NCWIT’s “International Women’s Day-in-a-Box: Raising Awareness, Igniting Change” offers additional practical recommendations, as well as event-planning tips. This resource was designed to help computing companies and departments celebrate successes and address barriers to women’s full participation in IT, and capitalize on women’s innovative thinking and leadership potential (www.ncwit.org/iwd).
Recognize the contributions and celebrate the accomplishments of technical women:
- NCWIT Pioneer Award winners are technical women whose lifetime contributions have significantly impacted the landscape of technological innovation and whose legacies continue to inspire generations of young women to pursue computing and make history in their own right. We congratulate Cynthia Solomon, the 2016 NCWIT Pioneer Award winner (www.ncwit.org/pioneeraward).
- NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Community members include high school and college women who not only have ambition for computing education and careers, but who are also making societal impacts with their innovations and inspiring peers to persist in the field (www.aspirations.org).
- TECHNOLOchicas are Latinas with powerful stories from diverse backgrounds and environments who share a passion for technology and its power to change the world (www.technolochicas.org).
- NCWIT Entrepreneurial Heroes are women innovators from start-ups, small companies, and non-profits, whose ideas and products are changing the way we think, work, play, and communicate. Take a moment to hear their stories: www.ncwit.org/heroes.
Create awareness on Twitter and Facebook year round. Share NCWIT posts, or borrow this pre-written messaging:
- Inadequate computing edu especially shortchanges girls & youth of color. The facts: http://bit.ly/GirlsInIT. #RevolutionizingTech
- Engage girls in tech by introducing real-life problems for them to solve, using technology. #RevolutionizingTech // http://bit.ly/1XOqAam
- Learn from Entrepreneurial Heroes’ successes and bumps in the road in this podcast series: http://bit.ly/1o3wn1p. #RevolutionizingTech
- Diverse teams are associated w/ increased revenue, creativity, and collective intelligence: http://bit.ly/21jNNmw. #RevolutionizingTech
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