The barriers facing women as they strive to enter the computing field often persist throughout their careers and affect their advancement. These challenges have been documented by several recent reports:- Young women are less likely to be encouraged to pursue technical careers than their male peers;
- Women in technical fields face isolation, lack of access to influential social networks, mentors, lack of sponsorship, and a lack of role models. Ongoing work-family pressures affect technical women’s retention and advancement.
- Unwelcoming organizational cultures hurt the recruitment and retention of technical women.
- Persistent unconscious biases keep women’s representation in technology low.
At the same time, companies are growing increasingly aware of the benefits of gender diversity for innovation. Faced with these challenges and a desire to bring more top talent into their companies, organizations seek concrete solutions to recruit, retain, and advance technical women. Companies have tried a variety of approaches in recent years to develop practices that make their companies more welcoming to and supportive of technical women and some “best practices” are clearly emerging while other attempts have not worked. At the same time, such practices are not magic bullets or one size fits all; a different array of solutions will need to be adapted and customized to meet the needs of each company and its particular context.
