With a few existing board members completing their terms this year, the AWIS Board of Directors will be adding two (2) new directors for the July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026 term. If you or someone you know would like to set the strategic direction of AWIS, share your circle of influence to grow the organization, and further the AWIS mission. You are wellcome to apply if you have any of the following skills/expertise: Accounting and auditing skills (chair the audit committee), Development/Fundraising expertise, Innovative mindset and experience transforming organizations, Knowledge of science policy and advocacy or STEM workforce experience.

TECH JOBS TOOK a heavy hit in 2022. According to Layoffs.fyi, 424 tech companies laid off 120,253 employees in the first two months of 2023. But it might not be as bad as it sounds. "This kind of realignment happens regularly, and often companies take the opportunity to do this under cover of an economic downturn," explains Rachel Bellow, a cofounder of Bonfire, a talent development accelerator for the rising generation of women in the workplace. If we examine hiring and firing numbers over the past 24 months, we see that companies like Meta, Salesforce, Microsoft and others have hired far more employees than they have fired, sometimes by a factor of 10. But according to LinkedIn's February Workforce Report, the industries that have seen the biggest declines since last spring are technology, information, and media (down 41 percent). To stay competitive in those fields, job seekers must keep their tech skills strong.

The ATHENA project is committed to strive towards gender equality, mitigating barriers to the recruitment, retention, and career progression of female researchers, and addressing gender imbalances in decision-making processes. ATHENA delivers and implements Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) in 8 research performing (RPOs) and research funding organizations (RFOs). ATHENA ensures that all people, disregarding of their gender, will have the opportunities to express their potential in research and contribute to an innovative, competitive and thriving Europe society”. Women are still underrepresented in most scientific disciplines, which constitutes a waste of talents for the European Research Area. We do not need only legal and administrative supporting mechanisms, we need to replace existing unconscious bias, with a more equal, inclusive, and fair understanding and practices of gender roles.

The first Native American woman in space ventured out on a spacewalk Friday to prep the International Space Station for more solar panels. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann emerged alongside Japan's Koichi Wakata, lugging an equipment bag. Their job was to install support struts and brackets for new solar panels launching this summer, part of a continuing effort by NASA to expand the space station's power grid. Mann, a Marine colonel and test pilot, rocketed into orbit last fall with SpaceX, becoming the first Native American woman in space. She is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Northern California.

Girls Who Code offers two FREE programs in the summer: the virtual Summer Immersion Program and the Self-Paced Program. Applicants can apply for BOTH programs, if eligible, using this application. However, students can only participate in one summer program. The virtual Summer Immersion Program (SIP) is a live, virtual, 2-week introductory computer science course for currently eligible 9th, 10th, and 11th grade US students and international students ages 14-18. Through our new curriculum focused on Game Design, SIP participants will learn beginner to intermediate computer science concepts, UX design basics, and more – all while getting an inside look into the tech industry through incredible company partners. In addition to a completely free program, we offer grants up to $300 and tech support for qualifying students. The Self-Paced Program is a 6-week flexible computer science course for currently eligible 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade US students and international students ages 14-18 who prefer not to adhere to a set schedule. Self-Paced Program participants can choose to earn beginner-level badges in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for web development or an intermediate-level badge in Python for cybersecurity or our new data science track. Students will also have the opportunity to build community through live advisory events and other Girls Who Code engagements.

The L’Oréal USA For #WomenInScience fellowship program awards five women postdocs grants of $60,000 each for their contributions in #STEM fields and commitment to serving as role models for younger generations. The For Women in Science program was created out of a simple belief: the world needs science, and science needs women because women in science have the power to change the world. The program is the U.S. component of the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Fellowships program. Celebrating its eighteenth year in the U.S., the For Women in Science program has awarded 90 postdoctoral women scientists over $4 million in grants. L’Oréal USA partners with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to manage the program’s application and peer-review process. Each year, the program attracts talented applicants from diverse STEM fields, representing some of the nation’s leading academic institutions and laboratories.
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The number of young women taking computer science degrees is growing faster than for any other UK university subject, new figures show. Computing degrees have seen a 23% growth in accepted applications from women since 2019; according to new analysis by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. This is a higher percentage rise than for any other UCAS subject group. The ‘surging’ increase is particularly marked amongst 18-year old women taking computing at university, up by 47% between 2019 and 2022, BCS found. The growth rate for 18-year old men over the same period was lower, at 29%. BCS said the rise was ‘striking and important’ but cautioned that the number of women starting computing degrees this year (6,450) is still low compared with the number of men (27,735). Male students still outnumber female students in computer science by 4.3 to 1 this year, but the gap has closed slightly from in 2021 (4.7 to 1). The total number of students placed on undergraduate degrees in computing across the UK has increased by 11% on last year, with 34,185 people accepted to start courses. This is the second largest percentage increase of any subject, according to BCS, which analysed new end-of-cycle university admissions data from UCAS.

Professionals who begin their careers in the academy pursuing scientific research often wind up turning to industry, transitioning to a wide variety of work opportunities in STEM outside of universities. Academia can, of course, be a wonderful, exciting place that supports innovative research and the growth of intellectual curiosity. Still, individuals initially working at academic institutions may consider a new career path for any number of reasons. Side hustles or consulting gigs are certainly available options for many academics who want to work outside of academia on just a part-time basis. Many mid-career faculty members seek experiences that will help them earn a promotion and take their career to the chair or dean level. Some researchers who are in earlier stages of their career may also pursue these part-time opportunities, hoping the nonacademic STEM roles will help them shine in the tenure review process. Still other scientists eventually discover that a complete switch to work outside of academia is best for their professional or personal goals. The number of academics who consider this switch may surprise you: for instance, according to statistics published by the American Institute of Physics, 63% of those who earned a PhD in physics in 2019 and 2020 transitioned to potentially permanent employment in other fields, including engineering, business or finance, and medical services. If you find yourself contemplating a career change to industry and need more help than your institution or local community can provide, keep the following four considerations in the article in mind.

The fact is that diversity and inclusion in your tech team fuel productivity, creativity, and innovation. And it may be that technology itself holds the key for reaching out to a more inclusive workforce The lack of progress surrounding diversity in the technology sector was brought into sharp focus by dotcom entrepreneur Martha Lane-Fox. Speaking at a recent event held by employee wellbeing organisation WorkL, she said: “I never imagined that now in 2022, some of the dynamics of the industry that I was enjoying building my business in would still be so terrible.” The statistics largely support her position. TechNation estimates women account for just 26 per cent of the tech labour market, compared to 50 per cent of the overall workforce. People from ethnic minorities fare slightly better, accounting for 15.2 per cent against a UK average of 11.8 per cent, but the BCS Insights 2021 Report suggests 10 per cent of IT professionals have a disability, compared to 20 per cent of the working age population and 14 per cent of the UK workforce as a whole.

In partnership with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Directing Innovation provides participants with the tools and strategies to thrive as leaders in today’s increasingly complex STEM fields. By the end of this program participants will be equipped to: Make strategic decisions with agility in the face of uncertainty, Articulate purpose as the catalyst for extraordinary outcomes, Foster a customer-centric mindset to drive innovation, Strengthen collaboration and team culture, Build resiliency and help teams avoid burnout. All participants in the Directing Innovation Program receive access to post-program networking and learning opportunities.