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Women in TechnologyGender Challenges of Women in the Canadian Advanced Technology SectorNew report researched and published jointly between CATA WIT and the Telfer School of Management. To view the report, click here!
WIT 2007 was held on Thursday, March 8, 2007 Read about the success of WIT 2006 Read about the success of WIT 2005 CIPS Ottawa celebrated Women's International Day 2007 with another successful "Women in Technology" event.This year's event was held at Carleton University with over 200 students and teachers from several Ottawa area high schools. Students had the chance to meet successful women from the Ottawa IT sector and discuss future career opportunities. The goal of the day was to encourage the young women to stay in math and sciences so they too can join the technology sector one day. This year's industry leader speakers were:
Lael Morgan, Director, Delphi Ella Mar, Senior VP Operations, Espial Katherine Fletcher, Senior VP and Managing Director, iStudio and her team Katie McAuliff, VP & GM Novell Inc., President Novell Canada These tech leaders talked about the choices they made and how they ended up with jobs in IT. Their overwhelming message to the students was that they should have faith in themselves, they are smarter than they give themselves credit for and most importantly they should choose a career that allows them to DO SOMETHING they LOVE. Julie Ireton from CBC was the lunchtime speaker and reiterated the message by illustrating how technology is everywhere and specifically how her job as a journalist has changed immensely because of it. She discussed how she can file a story from anywhere in the world with her laptop and a phone line. Basically emphasizing that no matter what career the young women finds herself in she will use technology. After lunch the students got a chance to speak directly to a woman working in IT. There were an additional 35 women from the industry who sat with the students to allow them to ask more specific questions. This approach was very successful because it ensured all questions were answered. Some of questions the students asked were: "How much money I made? What courses I took in high school? Did I have a family?" Sometimes the CIPS WIT committee wonder if we are making a difference, or whether having one event enough, when we received the following email from a teacher from Gloucester High School it gave us hope that the event is in fact making a difference! "I just wanted to congratulate you on an extremely successful WIT presentation yesterday. The feedback from the girls was extremely positive and many teachers today are telling me how excited the girls were about the field trip when they went to their 2:00 class yesterday afternoon. Many of the girls were asking if they could change their course selections for next year." This is what the day is all about. Can't wait to see you at WIT 2008.
WIT 2006 was held on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 WIT 2006 Event was another huge success !!! WIT 2006 was a resounding success. Over 300 students, teachers and industry mentors gathered to listen to this year’s speakers.
And our lunchtime feature speaker
Click here to read the article in the Ottawa Citizen ! Click here to read the article in the Ottawa Business Journal ! Click for Larger View of Picture Women in Technology 05 Ottawa - A huge success!
On International Women's Day, March 8th, 2005 the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS), Ottawa Chapter, hosted the Women in Technology 05 event. Yes - more women are graduating from computer science programs at Canadian universities, but unfortunately only a small percentage of women who enroll go on to graduate. In addition, women only make up only 25 per cent of the workforce, according to an informal survey of ten universities conducted by CIPS. Recognizing that female workers are losing ground in computer and other technology fields, CIPS Ottawa wanted to help change this trend by educating female students about the benefits of a career in technology. This year, CIPS Ottawa invited 150 female students and their teachers from 11 local high schools to participate in the special half-day Women in Technology event held at Nortel Networks on International Women's Day, March 8th, 2005. 
To encourage these girls to pursue a career in technology, CIPS Ottawa invited five extraordinary women with varying IT backgrounds to not only share their experiences but also to communicate the benefits and opportunities the IT industry can offer them in the future. From left to right our speakers included:
Thank you to everyone who was involved in this event for turning it into a great success! Ontario puts $2.7M towards IT training
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Each speaker presented their unique career paths highlighting the importance of education. They unveiled several realistic facts about the benefits of pursuing a career in technology, including competitive salaries, the ability to travel, the power of belonging to the elite group of Women in Technology and many more. The speakers also dismissed several myths about some hurdles that women sometimes face in IT. At the end of the session the girls had millions of questions for the speakers, resulting in some converts among the students in the audience: