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| Girls in Tech | |
|---|---|
| Name | Girls in Tech |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Founders | Adriana Gascoigne |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Area served | Global |
| Focus | Technology, entrepreneurship, diversity |
Girls in Tech is a global nonprofit organization founded in 2007 to support women in technology and entrepreneurship. The organization engages with industry stakeholders, academic institutions, and public-sector entities to deliver programs that promote career advancement, startup formation, and digital skills. It operates through local chapters, partnerships with technology companies, and collaborations with philanthropic foundations.
Girls in Tech traces its origins to a founding moment in 2007 led by Adriana Gascoigne, who launched the organization amid conversations involving leaders from Silicon Valley such as executives at Google, Facebook, and Apple Inc.. Early activities connected with startup accelerators like Y Combinator and incubators such as Techstars and engaged investors from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Kleiner Perkins. The group expanded alongside global initiatives from institutions including United Nations agencies, European Commission, and city-backed innovation programs in San Francisco, London, Bangalore, and Singapore. Over time it intersected with networks around awards like the Forbes 30 Under 30 and associations such as Women in Technology International and AnitaB.org.
The stated mission emphasizes increasing the number of women in technical roles, entrepreneurship, and leadership through programs resembling offerings from Code.org, Coursera, and Udacity. Programmatic partnerships have included collaborations with corporations such as Microsoft, IBM, Intel Corporation, and Salesforce as well as nonprofit funders like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Ford Foundation. Initiatives have been modeled on curricula influenced by organizations such as Girls Who Code and pedagogical frameworks from universities including Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California, Berkeley.
Girls in Tech grew into a decentralized chapter model similar to networks operated by Rotary International and Toastmasters International, with local chapters in cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Mexico City, São Paulo, Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Amsterdam, Dublin, Zurich, Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen, Brussels, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Istanbul, Athens, Cairo, Riyadh, Doha, Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Lima, Bogotá, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Accra, Kampala, Addis Ababa, Almaty, and Auckland. Local chapters often collaborate with metropolitan tech hubs, co-working spaces like WeWork, and startup ecosystems anchored by regional venture firms and angel networks.
Educational offerings have included mentorship programs inspired by models used at MassChallenge, 500 Startups, and university incubators at Harvard University and Yale University. Technical training ranges from introductory coding inspired by Mozilla bootcamps to data science modules referencing Kaggle competitions and machine learning coursework popularized by DeepMind and OpenAI. Mentorship has involved partnerships with corporate leadership development programs at Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, and executive coaching modalities used by professional networks like LinkedIn and Women Who Code.
Public-facing events include speaker series, pitch competitions, and hackathons structured similarly to events run by TechCrunch Disrupt, Web Summit, SXSW, and Collision. Regional hackathons have attracted sponsors from GitHub, Stripe, PayPal, Amazon Web Services, and Oracle Corporation, and judges from academic centers such as Imperial College London and École Polytechnique. Signature events have been timed alongside major conferences like CES, Mobile World Congress, and VivaTech to increase visibility.
Reported outcomes cite mentorship placements, startup launches, and career transitions that mirror metrics tracked by organizations such as National Science Foundation workforce studies and diversity reports from McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group. Alumni have founded startups that joined accelerators including Y Combinator and Techstars, received seed funding from firms like Benchmark and Lightspeed Venture Partners, and earned awards from entities such as Fast Company and Wired. Collaborations with municipal governments and consortia have supported workforce reskilling aligned with initiatives from European Investment Bank and national skills strategies in Canada, Australia, and United Kingdom.
Critiques mirror debates seen in broader diversity and inclusion work: effectiveness measurement disputes similar to those directed at Lean In and questions about scalability raised in analyses by Harvard Business Review and investigative pieces in The New York Times and The Guardian. Other challenges include sustaining funding streams amid venture downturns affecting firms like Uber and Lyft, ensuring geographic equity across regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, and avoiding tokenism discussed in forums hosted by TED and academic critiques from Columbia University scholars.