When it comes to technology jobs, there are two pieces of anecdotal information that seem to be the consensus in Rhode Island.
The first: There aren’t enough skilled workers to fill technological positions here. The second: Men are more likely than women to be found in math, science, engineering and advanced computer-related positions.
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The “Grrl Tech” career day, organized and funded in part by Tech Corps Rhode Island, held at the Knight Campus of the Community College of Rhode Island on Wednesday, May 16, was designed to help women, specifically high school sophomores, juniors and their teachers, to re-think the latter belief.
The event was part of an initiative sponsored by the Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science (IWITTS), a California-based non-profit organization dedicated to integrating women in traditionally male-dominated occupations. CCRI is one of only three community colleges nationwide accepted to participate in IWITTS’ Women Working Technical (WomenTech) Project, a three-year program begun in December 1999 and funded by the National Science Foundation. (The other two selected colleges are North Harris Montgomery Community College in Houston and North Seattle Community College).
According to Peter Woodberry, Dean of Business and Technology at CCRI, the college is not looking at the initiative as a discrete project, ending when the grant period expires.
“We see (it) as an ongoing project,” he said. He added that the school aims to increase the participation of women in such programs as electronic and mechanical engineering, computer engineering technology, telecommunications engineering, manufacturing engineering, computer studies and information processing.
“We’ve established activities that will be set in place, such as our Women in Technology club (which brings in women tech alumnae to talk about their career experiences), and orientation sessions. We’ve developed the know-how to do such activities,” Woodberry said. With the training in gender sensitivity that IWITTS has provided, a “significant portion” of CCRI’s faculty and staff have learned strategies helpful for recruiting and retaining more women in technology and science programs, he said.
Donna Milgrim, founder and executive director of IWITTS, was in Rhode Island to visit the fair and provide some of that training. During the morning portion of the fair, she led a teacher discussion on “Girl Games: How Having Fun Creates a Tech-Savvy Teen” and “E-Support: How to Connect with Women and Minorities in IT on the Net.” (The keynote speaker at the Grrl Tech event was Lynn Bloomer, program manager for Cisco Systems and part-time assistant professor of computer studies at the college).
“I really think CCRI is a leader nationally among community colleges for bridging the digital divide between women and technology,” Milgrim said. “I don’t know of many community colleges that have devoted this many resources to promoting participation of women and minorities in technology,” she added.
As far as what measures CCRI will take to continue encouraging women into technology careers when the IWITTS program is finished, Milgrim pointed out that CCRI has nearly completed a section of its Web site devoted to women and technology.
“It’s going to remain there after the program is done,” she explained.
Part of the application process for the IWITTS program involved demonstrating that the college had “broad-based support from businesses,” said Wooderry. He said he included letters of support from area businesses with CCRI’s application, and said those businesses continue to express interest in what the college is doing. The school might consider occasionally bringing Milgrim in for additional consulting after the IWITTS program ends, he said.
JoAnn Johnson, director of Tech Corps Rhode Island, a private non-profit group that connects schools with businesses, said that with the exposure an event like Grrl Tech provides, business interest in such events could grow — and she hopes the fair will be held for a third year running.
“Maybe next year we’ll have double the number of companies here 40 instead of 20. Once the word is out, people become interested,” she enthused.
The Grrl Tech event was the culmination of Tech Corps Rhode Island’s meeting with teachers, school officials and local business leaders to assess the best approach for addressing gender equity in technology careers, said Johnson. She said Tech Corps approached CCRI as a possible venue for the event, and as it turned out, the career fair fit nicely with IWITTS’ goals and objectives.
The Grrl Tech Fair, which featured area businesses such as GTECH, Stanley Bostich, Raytheon, Cox Communications, Textron, UNICOM, Pfizer, Verizon, as well as schools such as Johnson & Wales and the University of Rhode Island, was abuzz with activity during the early afternoon, as high school girls and their teachers jammed the walkways lined with booths, visiting tables and picking up company literature.
“It’s pretty cool it encourages girls to go into different career fields that they wouldn’t go into (if they weren’t encouraged),” said 10th grader Kat Moitoza, of Middletown High School, who isn’t sure of a career yet, but said she is “thinking about business — something that involves computers.”
Moitoza’s companion, 10th grader Katie Foss, also of Middletown High, agreed that the fair informed girls of career choices that otherwise might not have been clear to them.
“It gives you an overview of jobs that you wouldn’t know about. It’s not just jobs for men.”
Foss is thinking of pursuing a business degree, as well. Both girls have begun looking into colleges.
“We both know we don’t want to go too far away,” Moitoza added.
Alice Denomme Gobeille, director of quality management systems at Stanley Bostich, was posted at a table representing not just her company, but her school. She received her Associate’s degree in chemical technology at CCRI in 1990, and went on to earn her Bachelor’s in chemistry at Bridgewater State College, and most recently, her Master’s from the National Graduate School of Quality Management in Falmouth, Mass. Stanley Bostich, she said, offers internships for students in engineering, sales, and marketing.
Clysha Edwards-Cox, a software engineer at Raytheon’s Portsmouth facility, said her department at the company “does pretty good for women” — maybe 10 in a department of 40, she estimated. She was at the fair to “just let girls know about engineering, let them know there’s a path to careers in engineering.” The company offers internships and co-ops in software engineering, hardware engineering, systems engineering, IT, and finance, at various regional locations, she said.
Other events held as part of the IWITTS program include the Women Tech Expo in February, which about 100 women attended. The event featured women from high tech fields who spoke about their careers and answered attendees’ questions. Attendees were able to work in various demonstration labs set up by the college’s program faculty and staff, and employers were on site to discuss career options.
As CCRI only initiated activities related to the IWITTS program in the mid-fall of last year, Woodberry said there aren’t yet numbers to reflect the school’s efforts at recruitment and retention. He said that since the program began, the number of women enrolled in tech programs rose from 40 to 58, but that men have also increased enrollment in what is still a primarily male-dominated area. However, he found the activities he saw at the fair to be encouraging, and said that programs such as the Women in Technology club are proving to be successful.
“One of the biggest hurdles for girls (to overcome) is to understand ‘I can do
it.’ There are many meaningful, well-paying jobs in technology for women.”
(The CCRI Second Annual Grrl Tech Fair was also sponsored by Textron, IBM, and
the i.d. group).
