Women in technology

Tony Balsamo wrote the following for the Olin Blog.

It’s become standard business practice to think about hiring the best person for the job. But if the pipeline of talent only contains a few of the best people but not all, what does a company do? That is the current situation with women in technology, and it is addressed in a current article from Computerworld magazine. While women make up 20% of the Chief Information Officer positions in Fortune 500 companies, the number of women receiving computer science degrees is down.

Computerworld talks to a number of women in technology leadership positions to understand what they’ve done to advance themselves and to deal with a male dominated field of work. It’s worth reading about the HR initiatives within companies that helped many of the women find mentors and develop their careers.

Additional research is at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (here).

Olin IS has a female developer, Deanna Viper, and two of our three Managers are women, Rachael Mueller and Dannette Hutton. A former Olin staff member is working in technology at Engine Yard in San Francisco, putting her Masters of Information Management degree from Washington University to good use.