Happy International Women's Day !
Today is international women's day. To me, this is a significant day as it celebrates the achievement of women around the world! Women are over 50% of the world's population -- so inclusion is very important to the world. For instance, did you know if there was parity of women and men in the workforce in Egypt that the GDP would go up by 34%?
I am passionate about innovation and study after study shows that diversity breeds innovation.
So today, let's celebrate and commit to parity across the world !
Sandy
IBM Partners with Girls Who Code to Build Women in Tech Pipeline
On Monday, we kicked-off of our summer immersion program with Girls Who Code – an amazing national non-profit organization that seeks to inspire, educate, and equip girls with computing skills for the 21st century!
IBM will host female high-school students in New York City for an intense, 7 week summer immersion program. These students will experience a robust curriculum of daily classroom instruction, workshops, demos, and talks by a team of remarkable female IBM leaders and more. We’re empowering these girls with hands-on training on the latest and greatest IBM Cloud has to offer! That means instruction on Bluemix, our premier PaaS solution, and a host of other Cloud technologies. They’ll receive more than 250 hours of superb training in a variety of computer science disciplines, including:
· Robotics
· Graphic design
· Mobile apps
· Data structures and algorithms
We’re also providing these girls with career advice, along with help developing their presentation skills, and inspiring their entrepreneurial pursuits. We’ve also lined up some technical experiences through field trips, including, a tour of Astor Place — home to some of our coolest IBM Cloud technologies.
This partnership demonstrates IBM's commitment to helping close the gender gap for women in technology. Currently, women hold 25% of jobs in technical fields. When deciding a college major, 0.3% of girls choose computer science.
We’re so excited to teach these young women using the latest tech from IBM Cloud -- especially Bluemix. Our goal is to enable women around the world across a variety of STEM fields and I can’t think of a greater first step than this partnership with the amazing people of Girls Who Code.
“The gender gap isn’t just a Silicon Valley issue anymore,” said Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code. “The shortage of women in technical roles, whether it’s retail or entertainment, is a massive crisis both in terms of innovation and socioeconomic equality throughout the United States. Girls Who Code has established a successful track record of empowering girls to pursue majors and careers in computer science, and we’re inspired that so many diverse companies have invested in taking our movement to the next level this year.” IBM hopes that along with Girls Who Code, we can see a reverse in this trend, and a move toward balance in the future.
In 2015, Girls Who Code will host 57 programs reaching close to 1,200 girls in nine cities nationwide throughout the summer, representing a significant increase from the 19 programs serving 375 girls in 2014. We’re proud to join this critical effort to close the gender gap in the computing and technology sector!
Women in Technology Auction! Check it out!
WITI's Executive Auction is a great opportunity to compete for a meeting with corporate executives that could potentially propel your career skyward. At the same time, you will be contributing to the Women in Technology Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit Foundation which supports WITI's Hall of Fame. There is still plenty of time to place your BID on some amazing Executives, such as Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of Space X, CIO Paul Chapman of the GAP Inc., Esther Dyson, and the list goes on. Click here to BID NOW. Bidding Ends Wed, 10 Jun 2015
Unconscious Bias?! What is it and what do you do?
Today we hosted an incredible call about Unconscious Bias. Everyone has them ... based on your history, experiences, and context. Take this test -- it is a real eye opener! https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
What is UnConscious Bias?
A personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment (Merriam-Webster)
Unconscious biases influence our judgment and decision-making, and because we are not aware of them, can be detrimental in certain circumstances such as what information to prioritize in decision-making, who to hire, promote, and reward, and where to allocate precious resources.
Why do we have these biases?
We work in everyday between the automatic pilot and thoughtful, reflective moments. Most of us are on that automatic pilot most of the day -- driving to work, the feeling when wearing shoes, breathing, etc but when we pause and do the slow thinking, we think about the facts and the basis of our decisions. When you are in System 1 -- intuitive -- you make assumptions you don't even know about!
Understand the Ladder of Influence:
We have a lot of filters that we need to be aware of. I love this ladder from Chris on how much data we process automatically. Alot of our conclusions are based on assumptions, based on a selective set of data.
What do you do? Unconscious Bias:
- Be willing to examine your own assumptions and experiences.
- If you feel uncomfortable, say so.
- Be willing to practice inquiry if you suspect unconscious bias in action: seek to understand.
- Start from the assumption of good intentions.
Introducing the WITI Virtual Hackathon! Sign up now to show off your "entrepreneur" style!
In 1935, three decades before the Equal Pay Act, IBM recruited its first women in the workforce. IBM's founder, T.J. Watson Sr. promised women, "the same kind of work for equal pay." Since then, IBM has been acknowledged as a world leader in its commitment to women both in and out of the workforce. In 2014, IBM was named one of the 諺Best Companies for Women”by Forbes.
It should come as no surprise that IBM has partnered with WITI (Women In Technology International), a powerhouse dedicated to women in tech, on their first ever Virtual Hackathon. WITI started in 1989 as The International Network of Women in Technology and, in 2001, evolved into The WITI Professional Association, the world's leading trade association for tech-savvy women. Today, WITI is the premiere global organization empowering women in business and technology to achieve unimagined possibilities.
I personally invite you to join Bluemix, IBM's premier cloud development platform, and WITI for an international hackathon where developers, scientists, students, and entrepreneurs will gather virtually to build software, applications, hardware, data visualization and platform solutions focused on the Internet of Things and wearables. The hackathon runs throughout the month of May and is open to open to all.
Follow these easy steps to get started and get hacking!
1. Register for the hackathon at ibm.biz/witiregistration
2. Register for your free Bluemix trial at ibm.biz/witihack
3. Participate in Bluemix virtual education sessions and review technical resources here: ibm.biz/witihackathon
4. Start building your app and submit it for review by May 27th.
Prizes include IBM Cloud Credit, a 1-hour virtual meeting with me, 2016 WITI Summit tickets, free WITI memberships and more.
As a board member of WITI and mentor to several women in IBM, I am thrilled to see this type of collaboration and can’t wait to see the apps you come up with!
Join me at the WITI Summit! From IoT, to speaker success tips, to millennials ....
[youtube=http://youtu.be/mD9emUMrWIE]
7 Career Hacks -- Featuring advice from PointSource, Girls Who Code, Prudential, Lowe's Social Media Today and more!
Gang:
I wrote this book at the request of many women that I mentor and the 38K women strong Super Women's Group at IBM!
I share the stories and advice updated for Career hacks!
I would love you to share and use it -- in social media style!
