Poland has Girls in Tech
A new tech initiative was launched on 5 February at Google Campus Warsaw. Girls in Tech – a San Francisco – born non-profit organization with a mission to encourage and support women in their ventures into the world of IT, is now officially present in Poland.
The official launch event of the Polish branch was attended by Michał Boni, a member of European Parliament and former Polish Minister of Administration and Digitalization.
Girls in Tech is a non-profit organization spanning the entire world. The idea behind it is to offer backing, knowledge, entrepreneurship advice, education and career opportunities of women in the fields of technology, design, and IT.
Girls in Tech was founded in 2007 in San Francisco by Adriana Gascoigne. Currently it is present in a variety of countries in Europe, Asia, and South America.
The organizations runs hackathons, design and development bootcamps, exchange programs, seminars and workshops on such topics as resume building, finding a job in tech or skills useful in the tech industry.
One of their initiatives is Lady Pitch Night Competition – a European start-up competition which gives voice to innovative female entrepreneurs. The authors of the best projects receive not only a cash prize but also resources for start-up development.
Another GiT event is Catalyst Conference consisting in discussion panels and networking meetups. The events was attended by such speakers as Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer.
Girls in Tech Poland will be led by Agata Turek, Kamila Hankiewicz, and Renata Kaczoruk. The organisation is currently on the lookout for ambassadors.
The local office has just launched, but already offers one-year internship programs for developers. They are to take place nowhere else but in the Sillicon Valley. However, the applicants need to have a degree in a tech discipline that was obtained within the last 5 years.
According to The Industry Gender Gap Executive Summary, a paper released at this year’s World Economic Forum, women currently make up only 23% of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates.
According to Eurostat, around 82% of jobs in the Information and Communication Technology sector in the EU in 2014 were taken by men and only 18% by women. Roughly the same numbers apply to Poland.
