Celebrating Women in Tech
The technology industry is a male-dominated field — a fact that has been prevalent since the birth of the industry. With looming barriers to entry, such as a scarcity of mentors for young girls, a gender pay disparity, a lack of encouragement to pursue STEM education or careers, an organizational culture that seeks to accommodate and appreciate the efforts of men more than women, and a profound absence of women in leadership roles in tech organizations — it is no wonder that women are so underrepresented in this sector. Not to mention the gaps that reveal itself when factors such as race, class, disability, and gender expression and/or identity are accounted for.
But there is change coming. Women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people are creating space for themselves in this field. They are organizing, leading, and innovating — and making room for others to follow their movement.
Let’s highlight some of the organizations and trailblazers who are seeking to change the tech sector for themselves and for future generations.
Organizations:
The following organizations are just some of the programs, communities, and movements that have worked hard to support the involvement of young girls, women, and non-binary within the growing tech space. There are many, many more non-profits that seek to resolve these issues within their communities, both locally and globally!
Girls in Tech: is a global nonprofit organization that aims to stop gender inequality in the tech industry. Girls in Tech empowers women through coding courses, bootcamps and hackathons. They also have programs in place to support startups and other entrepreneurial ventures through mentorship. An organization founded in San Francisco in 2007 by Adriana Gascoigne, Girls in Tech now boasts over 60,000 members in over 50 chapters around the world, with the simple and effective message that “there is a strong, smart and outspoken girl within all of us. We exist to make sure that girl is heard. Because when every voice, every perspective, every personality is honoured and respected, we do better work and live richer lives.”
WomenHack: is an organization that is devoted to equal opportunity programs and promotes gender equality. Its main objective is to help women get hired at tech companies committed to diversity in the workplace. WomenHack ensures that the organizations that are hiring are committed to transparency, equal pay, career advancement, and leadership opportunities. People are invited to not only sign up for placement opportunities but to also offer positions. Candidates and clients are able to find each other through WomenHack’s events, connect platform, and virtual community. Since its launch in 2016, its been able to host over 650 recruiting events globally.
Lesbians Who Tech: is a community of over 100,000 members that provides aid to queer, non-binary and trans individuals, providing them with the resources and mutual support to allow them to be more visible in the tech industry. Its goal is to increase visibility for the LGBTQ+ community and build a network within that community in the tech field where individuals can recognize each other and create connections with events like their annual 3-day summits. The group also awards the Edie Windsor Coding Scholarship for “women and non-binary techies” — an award that has been granted to over 100 recipients since the organization was founded in 2012 by Leanna Pittsford.
Black Girls Code (BGC): is a non-profit organization founded by Kimberly Bryant in 2011, inspired by her daughter’s disappointing recount of her time at a computing summer camp, where there were few people of colour and the boys were given more attention than anyone else. BGC’s focus is to provide tech education for Black girls and other POC with after-school programs and workshops, coding lessons, hackathons, and scholarships to attend their events. BGC events cover hands-on topics like building websites, focusing on programs like robotics, AI, mobile app design, game design, etc., but also include sessions on more advanced subjects like bioinformatics. The organization is headquartered in Oakland, California, operating in several other states in the US, as well as South Africa, and quickly growing.
Native Girls Code: is a Seattle-based program first launched by Shawn Peterson (Tlaoquiaht First Nation) in 2015, organized by the Na’ah Illahee Fund and in partnership with the University of Washington. It seeks to provide educational opportunities for Indigenous girls aged 12–18 that will make them more confident in pursuing further education in STEM. The program is based in traditional Indigenous teachings, incorporating cultural lessons into their tech workshops where the girls will learn how to build video games, websites, mobile apps, etc.
Trailblazers:
There is a large, supportive online community for women looking to break into the tech industry. The influencers listed below are just some of many content creators who use their platforms to provide insight and education in positions like software engineers, data scientists, cyber security specialists, etc., but there are thousands of others on the whole spectrum of social media who share tips, tricks, and tutorials about how to navigate these spaces as a woman. So let’s meet our trailblazers!
“I am on my way to becoming a self-taught software engineer. Follow my journey! As a Black woman working in tech, I have experienced both the good and bad of this rapidly growing and less than inclusive industry. My experiences have sparked a passion in me to learn more about tech equity and accessibility. I want to do what I can to bring more diversity into tech and prove to young people that anyone can get into the industry and be successful with a little hard work and the right strategy.”
Nicole has over 20k subscribers on YouTube, with her channel garnering over 600,000 views since she first joined in 2020.
You can follow her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/nicoleyoungtech/about
“Mayuko Inoue is a content creator and Software Engineer. After working in Silicon Valley tech companies like Intuit, Patreon, and Netflix for six years as an iOS Engineer, she became a full-time creator in 2020. Her work aims to help people find their way through the tech industry by sharing her own experiences navigating this world through technology, career advice, and lifestyle videos. She is passionate about discussions around mental health, cultural identity, and creating technology with empathy and compassion.”
Mayuko has over 500k subscribers on YouTube, gaining over 26 million views with her videos.
You can follow her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/hellomayuko/about
“Hi! My name is Tina and I’m a data scientist at a FAANG company. This channel is about data science, learning, and productivity. I love learning new things and my goal is to always minimize effort and maximize outcome!”
Tina has 280k subscribers on YouTube and has gained over 10 million views with her videos since she first joined in 2013.
You can follow her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TinaHuang1/about
The Digital Empress (TAILOR HERRARTE)
“Welcome to my channel where I share my journey as a cybersecurity enthusiast on her way to becoming a legendary pen tester in the field. While also helping others get inspired to get into this field.”
Tailor Herrarte, known online as The Digital Empress, has over 18k subscribers on YouTube, and has gained almost 400,000 views with her videos since she joined in 2017.
You can follow her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/DIGITALEMPRESS/featured
The work that all these women do to support underrepresented communities in the tech space should be celebrated! It’s work that cannot be appreciated enough. Don’t forget to follow all the organizations and trailblazers we’ve listed and search for others who’s content you enjoy and engage with! We can build something better if we work together.
