In this video, Lecia Barker (National Center for Women in Information Technology) discusses research on best practices for outreach to young women and minority students. Lecia looks at the research evidence underlying the choices you need to make when doing a roadshow presentation, specifically why you choose the messages and the activities that you choose. http://csta.acm.org/Videos/whatresearchtellsus.mov

Significant evidence suggests that diverse work teams produce tangible benefits, including improved innovation, problem-solving, and productivity.

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International Women's Day-in-a-Box: Raising Awareness, Igniting Change is designed to help IT 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. If your organization is eager to promote diversity in order to become globally competitive, then International Women's Day-in-a-Box is for you. Use this resource to plan company activities and events, and to establish a culture and expectation for broader diversity of thought in IT.

Whether or not an organization will fully benefit from diversity depends on how its members answer the questions, “What do we do with this diversity? Why do we want a diversified workforce?” Organizations must explicitly address these questions if they are to prevent diversity efforts from backfiring and if they are to reap the oft-touted benefits of better performance and productivity. Three organizational diversity paradigms are presented along with the assumptions and practices, pros, and cons of each.

Companies that establish organizational accountability for diversity, whether in the form of full-time diversity staff or a diversity task force, are more likely to increase the representation of women and minorities in management than companies that use only mentoring or diversity training programs. 

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