
By Lynann Bradbury
On a global scale, women represent more than half of college graduates, yet only a small fraction of the technology sector workforce. This is particularly true in emerging economies where men overwhelmingly dominate the field. Nethope believes that increasing the number of women in ICT will deliver significant socioeconomic benefits for women, their families and entire communities around the world. At the same time, we strive to engage and empower technical women throughout NetHope’s member organizations by encouraging recruitment, retention and success of women IT professionals.
Those goals propelled the official launch of Women’s TechConnect this week at the Grace Hopper Celebration in Baltimore, the world’s largest conference of 3,600 technical women from 54 countries. In partnership with Accenture, Anita Borg Institute, and Global Impact, and empowered by the women of Microsoft, NetHope’s Women’s TechConnect engages women as mentors, mentees and members of a new global community of practice to support each other in being the best they can be.
Accenture’s Tracy Feliciani, Emmanuella Stimphat from Save the Children/Haiti, Khuloud Odeh with Grameen Foundation, and Microsoft’s Rane Johnson-Stempson joined NetHope’s Lynann Bradbury for a panel discussion on the impact of mentoring in jump-starting the next generation of women technology leaders.
Filed Under: Women and Technology