Women continue to be underrepresented in technology, cutting across almost all industries. Young women are not entering tech disciplines in college compared to two decade ago and career women remain a small portion of the C-Suite, despite accounting for over half of the workforce.
California-based VMware Inc., a leading innovator in enterprise software, is working hard to change those numbers. On May 3-4, 2021, VMWare is hosting the sixth annual Women Transforming Technology (WT2) Conference, placing a spotlight on the achievements of women in tech, while also bolstering their community to foster support for each other.
In addition to the Conference the company now has established a track record of supporting women in tech. In 2016 VMware gave a $1.5 million gift to Shelley J. Correll who is now the Faculty Director & Principal Investigator at the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab. The gift was used for an educational research initiative to provide tools and frameworks to advance high school girls for the pursuit of leadership. This was followed in 2018 when VMware endowed the Center formally, launching the new Lab with the mission to establish a long-term research agenda to accelerate change for the advancement of women into leadership positions. Correll is joined by her co-founder Lori Nishiura Mackenzie and Caroline Simard, Managing Director.
The Conference’s key note speakers, Soledad O’Brien, Award-Winning Journalist and Entrepreneur Carol Reiley, known for the “Mother of Robots,” will address the theme of “Resilience”, sharing their experiences that led them to career success. It will again be held virtually, providing an opportunity for everyone to attend through online registration.
The agenda of speeches and panel discussions explore the myriad of challenges women face when working in a male dominated industry and how women can help other women. Career opportunities for women will also be explored with specific sessions on how to research, apply, interview, and negotiate new positions across all levels and areas of technology. Virtual sessions will be held in five tracks designed for attendees having varying technical and experience levels.
“The pandemic has hit women particularly hard,” said Shanis Windland, vice president, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at VMware. “According to National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), there are nearly 2.1 million fewer women in the labor force in December than there were in February, before the pandemic. This is an issue that will take years to fix”.
Windland voices the same concerning COVID-19 unemployment statistic that Ida Hill-Byrd, CEO of Automation Workz’ recently spoke about when her company was recognized in the top 100 of cybersecurity training companies by Career Karma.
All of the Jobs Lost in December Were Women’s Jobs, By Claire Ewing-Nelson, January 2021, https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/December-Jobs-Day.pdf
