“Fostering a Culture of Respect, Inclusion, and Engagement” by Paul L. Marciano | Presentation Slides

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Public Published Date 05/19/2020


10 Actionable Ways to Actually Increase Diversity in Tech

Tech’s diversity problem is not new information, especially to those of us who work in the industry. There is a trend taking hold in tech companies over the past few years: publishing diversity stats. While taking a hard look in the mirror is an important step in addressing diversity issues, taking additional steps to implement meaningful change efforts is also important. But what steps are most effective?

In this webinar, Dr. Catherine Ashcraft, NCWIT Senior Research Scientist, presents 10 research-based strategies for increasing diversity. You will learn:

  • The benefits diverse teams bring to innovation and startup environments
  • The role societal biases play in startups and business processes
  • Strategic and actionable steps that both individuals and companies can take to better recruit AND retain a diverse range of employees

Download the webinar slides using the button below, and listen to the audio here.

We thank OpenView for their support.

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Public Published Date 06/08/2016


2021 vNCWIT Summit on Women and IT

Join the experience virtually from wherever you are May 24–28, 2021.

The 2021 vNCWIT Summit is free and open to the public.

Get ready for conversations, Q&As, on-demand videos, and more! Connect with educators, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and social scientists from across industries and disciplines. Fully immerse yourself in research-based recommendations and peer-to-peer discussions to further your efforts in creating inclusive cultures.

With NCWIT being the trusted source for research-based strategies that facilitate reform in computing classes and technical organizations, the NCWIT Summit continues to be the world’s largest annual convening of change leaders focused on significantly improving diversity and equity in computing.

2021 NCWIT Summit Sponsors

We are incredibly grateful for 2021 vNCWIT Summit Silver Sponsors PNC and Bloomberg.

PNC, Bloomberg.

We are also appreciative of Anchor Point Foundation, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Facebook, and Walmart for their additional support.

Anchor Point, Association for Comluting Machinery, Facebook, Walmart.

2022 Patent Report Update: Who Invents IT?

In 2007 and 2012, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, in partnership with 1790 Analytics, published prior reports on gendered patterns in IT patenting, analyzing records from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The original report examined women’s patenting rates in IT and how these rates evolved over the prior 25 years. It also identified how these rates differ across IT industry sub-categories and across specific organizations. This new edition updates those findings, examining U.S. patent data from 1980-2020.

Women’s Patents Hit New High

New research shows women’s IT patenting is at a new high. The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) tracks changes in patenting trends along gender lines using U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records in partnership with 1790 Analytics. After compiling data dating back to 1980, the 2022 NCWIT Patent Report shows continued increases in patents filed by teams with at least one woman inventor. Highlights include: 

  • In the last 5 years, approximately 10% of U.S.-invented IT patents were invented by women: Between 2011 and 2015, the patenting rate for women was 7.8%%, up from the original report’s findings of 4.7% between 1980 and 2010.
  • Overall IT patenting is rapidly increasing: IT patenting has grown substantially in the last four decades. In the U.S. alone, it increased almost 17-fold from 27,153 patents between 1980-84 to 452,315 total patents from 2016-2020.
  • Meanwhile, women’s patenting rates are up 56-fold despite no increase in women’s participation in the computing workforce: For women inventors to increase their patenting share during this period, they had to increase patenting by higher-than-average growth rates. Women’s patenting increased 56-fold from 1980-84 and 2017-2020, even as the percentage of women employed in IT either remained flat or decreased slightly.
  • Trends point to continuing progress: Although the overall level of women’s participation in IT patents remains relatively low, the trend shows an increase from 2% in 1980 to approximately 10% after 41 years of study. For evidence of growing inclusion in patenting, AI Learning and computer software are leading.
  • Women’s patenting rates differ widely from one company to another. In some companies, women account for 20% to 30% of patents while in others they account for only 5% of patents. This suggests that individual organizational environments do matter and can influence women’s patenting patterns  

The original patent report was released in 2007, and looked at how rates had evolved in the 25 years between 1980 and 2005. A 5-year update was released in 2012. This 10-year update compiles more than 40 years of data, and includes detailed breakdowns of how trends differ across specific companies, organizations, and sectors – which can help change leaders hone in on and identify what is working well in areas with higher rates of patenting for women.

