Organizations Supporting Women in Tech
If you’re a woman in tech there are a number of organizations with chapters around the world that have made it their mission to …
If you’re a woman in tech there are a number of organizations with chapters around the world that have made it their mission to support you and your career! Here’s a list of the most active organizations we’ve come across in 2013 that specialize in supporting tech professionals. Of course there maybe many more we’ve missed, and if yours is one of them, then please tweet at us, and we’ll be happy to add yours to this list! (Please only submit organizations that specialize in servicing tech professionals.)
Each organization has a slightly different mission: some teach programming skills, others are focused on networking, while a third group care about providing professional mentorship. If you’re a woman in tech, feel free to check them out, and join as many as you’d like!
Ada Academy
Founded in 2013, Ada Developers Academy (Ada) is an intensive software developer training school for women located in Washington state. It combines six months of classroom instruction in cutting-edge web technologies with up to six month of internship at a Puget Sound-area tech business. Washington State has a major high-skilled labor shortage (25,000 unfilled high-skilled jobs and rising). One of the most challenging roles to recruit within this labor pool is software developers, and over 85% of programmers are male. The lack of talent, combined with the gender gap, is problematic for Washington’s economy. Ada Developers Academy was founded to fill the unmet need and to help rectify the gender imbalance in software development. It prepares women for productive roles in technical positions. To learn more about Ada Developers Academy visit their website and follow them @adaacademy.
Since 1997, ABI has developed tools and programs designed to help industry, academia and government recruit, retain and develop women technology leaders. By providing inclusive platforms designed to ensure women’s voices, ideas and spirits will result in higher levels of technical innovation, ABI delivers programs that are changing the world for women and for technology. Anita Borg is also responsible for the highly acclaimed Grace Hopper Conference! Follow @anitaborg_org
digitalundivided
digitalundivided (DID) is a social enterprise that develops programs that increase the active participation of urban communities, especially women, in the digital space. Their mission is simple: to increase wealth within urban communities through engagement in the tech space. To learn more about digitalundivided visit their website and follow them @DigUnDiv.
Girl Geek Dinners
Girl Develop It
GDI’s mission is to provide affordable and accessible programs to women who want to learn software development through mentorship and hands-on instruction. They have 15 U.S. chapters with 2 international in Ottowa, Canada and Syndey, Australia. GDI is a great resource for anyone wanting hands-on learning for HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python, or Android development. Visit Girl Develop It and follow them @girldevelopit
Girls in Tech
Founded in 2007, Girls In Tech (GIT) has grown to be a global organization with as many as 57 chapters around the world. Born out of a need to provide a place for women to cultivate ideas around their careers and business concepts involving technology, GIT offers a variety of wonderful resources to empower women in technology. Find your local chapter to learn about their educational workshops, lectures, networking functions, round-table discussions, and social events. Visit Girls in Tech and follow @GirlsinTech
Global Tech Women
Global Tech Women, founded in 2012, believes the solution to this persistent problem is to focus on the needs of individual technical women on a personal and professional level – providing them with consistent support from their freshman year to their entry in the workforce, their first and subsequent promotions, and their successful retirement. Their goals are the following:
1. Decrease isolation, provide role models, and create consistent support structures. 2. Create a goal-oriented network because technical women are all as unique as they are spectacular. What works for me may not work for you. 3. Provide each woman with a roadmap for personal advancement and career objectives based on her own definition of success.Their mission is to create a global network of inspired, connected and self-actualized technical women.
Find out more about them on their website and follow them @GlobalTechWomen
Hackbright
Hackbright Academy founded in 2012, runs a quarterly engineering fellowship in San Francisco. This is a 10-week accelerated software development program designed to help women become awesome programmers. At Hackbright they learn the fundamentals of computer science and modern web development, and are introduced to Silicon Valley companies looking to expand their engineering teams.
To learn more about Hackbright visit their website and follow them @hackbright.
RailsBridge
In June 2009, the San Francisco Ruby community was 97% men and 3% women. RailsBridge was started as an effort to even that out a bit by founders Sarah Mei and Sarah Allen.
They teach people to code because they believe that the people making technology should accurately reflect the diversity of those using it.
