{"id":10500,"date":"2022-11-27T06:23:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T06:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/mentoring-young-females-to-close-the-gender-gap-in-tech\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T06:23:44","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T06:23:44","slug":"mentoring-young-females-to-close-the-gender-gap-in-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/mentoring-young-females-to-close-the-gender-gap-in-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentoring young females to close the gender gap in tech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
by Julia Hermann, \u00a0Machine Learning Engineer<\/em><\/sup><\/p>\n We believe in the importance of closing the gender gap in tech. Therefore, we joined a student mentoring program aimed at supporting young females studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to have a career in the field. Read more to find out why supporting mentoring programs is so crucial and to learn about the participants\u2019 experience firsthand.<\/span><\/p>\n At Runtastic, <\/span>we strive to make our workplace more <\/span>diverse, equitable, and inclusive<\/strong>, which is why we defined our own <\/span>Desired State of Inclusion<\/strong> (DSI). The DSI is an official company goal. On top of that, we set up <\/span>Inclusion Agents,<\/strong> who are colleagues that advocate for and lead DEI initiatives, so that we achieve the DSI as a team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One pillar of our DSI goal for 2022 is to <\/span>increase the number of females in the company<\/strong>. As a tech company, we face the same challenge as many: finding and hiring talented female engineers and developers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to <\/span>Women in Digital Scoreboard 2021<\/span>, there has not been significant progress in bringing women to ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in recent years. In 2021, only <\/span>19% of ICT specialists<\/strong> and about <\/span>one-third of STEM graduates were female<\/strong> within the <\/span>European Union<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n Researchers from Microsoft and KRC Research interviewed<\/span> 6,000 girls and women from ages 10 to 30 in the United States and found that<\/span> we need to work harder on increasing female interest and employment in STEM<\/strong> and computer science<\/strong>, especially in Technology and Engineering. They also highlight potential reasons why girls lose interest in STEM: peer pressure, lack of role models, and misperception of STEM careers. The results also suggest that <\/span>girls\u2019 confidence in coding and programming drops as they grow older<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the bright side, there are a few ways we can improve the situation right now. According to <\/span>Microsoft\u2019s latest research<\/span>, these are the most effective interventions to close the gender gap in STEM<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n Girls who know a woman working in STEM are substantially more likely to feel empowered to do STEM activities than those who don\u2019t. <\/span>Microsoft researchers<\/span> describe this as a <\/span>snowball effect: the more women are interested and working in STEM, the more they can serve as role models for the younger generation.<\/strong><\/p>\n We at Runtastic want to contribute to closing the gender gap. That\u2019s why we joined the<\/span> Upper Austrian HTL Mentoring program<\/span>, which aims to encourage girls to pursue a career in STEM by providing perspective and support. The mentees receive coaching to build a good CV, l<\/span>earn how to prepare for an interview<\/span> and what it\u2019s like to work in the STEM field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The HTL Mentoring program <\/span>connects girls studying STEM in their final year of high school with female professionals working on real-life challenges in the field.<\/strong> During the three semesters of the program, the mentors and the mentees meet at least five times, and the mentee has the opportunity to do a <\/span>summer internship<\/strong> at the mentor\u2019s company.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The program is designed to help motivated girls achieve their professional aspirations and encourage them to choose a career path in STEM.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We asked <\/span>Lilli \u00d6lsinger<\/strong> (mentee, Electronics and Technical IT student at HTL Leonding) and <\/span>Julia Hermann<\/strong> (mentor, Machine Learning Engineer at Runtastic) about their experience with the student mentoring program.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\nThe future of tech is female, but only if we make it so<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
Providing role models with mentorship<\/span><\/h2>\n
What do participants of the mentoring program say?<\/span><\/h3>\n