Designathon to Support Women in Tech

Increasing the number of women and other underrepresented groups is a long-standing problem in high tech. Huge investments are being made to grow enrollments in college STEM programs, change hiring practices, and tackle workplace issues. But representations haven’t changed. Since 2005 the percentage of women remains stagnant at 22%. Moreover, 50% of the women leave the field. To address workplace issues and improve retention, companies use interventions like mentorship, bias training, and flexwork. We think there’s an opportunity to use technology to create interventions that are more effective than traditional corporate programs. This SIG harnesses our community’s creativity and challenges us to think through ways to use technology to support diversity and retention. To provide empirical data for design, the organizers will share their findings from a worldwide survey of women and men that reveal the underlying reasons for low retention. Participants will then brainstorm and sketch technology solutions.