Million Women Mentors

Million Women Mentors
Name	Million Women Mentors
Founded	2015
Founders	Society of Women Engineers, AnitaB.org, STEMconnector
Type	Nonprofit
Focus	Mentorship, women in STEM, girls in STEM
Headquarters	United States

Million Women Mentors

Million Women Mentors is an initiative launched to increase retention and advancement of women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by engaging professionals as mentors and role models. The initiative aggregates commitments from corporations, professional societies, academic institutions, and civic organizations to provide one-on-one and group mentoring, internships, and outreach. It works through coalitions spanning industry partners, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions to scale mentorship programs and metrics.

History

The initiative grew from collaborations among Society of Women Engineers, AnitaB.org, and STEMconnector and was publicized alongside events such as the White House convenings during the Obama administration that emphasized STEM diversity. Early endorsements included corporate partners like General Electric, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, IBM, and Lockheed Martin as well as academic partners such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University. National associations such as American Association of University Women, National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and Association for Women in Science joined alongside foundations including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation. The campaign connected with initiatives like Girls Who Code, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), Code.org, Black Girls CODE, and National Girls Collaborative Project while aligning with policy conversations in bodies such as the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Mission and Objectives

Million Women Mentors sets objectives to mobilize established professionals from companies such as Apple Inc., Amazon, Facebook, Google, Cisco Systems, Oracle Corporation, and Salesforce; professional societies like American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and American Physical Society; and nonprofit groups including Girls Inc., Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and United Way to mentor women and girls. The stated goals emphasize measurable commitments modeled after campaigns like Time's Up and #MeToo movement while drawing inspiration from mentorship frameworks used by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and leadership programs such as Women in Technology International. Objectives include increasing representation at companies such as Boeing, Siemens, Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon Technologies and improving pipelines tied to universities like Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Organizational Structure and Partnerships

The organizational model leverages networks of corporate chief diversity officers, university diversity offices, and nonprofit executives. Key corporate partners have included Procter & Gamble, The Walt Disney Company, Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PwC. Strategic alliances formed with research centers at Harvard University, Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, Johns Hopkins University, and California Institute of Technology while collaborating with global bodies such as UN Women and multinational NGOs like CARE and Oxfam. Workforce pipelines have been coordinated with government-affiliated organizations including NASA, National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and international firms such as Siemens AG and ABB. Advisory boards drew guidance from leaders with experience at McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company as well as philanthropists associated with The Ford Foundation and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Programs and Initiatives

Programming spans mentor training, virtual mentorship platforms, corporate employee resource group partnerships, school-based clubs, and summer internship bridges. Collaborations reached youth-focused organizations like 4-H, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, and afterschool providers including Boys & Girls Clubs of America and YMCA. Technical skill initiatives partnered with MIT Media Lab, Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, Stanford d.school, Codecademy, Udacity, and Coursera to combine mentorship with coursework. Public events and conferences connected to SXSW, Grace Hopper Celebration, TED Conference, and WEF Annual Meeting while leveraging publicity via outlets and awards such as Forbes, Fortune, TIME, and The New York Times. Corporate mentoring portals integrated technologies from vendors like LinkedIn, Salesforce, Zoom Video Communications, and GitHub.

Impact and Outcomes

Reported outcomes included commitments from thousands of professionals across sectors, internship placements with companies like Uber Technologies, Lyft, Inc., Pinterest, Snap Inc., and Spotify and partnerships with research labs such as Bell Labs, IBM Research, and Microsoft Research. Metrics cited increases in mentee retention in STEM pathways at institutions including University of Texas at Austin, Purdue University, Ohio State University, and University of Washington. External evaluations referenced comparative work from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reports and studies by organizations such as Gallup and Pew Research Center. The initiative also influenced corporate diversity reporting practices mirrored by firms including Meta Platforms, Inc. and Netflix, Inc..

Criticism and Challenges

Critics pointed to difficulties in measuring long-term causal effects, echoing debates seen in evaluations by Harvard Kennedy School, Brookings Institution, and Urban Institute. Challenges included sustaining volunteer mentor engagement similar to issues highlighted by VolunteerMatch and addressing intersectional representation concerns raised by groups such as Color Of Change and National Organization for Women. Observers compared scalability issues to prior campaigns like Change the Equation and questioned corporate commitments discussed in analyses from The Atlantic, The Guardian, and ProPublica. Additional hurdles involved resource allocation debates familiar to funders like Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and policy implications examined by Congressional Research Service.

Category:Non-profit organizations based in the United States