Touchdown a job in tech is usually a thrill — however it could additionally really feel intimidating, such as you’re asking to affix an unique membership or sit on the cool children’ desk. If you happen to establish as a lady or a non-binary particular person, this expertise is heightened, as a result of it’s possible you’ll not see individuals such as you represented within the trade fairly often. Thankfully, there are organizations world wide working laborious to handle gender disparities in tech.
Even higher, there are many methods to get entangled, whether or not you’re new to tech and on the lookout for mentorship otherwise you’re extra established in your profession and need to pay it ahead. In honor of Girls’s Historical past Month, we’ve rounded up just a few superior organizations serving to ladies, girls, and non-binary of us break into tech, foster relationships and neighborhood, and in the end construct profitable careers.
Be taught one thing new without cost
Who they’re for: WomenTech Community is a number one international neighborhood for ladies in tech, with over 9,500 World Ambassadors from 179 nations
What they do: WomenTech Community empowers girls by means of management improvement, skilled development, and mentorship packages. The community additionally hosts profession networking occasions and a worldwide tech convention to attach members with job alternatives at corporations that worth variety.
How one can get entangled: The Girls in Tech World Convention 2025, hosted by WomenTech Community from Could 20-22, goals to collect 100,000 contributors worldwide by means of digital and in-person occasions. Attendees can register for summits, be a part of neighborhood facet occasions, apply for scholarships, and have interaction with ambassadors to develop their community. The convention will characteristic over 700 audio system, together with prime executives from corporations like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, providing inspiration, studying, and profession development alternatives. WomenTech Community even has an e-mail template you need to use to ask your employer to attend the convention!
Who they’re for: Latinx individuals working in tech or pursuing technical careers, in addition to allies who help the Latinx neighborhood
What they do: Latinas in Tech hosts digital and in-person networking occasions and a standard annual summit with a contest that awards Latina-founded tech startups. Research have proven that when Latinx entrepreneurs begin a enterprise, 70% of their funding comes from private financial savings as a result of they typically lack the assets and the community to entry capital. Latinas in Tech goals to alter that: “Latina entrepreneurs aren’t solely able to working within the tech trade, they’re innovators which have confirmed themselves to be creators of tech as properly,” Rocio van Nierop, CEO of Latinas in Tech, mentioned in a launch.
Latinas in Tech additionally has a members-only job board that’s centered on full-time tech roles in an effort to diversify the tech expertise pipeline. The nonprofit group covers numerous roles inside the tech ecosystem, together with Engineers, Cybersecurity Consultants, Information Scientists, and extra.
How one can get entangled: There are native Latinas in Tech chapters which you can be a part of world wide to satisfy different Latinx tech professionals. No matter your profession stage, you may volunteer to mentor one other Latinas in Tech member and supply skilled and management improvement instruments.
Who they’re for: Girls hoping to rise the ranks of their careers and enhance their monetary literacy
What they do: Girls Get Paid is a community of 100,000+ girls the place individuals be a part of to take on-line programs, attend occasions, and join with friends and mentors — all in service of rising “your profession and your checking account.” As founder Claire Wasserman places it in an interview with the Get Collectively podcast, “It simply blows me away how superb these girls are. However I believe the success of all of that is that they feed one another.”
How one can get entangled: You’ll be able to both get a free membership, which incorporates entry to the neighborhood platform, or pay for a membership that offers you entry to their video library, digital occasions, and training with Wasserman.
Who they’re for: Ladies and non-binary college students in elementary and center college during school
What they do: Ladies Who Code affords a variety of programs, from after-school and summer time golf equipment to school packages, that educate contributors core laptop science and programming abilities. In addition they present workshops the place college students can construct web sites and functions that assist handle points of their communities, like local weather change and cyberbullying. Reshma Saujani based Ladies Who Code in 2012 to assist nurture the subsequent technology of leaders:
“Younger ladies are change brokers,” she tells “The Every day Present.” “After they have know-how, they’re taking a look at their neighborhood, they’re trying on the world, and so they’re saying, ‘How can I exploit know-how to make it higher?’”
How one can get entangled: Need to enroll in a Ladies Who Code program? Click on right here to seek out the proper one for you. Or, in case you’d favor to assist help Ladies Who Code, you can begin an after-school membership, kind a company partnership, fundraise, and/or marketing campaign. (The group additionally has an important Instagram, stuffed with coding memes and profiles of attention-grabbing girls in tech.)
Who they’re for: Youth and adults of marginalized genders, together with non-binary, gender nonconforming, and female-identifying, with an emphasis on racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people from low-income communities
What they do: ChickTech offers studying alternatives and technical schooling in 15 nations world wide.
Their highschool and school packages supply skill-building workshops and assist join contributors to skilled networks with formal and casual mentorships. Plus, their signature grownup program, Advancing the Careers of Technical Girls (ACT-W), helps professionals develop their technical and management abilities with profession teaching and nationwide conferences.
