Each year, the Women in Technology (WIT) Leadership Awards recognize female leaders whose accomplishments, mentorship, and contributions to the community align with the WIT mission of advancing women in technology from the classroom to the boardroom.
BlueFletch has the privilege to celebrate the women on our staff, as well as all the other stellar women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM), at the 2018 Women in Technology Awards. This event will take place on November 8th at the Georgia Aquarium and BlueFletch is honored to be a sponsor of this year’s event.
Since our founding in 2008, BlueFletch has strived to create an encouraging work environment where women can accelerate at leadership and drive innovation in the technology field. Just last year, we had an all-female project team create the Midtown Alliance mobile application, which turned out to be a huge success.
Despite increasing numbers over the past few years, women are still vastly underrepresented in IT companies. Some statistics that highlight the gap equality in tech include:
- Only 25% of IT jobs are held by women
- Women own only 5% of tech startups
- Of the proprietary software jobs, only 28% are held by women
- Female executives only make up 11% of the total at Fortune 500 companies
What are the issues holding women back?
Catherine Ashcraft performed an in-depth study that identifies three primary issues that have resulted in the lack of women in technology-specific roles: societal influences and biases, school education, and workplace systems.
Ashcraft’s report suggests that there is not one ‘single’ thing that can be done to eliminate these environmental and social barriers, but instead, we must reverse the trend of women in tech by building supporting ecosystems from early childhood through formal education and far into someone’s career.
It’s organizations like WIT that embody the ecosystem that will propel change within the STEAM field. We’re excited to celebrate those who are constantly working to encourage adolescent girls to pursue a future in STEM, champion more role models, challenge negative stereotypes, strengthen mentoring opportunities and close the gender gap in the future.
Swing by our table at the 2018 WIT Awards if you’d like to meet some of our remarkable team members and learn more about BlueFletch. Please contact Paige.Pickert@bluefletch.com for more information.
