In September 2018 - not long after Google removed its flippantly simple “don’t be evil” slogan from its code of conduct - artificial intelligence ethics researcher Timnit Gebru began working at the storied tech company. “There [were] so many red flags,” Gebru says. “I was fighting constant battles.” Barely more than two years later, Gebru was dismissed by Google. Her firing in December made waves across the tech industry, sparking conversations about diversity in tech and what an inclusive work environment does not look like. Though that conversation is evergreen in Silicon Valley, Gebru, a respected researcher, became the face of tech equity—and the shortcomings thereof. She’s spending the start of 2021 working on policy recommendations to address the industry’s diversity ills. But Gebru is also clear that none of those recommendations can replace tech company leaders taking responsibility for the culture in their workplaces and simultaneously working to change that culture.

The Girls Who Code Hiring Summit welcomes the Girls Who Code community of college students, recent graduates, and young professionals to network with companies looking to connect with a talented, ambitious, diverse group of technical students and professionals! Featuring mini-keynotes, a booth expo showcasing hiring partners, a student roundtable, and networking, the Hiring Summit will leave both hiring managers and job seekers with new connections, opportunities, and inspiration!

The Moderna vaccine has recently been approved, and Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is one of the key scientists to thank. Read why visibility matters to her as a Black woman in this role.

Awards and scholarships provide visibility and recognition of the contributions of brilliant scientists. They also offer role models and encouragement to the next generation. These annual prizes support the professional development and advancement of AWIS members. Due to the generous support of the donors, AWIS has awarded over 30 scholarships in the last decade and awarded hundreds of grants to local AWIS chapters. The inaugural scholarship will be awarded in May 2021. Apply by February 28, 2021.

As mentors leave and schools continue remote learning, lifting up the future female worker requires thinking differently, says the CEO of Girls Who Code. Even with all the progress made in getting more women to study computer sciences, this next generation of girls may have it harder than others trying to jump into a tech career. As students continue remote learning, a lack of resources at home can make it nearly impossible to study properly and connect with teachers. And when women do enter the workforce, it will be harder to find female mentors as we emerge from the COVID-19 era. Multiple family demands in the pandemic are causing women to abandon the workforce four times the rate of men.

On Computer Science Education Week, we can join Jannie Fernandez from the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) and TECHNOLOchicas to talk about the impact of CS Ed Week over the years, how we can better support women –specifically Latina women – in technology, and what it means to have the first female vice president in United States history.

re:think, a thought leadership magazine from NCWIT, advocates for a more diverse, equal, and inclusive technology industry. Gain insights on inclusion from experts who guide our shifting culture, from technologists whose innovations undoubtedly impact our daily lives, and from change leaders who use their positions of influence to reveal the potential in everyone. It’s time to re:imagine the parts each of us play in creating a better future.

The Coordination Hub is looking forward to facilitating a conversation with Dr. Heather Metcalf, Dr. Ayesha Boyce and Dr. Tiffany Smith on December 3 at 3 pm ET. They will be exploring ways to sustain our work on broadening participation in STEM by embedding equity-centered practices in what we do.

A massive study of mentoring, gender, and career outcomes released by Nature Communications has ignited a firestorm of criticism for its conclusions, which have been labeled as sexist by many scientists on social media. The study is a "black eye’’ for the popular open-access title, one bioengineer tweeted, adding that she will no longer review papers for the journal. In response to the uproar, the journal’s editorial team announced it is reviewing the study, which concludes that mentorship by women can damage the careers of female students and early-career scientists; it recommends encouraging male mentors for women instead. The study, published on 17 November by a trio of researchers at New York University, Abu Dhabi, used a data set of more than 200 million scientific papers published over the course of more than 100 years to identify several million mentor-mentee pairs. It then followed the career achievements of the mentees, based on citations to papers they authored during their first 7 years as ‘’senior scientists’’ - determined here only by the time since a researche’s first publication. They found that early-career scientists who co-wrote papers with what the authors call "big-shot’’ researchers-defined by their yearly citation rate - went on themselves to have citation rates that were higher than average. More controversial, they report that, overall, the more female mentors an early-career scientist had, the lower the impact of the papers they published when they became senior scientists. They found that the effect on impact, which was measured by citation rates, was particularly strong for female mentees. They also noted that female mentors of women "suffer on average a loss of 18% in citations on their mentored papers.’’

This year, the Ad Council’s She Can STEM campaign has added STEM recruitment to its previous emphasis on STEM retention and role modeling. Here is why. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced nationwide school closings last spring, Michelle Hillman, chief campaign development officer for the Ad Council, saw ‘’a huge opportunity’’ to broaden the appeal of the council’s She Can STEM campaign. The closings, Hillman noted, had left millions of American tween and teen girls learning virtually from home without access to the kinds of fun, challenging, hands-on experiments and do-it-yourself (DIY) activities typically associated with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects. ‘’Knowing that they were home, looking for things to do,’’ Hillman said, ‘’meant we now had a much larger potential audience of girls to inspire and engage with ways to pursue STEM at home.’’ Hillman’s underlying assumption: These newly homebound girls probably had no idea about STEM’s fun, challenging, ‘’experimental’’ side - or about the ways many DIY activities connect back to aspects of STEM. But what if they did? Could exposing them to such activities and their STEM connections help ignite a spark? That insight was about to send the She Can STEM campaign and its advertising agency partner in an unexpected new direction.