Girls in tech

Recently, Silicon Valley’s dirty little secret … that barely one out of every three workers are women … made big headlines nationally. Now, as the technology sector looks for ways to better balance its work force, one group already is up and ready with suggestions.

That ‘fire’ may still be small, but thanks to a group called ‘girls in tech’ the flames of change are getting bigger. Their first challenge: learn the rules of the boys club … and break them.

Adriana Gascoigne, CEO of Girls in Tech said, “When I was starting out, I was the only female at a tech start-up. So I sought out to create this organization to bring together like-minded women to collaborate, create a community.”

‘Girls in tech’ sponsors events like ted style talks, hackathons and maybe most importantly, amplify, a competition for female entrepreneurs to pitch and possibly fund their start-up ideas.

“The person that wins out of those ten amazing start-ups gets to benefit from 25,000 in seed money, computers for their team, as well as office space for a year,” Gascoigne continued.

From coding classes to clues about networking … girls in tech is trying to level the playing field for women technology workers.

Rebecca Grubman, Head of Partnerships at Wonderschool, shared, “There’s definitely empowerment. And I think it’s something that’s really inspiring to be part of kind of a group of women who are motivated and kind of going after what they want in their careers.”

Right now, there are 60 chapters of girls in tech with 100 thousand members around the globe. And that’s just for starters.

“The ultimate goal for girls in tech is to expand to 100 more cities within the next five years. We’re really trying to bridge the technological divide,” said Gascoigne.

Gascoigne has a few tips to help break through tech’s glass ceiling. Recruit what she calls a ‘personal advisory board’ of mentors who will give you advice in your career.  Attend networking events, and lastly, be aware of the array of changes taking place in the industry.