Women are still (too) underrepresented in the tech sector. The Women Techmakers (WTM) community wants to change this. Some of its members tell us what it’s like to work in the IT industry.
If you count the women at tech companies, you usually don’t even need both hands. And fewer than 20 percent of the students in IT departments in Germany are women. The Women Techmakers community wants to change this. This global network launched by Google connects female programmers, business founders and job seekers in nearly every major city in the world, and helps them promote and support each other. Women Techmakers also organises free programming courses and regular meetings to ensure that the next generation of IT specialists will have a considerably larger female presence.
The WTM’s International Women’s Day
A practical example of the community’s activities is the “WTM's International Women's Day”, which was held recently. Around 200 people gathered at the Volkswagen Digital:Lab Berlin, which was specially decorated for the occasion, to exchange ideas, listen to talks by other women in the sector, and celebrate the association’s fourth anniversary. It was a chance to better understand what working in the IT industry means for women.
A Motto to Follow
Even though we’re still a long way from equal representation, we’ve taken a number of important steps. One of the mottos of the Women Techmakers community, which any woman can turn into a concrete step, is: “We need more role models – be one!”.
Source: TOGETHER.net – Volkswagen AG
