Tech continues to be a super-growth industry and every day more and more women are breaking the standard image of “the tech bro” to reveal their talents as leaders in the field. Here are several companies that wanted to be included here in our list of companies hiring women in tech, including Ford, Elsevier, and Rapid7.
Why is hiring women in tech important to you?
Talent and innovation aren’t confined to any gender. We also know that diverse perspectives make stronger teams, and if women use our products, then women need to design and build our products. At a global company of our size, we need talented women of every background to work in product development, manufacturing, autonomous vehicles, customer experience, global data and analytics, safety, IT, research, and other areas. Whether you’re looking to broadly lead or deeply specialize, you can find your dream job – from writing the code to make driving at night safer to fine-tuning a new vehicle on the Mother of All Road Trips — at Ford. We are more than just talk – 30% of our IT employees and 31% of our IT leaders are women, well above the national average and availability. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are a part of our DNA. Our Re-Entry Program bringing women back into the workforce after a break in employment, our developmental Ford College Graduate program for recent graduates, new parent leaves, and transitional work arrangements all make work life easier at many different career stages. Ford is known as the company that put the world on wheels. While the wheels themselves and tech to build them have changed, our mission hasn’t: building a better world where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. That’s what excites us. If that excites you, too, we’d love to hear from you. We invite you to join our Women Software Engineers Professional Network or connect with one of our recruiters on LinkedIn to learn more.
What sort of challenges do women often face in the tech field?
Numbers matter when it comes to workplace culture. Even though women make up half the population, they only make up between 17-20% of graduates with tech degrees. It’s important for companies to recognize that the imbalance starts earlier in the pipeline and support programs that address it. Ford Motor Company is a longtime supporter of initiatives to foster the development of women in tech, through professional organizations, scholarships, and programs like FIRST Robotics. We have an active and award-winning Society of Women Engineers (SWE) team, and many of our employees participate in the Grace Hopper events, of which Ford is a major sponsor. Our Women of Ford employee resource group provides company-wide support, networking and development opportunities. Once women are employed in the tech field, their quit rate is higher so fostering an equitable culture is imperative for retention. How can we ensure women are heard, valued, and not automatically assigned to “softer” assignments because of ingrained stereotypes of women as better nurturers and communicators? We understand these challenges and are addressing them in several different ways, like our Men as Allies workshop and our popular Curious Minds lecture series. One of our strongest cultural drivers is the Ford+ behaviors – every member of the Ford family, at every level, is expected to Compete Like a Challenger, Disrupt, and Care for Each Other. While we recognize and work to alleviate these challenges, we also believe that Ford provides the best of both worlds: a highly developed and well-defined company culture that provides support, mobility, and accountability, as well as the opportunity to work on world-changing projects (literally!) using the latest technology. We aren’t looking for tech bros. We want tech people…with amazing skills, innovative ideas, and the desire to help us change the future of mobility.
Check Out Ford Motor Company’s Careers Page Here!
Why is hiring women in tech important to you?
Elsevier offers opportunities for female talent in technology across all disciplines and all levels – from established leaders to apprentices with little or no previous experience. Over the last five years, we have been actively growing our international Technology community. With a large US Tech Hub in Philadelphia as well as multiple Tech Hubs in the UK and Europe, we are also rapidly building our presence in India and China – with teams focused on product development for local and global markets. International career opportunities available to women include software development, quality engineering, architecture, SRE, and data engineering, as well as roles that bring the expertise in SaaS solutions to deliver business optimization. In addition to having roles on offer, we also spearhead several key initiatives on the gender dimension in research.
Inequities in the technology & research sectors are manifested in many different ways: from the low proportion of female CTOs to the low rates of grants awarded to women and researchers who are members of underrepresented racial & ethnic groups in research, to the lack of appropriate sex and gender-based analysis in research studies and inequities in the technology itself. At Elsevier, our goal is to help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. To harness the talent and vast capability we have in Elsevier, we believe it is critical to have an environment where everyone can be at their best. By actively increasing the number of women in our technology and product groups, we believe we can better design solutions that overcome these inequities. Our Tech Squads have complete autonomy in how they are run, and we offer flexible working to all colleagues. In addition, our clearly defined Technology career track supports our colleagues’ career paths, providing them with the support they need whether they want to pursue a role as a people manager or individual contributor. We are proud of our recognition to supporting women in technology and science which are evidenced through accolades including:
• Named a top company for diversity and women in 2020 by Comparably
• Recognised by FlexJobs as one of 28 Best Remote-Friendly Companies For Women In 2021
• CEO Kumsal Bayazit named one of Best CEOs for Women and Diversity in 2021
Check Out Elsevier’s Careers Page Here!
Why is hiring women in tech important to you?
A core value at Rapid7 is “Bring You,” where we encourage our team members (we affectionately call them “Moose”) to bring their authentic selves to work every day. We believe that hiring women and other traditional minorities in technology results in better problem-solving through diverse ways of thinking, perspective, and experiences. There is no shortage of research showing that organizations with more women perform better than companies without gender diversity. Given the reality of the tech employment market today—and the estimates that demand for tech talent will continue to outstrip supply for years to come–it would be foolish to not be tapping all possible talent and ensuring we have women in roles at all levels of tech to represent to girls and young women that careers in tech are a fulfilling option for them for the future.
What sort of challenges do women often face in the tech field?
One of the biggest challenges for women in the tech industry is that they can feel unheard. And this happens everywhere, not just in tech, where women have been a minority. At Rapid7, we believe in impacting together and have a highly collaborative culture that not only encourages everyone to be heard but also plays to strengths often ascribed to women like active listening, identifying common ground, and driving alignment. Another challenge I often hear from women is a feeling that some tech cultures demand long hours with little flexibility. Rapid7 has won awards recognizing our work-life balance, and our diverse workforce values flexibility which allows our Moose to give their best to the team while enjoying a fulfilling life outside of the office.