What Tech Women Want

There’s a quiet but growing movement going on in DC: Professional women seeking out mad tech skills.

Several groups have formed over the last year where women can learn Python, Ruby on Rails, and Java. They may want to get better at their jobs, make a career change, or converse in tech speak. Last December, Leah Bannon organized a day-long Tech Lady Hackathon to teach tech skills. The event attracted about 100 women. The second one, scheduled for July 26 at Google’s DC office, had 100 registrations in a few hours. 

Stephanie Nguyen also saw the demand from women for tech training and realized there were many groups doing similar training, but they didn’t know each other. She helped form DCFemTech a few months ago to bring 24 women in tech together. They now collaborate on events and training, and created a shared online calendar. Many of the workshops, open to any gender, are offered free by women versed in programming languages who want to pass down their knowledge. 

The growing female community is not just focused on learning code. Groups are forming to focus on career development and networking. SocialRadar social marketing VP Shana Glenzer (far left) is co-organizing DC Tech Meetups and recently held one where only women presented their tech firms. She also spoke on the first panel of a NoVA Tech Meetup Wednesday night (she’s here with the other panelists). “We’re all finally getting to know each other, and getting a louder voice.”