Link to Source /resource/ncwit-patenting-report-2022-update/

Date of Publication 20/07/2022


2023 NCWIT Summit Plenary: Dr. Brad McLain

Joanne Cohoon Memorial Plenary: Brad McLain, PhD
Event held in the morning on May 19th, 2023

Inclusive Leadership Through Transformative Experience Design

Transformative experiences are our most important life events, changing our sense of self in significant ways. How do they work? What elements do they require? How can we learn to design them as an entirely new view of inclusive leadership? Based on his decades-long investigation of transformative experience design, Dr. McLain will discuss how he has brought this work to NCWIT as Director of Corporate Research. His talk will explore how when leaders recast themselves as experience designers, an entirely new domain opens for leading change and building more inclusive cultures at work, school, home, and other contexts.

This session is followed by the presentation of the NCWIT Collegiate Award.

YouTube Video Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIu8HQAcAhU


2023 NCWIT Summit Plenary: Dr. Khalia Braswell

Closing Plenary: Dr. Khalia Braswell
Event held in the afternoon on May 19th, 2023

Dr. Braswell is an award-winning technologist whose personal mission is to make social change using technology. Khalia graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Computer Science and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with an M.S. in Information Technology with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction. Dr. Braswell was a Presidential Future Faculty Fellow at Temple University, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Education with a focus on Science, Math, and Education Technology just last week. Her research focuses on informal CS learning programs’ impact on Black middle and high school girls.

Dr. Braswell has been a part of the NCWIT community for quite some time. In addition to being an early AiC recipient, Khalia was one of the early recipients of the AspireIT grants to support her middle-school computing program INTech Camp for Girls based in North Carolina.



YouTube Video Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s377Up9yv8U&feature=youtu.be


Aspirations in Computing (AiC)

Where does a sense of belonging come from? How does confidence grow? For nearly 20,000 technical high school and college women, Aspirations in Computing (AiC) has been key to answering these questions. This welcoming, supportive community is the largest of its kind. With proven methods, NCWIT changes what’s possible for women in technology by offering the kind of encouragement that conquers isolation, builds in long-term motivation, opens doors—and changes lives.

AiC uses prestigious awards, scholarships, internships, and professional opportunities to amplify voices, build identity, reward persistence, and recognize fortitude as women increase their technical, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills. Awarded a 2018 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (https://paesmem.net), fully 90 percent of past AiC award winners report a college major or minor in a science, technology engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field.

AiC serves 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and all U.S. military bases overseas.


By the Numbers

Check out the most compelling statistics on women’s participation in computing on a single page.

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External URL https://wpassets.ncwit.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/19193926/05_19_2023_BTN_FullSize.pdf

Public Published Date 03/01/2022


By the Numbers (pocket sized)

The most compelling statistics on women’s participation in IT, in a pocket-sized format for easy distribution and saving.

External URL https://wpassets.ncwit.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/19155603/05_19_2023_BTN_PocketSize.pdf

Public Published Date 05/19/2023


Coalition of Tech Companies and Academic Experts Launch Unprecedented Report to Transform Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Outcomes within Tech Industry

Source Name Business Wire

Link to Source https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211028005375/en/Coalition-of-Tech-Companies-and-Academic-Experts-Launch-Unprecedented-Report-to-Transform-Diversity-Equity-and-Inclusion-Outcomes-within-Tech-Industry

Date of Publication 28/10/2021

External URL https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211028005375/en/Coalition-of-Tech-Companies-and-Academic-Experts-Launch-Unprecedented-Report-to-Transform-Diversity-Equity-and-Inclusion-Outcomes-within-Tech-Industry


Collaborating to Grow the Pathway of Native Americans in STEM: White Paper

Intel, in partnership with NCWIT, hosted Growing the Legacy of Native American Leadership in Science and Technology: A Thought Leadership Event. Key leaders in academia, government, tribal nations, non-profit organizations, and the tech industry convened to discuss the state of technology in Native American communities, identify gaps, and create actionable steps for increasing Native American student participation and retention in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. The resulting recommendations are outlined in this white paper; these insights ultimately will be used to help shape Intel’s comprehensive Native American strategy.

View highlights from the event here.

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Public Published Date 11/08/2016


Colorism Bias in the Tech Industry

Achieving equity in the tech industry must be intersectional: race, class, gender, sexuality, and other key factors of identity shape experiences differently; and understanding those differences is critical to promoting diversity, inclusion, and change for women, girls, and other underrepresented groups in IT.

Over the past decade, many institutions and organizations are becoming more aware of how unconscious and overt bias leads to uneven access, recruitment, and retention of individuals in computing along race and gender lines. Building on this awareness, it is important to call attention to a lesser known, but equally challenging, form of bias that can be an added barrier for women and girls of color to achieving equity in computing: color bias or “colorism.”

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Public Published Date 05/03/2019