Recently, a group of female information technology executives
introduced a brand new initiative designed to encourage women in technology to
become mentors to young women interested in high-tech careers.
“Actions speak louder than words,” said Teresa Carlson, vice
president for Amazon Web Services’ global public sector at FedTalks, according
to FedScoop.
“Today, we decided that, starting right now, starting right here, we’re going
to adopt and mentor either one girl, one woman, one classroom, one school.”
She actually encouraged more than 1,000 members of the audience
to commit to participating in the campaign as well by tweeting #SmartIsBeautiful.
TrendsMap, which monitors trending topics on Twitter, tweeted that the slogan
was trending after the announcement was first made last week.
Touching on some of the challenges of encouraging girls
to pursue careers in STEM, Jennifer Sanchez, assistant director of the IT
Customer Relationship and Management Division at the FBI, said, “Obviously
women are underrepresented in the technical fields. We have to figure out how
we can reach girls before they disengage.”
According to Carlson, while college women outnumber college
men, women only make up about a quarter of the tech workforce. She also pointed
to a project from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that predicts in 2020 there
will be 1.4 million computer science jobs in the U.S. “We need to play catch up
here in the U.S.,” she said.
Vicki Schmanske, vice president for IT and security
solutions at Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Solutions, feels
that for women who are already achieving at a high level in the tech
world, it’s important to find a voice. “I see too many women in industry who
try to change who they are to fit in,” she added. “I say be authentic
because being yourself is very impactful.”