They want to push for all kinds of diversity in tech: gender, race, sexual orientation, ability, and class. Women were the first population they focused on, but aren’t the last. They value acceptance, enthusiasm, and hard work. The RailsBridge community thrives on optimism and a love for making great things.
Their most well-known efforts are free weekend workshops where women learn Ruby on Rails from volunteers. The students at our workshops range from folks who are completely new to programming to QA engineers and professional developers who want to learn Rails.
To learn more about Railsbridge or host one checkout their website and follow them @railsbridge.
ShePlusPlus
Founded in January 2012, she++ was Stanford’s first conference on women in technology. In April 2012, they hosted a lineup of inspirational women in tech–from companies such as Google, Facebook, Dropbox, and Pinterest, among others–and 250+ attendees on Stanford’s campus. After positive feedback from attendees, mentors, and the press, they have decided to expand she++ into a full-fledged community that inspires women to empower computer science. Through a number of initiatives, they aim to create community and momentum for female technologists. Learn more about our motivation in this video from our founders. Also be sure to check out their documentary, to learn more about ShePlusPlus visit their website, and follow them @sheplusplus
She’s Geeky
In early 2007 a group of women working in the high-tech sector in the San Francisco Bay Area recognized a need for a gathering space where women who self-identify as geeky could meet in person to support, educate, and share experiences with each other. Although many organizations already existed for women in different areas of technology and as well to encourage girls to pursue careers in such fields, there was no commons area that:
- Brought all interested individuals and organizations together;
- Supported peer-to-peer learning exchange;
- Built connections and established relationships across diverse communities and disciplines to support women technologists; and
- Specifically attended to retaining women in technology fields through community.
Rather than creating yet another niche women-in-tech organization, She’s Geeky decided to work with and promote existing activists and organizations, inviting them all to meet at an interactive event called an unConference. To learn more about She’s Geeky the unConference check out their website and follow them @shesgeeky.
Systers
Systers is the world’s largest email community of technical women in computing. It was founded by Anita Borg in 1987 together with 12 other women as a small electronic mailing list for women in “systems”. Today, Systers broadly promotes the interests of women in the computing and technology fields. Systers’ is a forum for all women involved in the technical aspects of computing. It serves this purpose by providing women a private space to seek advice from their peers, and discuss the challenges they share as women technologists. The list has over 3,000 members in at least 54 countries around the world. Technical women of all ages are welcome at any stage of their studies or careers. Join Systers. Visit Systers and follow @systers_org
Technovation
The world’s largest and longest-running tech competition for girls in middle school, high school, and university. Their mobile app design and entrepreneurship program inspires girls to pursue STEM careers. They have had 1,374 alumnae in 19 countries!
To learn more visit Technovation and follow them @technovation.
Web Wallflower
For those in the San Francisco Bay Area be sure to subscribe to WebWallFlower to get the monthly scoop on the best startup events and meetups. Cass Phillipps the organizer is also the producer of FailCon. She sifts through the noise so you don’t have to. You’ll learn which events Cass will be attending and why it might be worth your time. Visit WebWallFlower and follow @WebWallflower.
Women 2.0 is a digital media company focused on providing conferences and resources female entrepreneurs and tech professionals at any stage. There are 19 chapters around the world including San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago & New York, to name just a few. Founder Friday is a great place to network. Be sure to checkout their upcoming Women 2.0 SF Conference. Visit Women 2.0 and follow @Women2 @FounderFriday
Women Who Code is open to coders and programmers at any skill level. They provide a fun and comfortable environment to help women learn code. Founded in 2011, the organization has grown to nearly 6000 members. The global organization has many local chapters. Check Meetup.com to find your local chapter for free weekly technical study groups and larger monthly events including tech talks, hack nights, and career trainings. Follow @WomenWhoCode
Women in Wireless is a nonprofit organization that empowers and develops female leaders in mobile and digital media. WIW provides events and programs for leadership development, mentoring and networking. Visit Women in Wireless and follow them @WomenInWireless
Did we leave your organization out? Please tweet at us, and we’ll be happy to add your organization to this list! (Please only submit organizations that specialize in servicing tech professionals.)
