On Saturday, April 21, 2012, Lynette Young was a featured speaker at the Philadelphia Women in Tech Summit (part of Philly Tech Week). Her talk was entitled, “How to Adapt, Survive & Thrive in Technology.” Ms. Young’s talk proved so popular that her Twitter handle, @LynetteRadio, trended in the Philadelphia area.
Some statistics mentioned in the talk include:
According to research conducted by IT Manager Daily:
- 25% of IT jobs are held by women.
- 11% of Fortune 500 tech company executives are women.
- 5% of tech startups are owned by women.
- 56% of women who enter the technology field leave for other careers.
The Philadelphia Women in Tech Summit site has compiled local resources aimed at getting women in technology to meet, work, and mentor with one another. Below are two local Philadelphia groups that are specific to women:
- GirlDevelopIt Philly : It can be intimidating for women to learn and ask questions when they are in an extreme minority. While open and welcoming, today’s budding developer community is up to 91% male. We decided it was time to provide a place where all questions are OK and everyone can learn in a supportive environment. Our courses focus on coding, leveraging existing technology, and having something to show for it (aka building sweet websites).
- Web Start Women : Web Start Women is an organization devoted to bringing more women into the web design and development fields.
- Geek Girl Dinners : Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia’s (GGD PHL) primary goal is to bring women from various technical fields together for socializing, networking, and learning. It also sees itself as providing a place to encourage women who may be considering technical interests. GGD PHL welcomes its sisters from creative and new media disciplines as well and aims to be a supportive community for the women of the Greater Philadelphia area who consider themselves “geeky,” regardless of area of expertise or interest.
Philadelphia Women in Tech Summit - Photo Credit Cecily Kellogg