Janice Levenhagen-Seely, founder and former CEO of ChickTeck, explains how she fashioned the group to assist welcome women and girls into the tech trade:
“I began ChickTech to provide women and girls the help and sense of belonging that I didn’t have after I was a Pc Engineer. We give attention to highschool ladies as a result of so lots of them are nonetheless not inspired to be engineers and programmers, and so they not often even know what a profession in tech would appear like.”
How one can get entangled: If you happen to’re a highschool pupil seeking to break into tech (or need to nominate somebody who’s), click on right here to register for his or her digital highschool program. Or in case you’re additional alongside in your profession and need to use your experience to mentor college students, attain out to your native ChickTech neighborhood and inquire about main a workshop. You can too communicate at considered one of their ACT-W occasions and even develop into a member of ACT-W+.
Who they’re for: Women and girls of all ages, from kindergarteners to established professionals, “on the intersections of race/ethnicity, class, age, gender identification, sexual orientation, incapacity standing, and different traditionally marginalized identities”
What they do: NCWIT’s AspireIT program offers technical schooling and scholarships for women in elementary, center, and highschool. Their Aspirations in Computing (AiC) program rewards girls who showcase sturdy management and entrepreneurial abilities with scholarships, internships, and different skilled alternatives.
NCWIT additionally helps illustrate the impression and successes of ladies from marginalized teams with their Colour of Our Future packages, which embrace their Fashionable Figures and TECHNOLOchicas podcasts that characteristic notable professionals in STEM.
As Dr. Telle Whitney, Co-Founding father of NCWIT, put it:
“For younger individuals, there’s typically this voice within them saying, ‘Oh no, I’m not ok; I can’t do that; this isn’t me; they’re going to seek out me out.’ Crucial recommendation is to go for it. Hearken to that voice and say, ‘OK, however I’m going to go for it anyway.’”
How one can get entangled: Take a look at NCWIT’s packages to seek out the proper one for you. You can too take part or join to be a visitor speaker in considered one of NCWIT’s workshops, volunteer to evaluate award functions just about, and participate within the group’s annual celebrations.
Who they’re for: Girls in enterprise and know-how
What they do: WITI is a community of over 3 million professionals who search to create a extra inclusive and progressive office. They provide networking occasions, skilled teaching, profession gala’s, programs, and webinars that educate contributors the right way to advance of their careers.
“As girls, we must be extra proactive to assist male (and feminine) leaders of corporations perceive the enterprise worth for incorporating girls at each stage of the group,” Carolyn Leighton, founding father of WITI, tells The Huffington Publish.
How one can get entangled: Discover WITI’s upcoming digital occasions and register for whichever one catches your eye. You can too develop into a member of the WITI neighborhood to guide webinars and courses, current at occasions, and even tackle a mentor to contribute first-hand to their skilled improvement.
Who they’re for: Girls and gender-expansive adults, notably racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people from low-income communities
What they do: Named after famed programmer Ada Lovelace, ADA affords a novel, immersive expertise for ladies seeking to break into tech. Their free, 6-month coaching program teaches contributors the core abilities they’ll have to launch careers in software program improvement, like the basics of laptop science and programming with languages together with Python, JavaScript, and SQL.
“We purpose to scale back the financial limitations to a profession in software program improvement by making schooling and profession preparation as accessible as potential,” explains Elise Worthy, co-founder of ADA. “As a result of lots of our college students are switching careers and already carrying pupil mortgage debt, it could be untenable to anticipate them to imagine an excellent larger monetary burden whereas taking a 12 months off from incomes a full-time wage to pursue a complete new profession.”
How one can get entangled: ADA asks that aspiring college students full their preparatory curriculum earlier than making use of to their program. You can too volunteer with ADA to assist promote the expansion of recent technologists as a personal tutor, educating assistant, trade mentor, mock interviewer, or admissions volunteer.
Who they’re for: Individuals who establish as girls who “champion innovation of their work”
What they do: Girls in Innovation is a community of over 4000 professionals in cities together with New York, San Francisco, and London. Their workshops cowl all the things from management and entrepreneurship to skilled development and improvement. And so they additionally host much less structured, extra intimate dinners the place girls in govt roles focus on the intricacies of their fields.
“Our purpose is to shut the gender hole in enterprise and thought management within the innovation trade,” Alfia Ilicheva, Co-Founding father of WIN, explains in an interview with Forbes. “We acknowledge that ladies add basically completely different and distinctive and a really highly effective contribution to creating new concepts, new merchandise, new companies.”
How one can get entangled: Be a part of the WIN Hub — without cost! You can too join their mailing checklist and even develop into a accomplice to host or sponsor an occasion.
This weblog was initially revealed in March 2022 and has been up to date to incorporate extra organizations that help girls in tech.
