Women's History Month: Tech Companies Celebrate Women in Tech

In the tech world, we hear and read a lot about diversity and inclusion, or the lack thereof at many startups. International Women’s Day, which took place this month, is a time to reflect on the progress made as well as call for change, among other goals. One of the key targets this year is to work to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” So there’s no better time than now, Women’s History Month, to call out some tech companies providing the necessary resources to help achieve those goals.

Microsoft

One of the themes of International Women’s Day is to “celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.” But when Microsoft asked a group of girls to name a female inventor, they could not. In fact, one young girl responds “in school it was always a male inventor." You can watch the whole video here.

Microsoft’s #MakeWhatsNext campaign is designed to celebrate women’s accomplishments, point to female role models in tech and encourage young girls to follow in their footsteps. The aim is to empower girls by providing them with the resources to become the next great creator and perhaps change the world.

Microsoft will make resources available for girls to learn to code; such as their DigiGirlz events, Hour of Code tools, and free online coding tutorials. Microsoft also announced the Patent Program to provide support to select female inventors to help them file for patent pending status in the United States. You can find all the resources on their website.

How many female inventors can you name? I was only able to come up with Ada Lovelace.

Samsung

With so few school-age kids pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects in school, companies are concerned about an inadequate pipeline of talent. In fact, only 16% of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a career in STEM. Samsung Electronics is one company working to change that. Ann Woo, Director of Corporate Citizenship at Samsung, oversees education initiatives such as Solve For Tomorrow and emPOWER Tomorrow. 

emPOWER Tomorrow invites fourth and fifth grade girls to learn about STEM in a non-traditional way, says Woo. “Our program introduces computer coding and electrical engineering in a fun way. We teach them how to code and make their own movie – become a movie director, not a coder. They have to learn the coding skills, but at the end of the day they’re learning coding and doing something they love."

Since many educators believe fourth and fifth grade is the time to get girls interested in pursuing STEM studies, Samsung’s female scientists volunteer to work with the young girls in the after school program. Samsung also donates computer technology such as Chromebooks so students can learn with the latest technology.

The goal is to get girls excited about technology, one teacher in the pilot program says it’s definitely working. “The emPOWER Tomorrow program…definitely encourages the girls who are here,” says the school’s technology coordinator, “because they’ve been able to see, face to face, real live scientists that are female and actually talk to them about their upbringing and how they got into the field.”

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker wrote a post celebrating women entrepreneurs and encouraging companies to do more to promote women. “Encourage the women in your life to learn STEM skills and how to code. Reach out to the HR Department of your technology companies and encourage them to more actively recruit and promote female professionals. Speak at trade shows, conferences, and other events. Be visible in your field. Or start a mentoring program and encourage your peers to participate. I hope that each and every one of us – male and female – will work to encourage the greater participation of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and math.”

You can read the whole post here.

*Image via news.microsoft.com.