Today, NASA astronaut Christina Koch will take off from Earth to join fellow astronaut Anne McClain in space to prepare for history's first all-women spacewalk later this month. A spacewalk generally takes five to seven hours and usually involves an astronaut conducting repairs, tests, or experiments outside of a spacecraft. In addition to the two female spacewalkers, the crew will be guided by female flight directors, flight controllers, and ground support specialists. Learn more about this exciting moment and mark your calendars for March 29th to watch NASA's live broadcast!

In a new study, researchers uncovered female programmers who made important but unrecognized contributions to genetics. In science, the question of who gets credit for important work - fraught in any field - is set down on paper, for anyone to see. Authorship, given pride of place at the top of scientific papers, can advance reputations and careers; credits buried in the rarely read acknowledgments section do not. Over the past few years, a team of students led by Emilia Huerta-Sánchez from Brown University and Rori Rohlfs from San Francisco State University has been searching through two decades' worth of acknowledgments in genetics papers and discovering women who were never given the credit that would be expected for today’s researchers. They identified dozens of female programmers who made important but unrecognized contributions. Some were repeatedly thanked in the acknowledgments of several papers, but were never recognized as authors. They became literal footnotes in scientific history, despite helping make that history.

The Center for American Entrepreneurship (CAE), a nonpartisan research, policy, and advocacy organization, and the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), has released a new analysis by Research Director Ian Hathaway: ''The Ascent of Women-Founded Venture-Backed Startups in the United States.'' The report adds to the relatively limited research in this area by studying patterns of women-founded, venture-backed startups in the United States between 2005 and 2017. While others have tended to look at topline aggregates of venture deals and funding amounts by the gender composition of founding teams, CAE's report focuses on the number of new companies entering the venture-backed pipeline each year by tracking ''first financings'' (initial venture investments). In her own foreword to the report, Lucy Sanders, co-founder and chief executive officer of NCWIT, writes: ''Technology innovation is a creative process; multiple people work on a single product or service, from company startup and front-end requirements generation, through design and development, to product rollout and support. It matters who sits at the design table and in the boardroom working on these innovative efforts. Just as in the creation of great art, inspirational music, or a fine meal, technology creation benefits from diverse life experiences. The Center for American Entrepreneurship commissioned this effort because of our belief that inclusive leaders are informed leaders. That's why, after reading this report, we encourage you to share it with a colleague.''

The Anita Borg Systers Pass It On Awards Program honors Anita Borg’s desire to create a network of women technologists helping each other. The cash award helps fund women in computing or projects that inspire and support girls and women to enter computing. We encourage recipients to ''pass on'' the benefits they gain from the award, creating a movement of women helping women. These awards are funded by generous donations from Systers, our online community founded by Anita Borg in 1987, and other members of the community.

Hopper x 1 Seattle is a two-day locally organized conference modeled after our Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). This immersive event brings together women technologists at all levels - along with leading companies from industry, academia, and research - to build relationships, learn, and advance their careers.

Are you interested in helping to shape GHC19? Anitha Borg Organisation is looking for committee volunteers for Scholarships, Posters, Tracks, Open Source Day, and Mentoring Circles. Committee members directly impact the program by picking which scholars and speakers attend and reviewing submissions for specific tracks. Each committee member reviews, on average, 15 applications online, and provides ratings and comments to help the committee co-chairs make decisions on applicants. Students are ineligible to be reviewers, but we encourage eligible students to apply for the scholarship.

The Tech Talent Charter - partner of Information Age's Women in IT Awards Series - has done something that few diversity initiatives can claim: bring business competitors together to share data and collaborate for one purpose: to end the gender gap prevalent in the technology sector. In a first-of-its-kind report, the TTC has collated data from across large corporates to start-ups, which provides practical insights - or best practice tips - in helping close the gender gap. Gathered from over 200 signatories representing over half a million employees, the data in the report gives a snapshot of today’s tech industry and an insight into practical ways companies can improve it.

In many ways, 2018 was a groundbreaking year. For women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and girls who hope one day to be changing the world through STEM, it's been a showcase of the power of female-led science and innovation. There have also been challenges and powerful lessons, but 2018 for women in STEM was intriguing, barrier-breaking and full of new and exciting discoveries. Women continue to be on the rise in traditionally male-dominated STEM fields. Business Insider's annual list of the most powerful female engineers in the worldincludes, in 2018, head engineers at Google, Adobe, Lockheed Martin, Apple, SpaceX, and General Motors, who are not only breaking barriers as women in STEM, but also as women from diverse racial backgrounds. That's important in STEM, as data collected in March 2018 indicates that Black, Latinx and other women of color are deeply underrepresented in many STEM fields. Increasingly, the world is recognizing and promoting female STEM pioneers, whether through prizes like the L'Oreal UNESCO and Nature Research Awards or via initiatives to inspire the female scientists of the future; the ''She Can STEM'' videos connecting girls with heroes at game studios and NASA were a highlight of the year. Great science, amazing awards and some massive leaps forward: 2018 marked a watershed year for women in STEM worldwide. Here are five of the best moments.

The Association for Women in Science (AWIS), the leading organization advocating for women in STEM, announced Nobel Laureate Carol Greider, PhD, as its 2019 Pinnacle Award recipient and Mareena Robinson Snowden, PhD, Next Generation Award recipient. Dr. Greider and Dr. Robinson Snowden will receive their respective awards at AWIS’ annual premiere event - Innovation and Inclusion Summit and Awards Dinner -on April 24, 2019, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC.