on the 26th of February, I’ve moderated one of the thought provoking conversation on the Women in technology – big dream discussions.

Over 200+ people flocked to the omsi to hear the discussions. The evening will end with a debut viewing of Microsoft’s “The Big Dream”. The Big Dream is a documentary film that follows the stories of seven young women in technology fields. Each story takes a look at these young women’s ambition and how they overcome personal challenges to pursue careers in STEM!

24Notion is one of the sponsor and supporter for women entrepreneurship/technology. We’ve put together an amazing line up of ladies: Adobe, Intel, Salesforce and a student from OSU.

we’ve kicked off the conversation with this amazing stats:

Women make up a majority of the U.S. population

Women are 50.8 percent of the U.S. population. They earn almost 60 percent of undergraduate degrees, and 60 percent of all master’s degrees.

By 2020, there will be 1.4 million computer science jobs available in the US according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and we need to play catch-up to fill them all. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 68% of women enroll in college (compared to 63% of men), and women increasingly outnumber men in college graduation rates. Yet women still make up only a quarter of the tech industry workforce.

And yet…

Although they hold almost 52 percent of all professional-level jobs, American women lag substantially behind men when it comes to their representation in leadership positions:

▪    They are only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners, and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.

They hold just 16.9 percent of Fortune 500 board seats.

In information technology, they hold only 9 percent of management positions and account for only 14 percent of senior management positions at Silicon Valley startups.

we’ve covered gender gap, tractions on how to keep the momentum going, work-life balance, as well as inspiring women/girls to make the switch to STEM major.

link to the event; write up by PBJ is here