Students and educators from The National Center for Women & Information Technology lead a virtual Lunch & Learn on diversity in computing When you think of computer science in western Pennsylvania, what do you see? A lab at Carnegie Mellon University? A course at the University of Pittsburgh? Maybe a big meeting at Google’s local office? What you might not picture is a group of high school girls in a Venango County library, studying computer science with peer mentors via Zoom. But this is what’s possible through the connective power of a learning ecosystem–one with regional heart and national reach. Thanks to a partnership with The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), students enrolled in the Girls Excelling in Math and Science (GEMS) club received tutoring, mentoring, and even a field trip to a few of Pittsburgh’s famous campuses. And these experiences, according to club leader Laura Jones, have changed the girls’ lives forever.

The report, ‘’Resetting Tech Culture,’’ analyzed the journey for women in technology from college to mid-career. While there are many reasons women abandon a career in technology, the highest percentage of respondents - 37% - cite company culture as the leading cause. The research shows that if every company scored high on measures of an inclusive culture - specifically if they were on par with those in the top 20% of the study - the annual attrition rate of women in technology would drop 70%. The report provides tangible steps for organizations to undertake a cultural reset that could have a far-reaching positive effect.

In spite of its robustness and continuous growth, the tech industry still lacks diversity. According to data from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), women only make up 28% of all computing roles in America as of 2016. Of this figure, only 5% of them were Asian women, while black and Hispanic women accounted for 3% and 1% respectively. These figures not only illustrate the huge gender gap, but also the lack of inclusion in the tech scene. On top of that, there are other challenges that prevent women from making their marks in the tech industry. The Women of Silicon Roundabout 2018 found that 25% of the participants cited issues with career development and progression while the same percentage said they struggled with confidence and visibility. However, all hope is not lost. Today, women's participation in the tech industry is gradually becoming the subject on everyone's lips. More and more companies are putting in the efforts to level the playing field and providing resources that can create a welcoming environment for female techies. Tech giant IBM, for example, offers a formal mentoring program that is currently benefiting 92% of its female employees. As the awareness for inclusion continues to spread, education providers are also going the extra mile to provide the necessary support for female tech enthusiasts-Sabio Coding Bootcamp being one of them.

The tech industry has historically been male-dominated. Just 14% of software engineers are women, and 25% are in computer science-related jobs. That's a stark difference compared with the the overall percentage of employed women in the US, which usually sits at 47%, according a 2018 study from the Pew Research Center. It's challenging for women working in tech to get ahead. They face biased algorithms in the application screening processes and technical interviews that unfairly advantage white men. Once they're hired, they may face implicit bias, or unconscious stereotypes held toward certain groups of people – for example, the unfounded idea that women are less cut out for STEM fields. But the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) is hoping to change that. Anita Borg, a computer scientist, founded the organization in 1987 with the aim of getting more women into the industry. Every year, the organization hosts the The Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC), an annual gathering of more than 30,000 women technologists across the globe. The event is one of the largest in the US for women in technology and is running from September 29 to October 3, 2020.

Virtual Grace Hopper Celebration (vGHC) is the world's largest gathering of women technologists. Learn, network, and be inspired as we work together to achieve intersectional gender and pay parity in tech.

Nicki Washington is a woman on a mission: As a professor of the practice of computer science at Duke, she teaches a course called Race, Gender, Class & Computing, which explores the diversity challenges in computer science and the effects that this lack of inclusion has on technology. ''I have long argued that computer science needs a stronger dose of social sciences as part of its curriculum and this class is a chance to do that,'' she said. This is uphill work. Though women make up over 50 percent of the U.S. population, as well as the majority of Americans now earning college degrees, less than a quarter of computer science professionals are female. African Americans and Latinos also hold computer science jobs at a rate well below their percentage in the U.S. population. And even when these groups do make in-roads into computer science, new recruits tend to be overwhelmingly male. As a result, women who also identify with a minority group face twice the challenges in both entering the field and then rising in it. This lack of racial and gender equity is seen as counterproductive to innovation, Washington said. Different backgrounds mean different perspectives, which leads to new ways of assessing problems and creating solutions.

As the coronavirus pandemic deepened and students across the U.S. were forced to learn from home without WiFi or reliable devices, Girls Who Code CEO Reshma Saujani saw an opportunity: to teach more girls how to code. ''More so than ever before, every girl has to learn how to code,'' said Saujani during a Time100 Talks on Tuesday. Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization that works to close the gender gap in technology, has helped more than 300,000 girls since 2012. ''These are the jobs of the future and we have to make sure that no children are left behind.'' With the closure of so many college campuses and the expansion of remote learning, Saujani and her team maintained a summer virtual program where students in need received hotspots and devices to their home.

Join a virtual conversation hosted by AnitaB.org President and CEO Brenda Darden Wilkerson.

Women make up 47 percent of all employed adults in the U.S., yet as of 2015 they held only 25 percent of computing roles, according to data from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). Representation for BIPOC women is even worse, with Asian women representing just 5 percent of the tech workforce while Black and Hispanic women account for 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Nearly half of women (48%) cited ''gender discrimination in recruitment'' as one of the major reasons why there aren't more women in STEM, compared to only 29 percent of men, according to a 2018 gender diversity study from Pew Research. Many women who have left tech jobs, either due to gender discrimination they experienced in the workplace or to care for children or family members, face obstacles getting back into the workforce due to bias over gaps on their resumes. To drive greater diversity in their workforces, and to make the most of this market of skilled IT workers who are often overlooked, some companies are embracing ''returnships'' - internships for experienced workers who want to make a career change or get back into an industry they left, leaving gaps on their resume. T-Mobile is one such company offering a returnship program aimed at helping qualified women get back into tech by training them up on the latest skills and offering them valuable hands-on experience for a variety of IT jobs - and it all started with a text message.

Any disaster will have its harshest repercussions on people who were already marginalized. It's unsurprising, then, that when it comes to jobs and businesses, the COVID-19 lockdown is impacting women and ethnic minorities more than anyone else. In April, unemployment shot up to 15.5% among women, 2.5% higher than for men. The rate was also higher among African Americans and Latinx people than for white people, with Latinx reaching a record 18.9% unemployment. Women, especially from more disadvantaged backgrounds, are going to be taking the lion’s share of caregiving responsibilities at home during the pandemic, making them more vulnerable to job cuts. At the same time, underrepresented employees in general may feel more marginalized than ever as job security is put on the line. It's been hard to get to where we are on diversity and inclusion. Slowly but surely, diversity and inclusion have become a highly visible element of any company. But as COVID-19 turned up the pressure for businesses around the world, that progress came under threat as D&I initiatives took a back seat.