New UCLA Report Provides a Roadmap for Increasing Women in High-Tech Careers

The Luskin Center at the University of California, Los Angeles has released a new report entitled What Are We Missing? Rethinking Public Private, and Nonprofit Strategies to Advance Women in Technology. The new report is a compilation of feedback from attendees of the 2015 Women in Tech conference held at the university.

The 60-page report is divided into four main sections, starting with an introduction, then a literature review of a wide range of strategies to advance women in technology, recommendations for further research, and an appendix that includes a summary of the conference.

According to the study, technology is one of the fastest growing and most profitable fields. Yet, in the U.S., women and minorities continue to be underrepresented at every stage of the tech pipeline. Despite recent efforts by prominent companies to address the gender and diversity gaps, women’s representation in both technical and executive leadership roles has not greatly improved.

The report notes that “we are entering into a digital era which will require millions of new tech-related positions to be filled. To the detriment of the American workforce and economy, we currently lack the talent to fill such positions. Educating, recruiting, hiring and retaining women and minorities in STEM professions would not only increase company’s profitability but it would alleviate the societal and economic repercussions of disenfranchising half of the workforce.”

“The most important feedback we received from the people who attended — accomplished men and women at all levels of private tech companies, government agencies, nonprofits, startups, academia — was the importance of mentorship,” said Rebecca Sadwick, co-author of the report and one of the conference organizers.