Starting a “Women in Tech” Group in Your Community
By: Noah Rue
Tags: Women In Tech, Free Speech, Codelikeagirl, Womens Groups, Community Engagement

Image courtesy: Unsplash

Starting and running a women in tech group is about so much more than gathering fellow coders together. It’s about bringing together tech-minded women who share the same passions and visions regardless of how capable they are tech-wise. When women with the same ideals and goals are brought together, they can be empathetic toward one another — something that’s missing from a lot of tech companies and jobs.

Reasons to Start a Women in Tech Group

There are a number of reasons to start a women in tech group:

Women in tech groups, and any women’s groups for that matter, provide a safe, judgment-free space for women to discuss gender-specific issues.

Everyone will learn something from one another. They’ll then share what they learned with other people they work with other women in tech.

Members will network with people who may open up other career doors for them. You never know which connections you’ll need in the future, or even the connections that those people can lead you to.

Tailoring a group toward women in tech is an excellent way to get fresh perspectives and help women bond with others who can truly understand them.

While some companies are doing a great job at hiring women for tech positions, it’s still a male-dominated field. For many women, there isn’t enough of a community to tap into, and they can feel alone even when surrounded by coworkers.

How to Start a Women in Tech Group

There’s a lot to consider when launching a women in tech group. Some details you won’t need to figure out until later down the line. For example, don’t worry about how many meetings to hold this year if you haven’t even had your first one yet. Here are three tips for starting your first women in tech group.

Choose a Format

When will you get together with the group? If it’s part of an office initiative, you may be able to gather once a week or so during lunch hour, or after work if everyone leaves at the same time. If you’re doing this separate from work, coordinating schedules may be trickier. Use a shared calendar to determine when everyone is free and then choose the best platform based on timing. For example, if everyone is available on Sunday afternoons, maybe get together for brunch every week or month.

Make Sure it’s Diverse

A great start to creating a more diverse women in tech group is to broaden your idea of what constitutes “tech.” Talk to people who are tech-adjacent — maybe they provide graphic design or writing services for tech companies, or maybe they work in a different department at a tech company, like customer service or sales. You can also invite women who are considering a job in the tech field even if they’re not employed yet, including single moms, high school or college grads, and so on. The more diverse your group is, the more ideas and perspectives everyone will bring to the table.

Let it Grow Organically

While things like creative flyers to pin on office and community boards will help to get out the word out on your group, don’t worry too much about getting a certain amount of members right off the bat. Even a group of three women is enough to call it a “women in tech” group. As word spreads, you’re likely to get more and more women who want to join. If you start slowly, you’ll work out the kinks before too many people are invested. Then, as it starts to grow, you’ll have a better handle on what you’re doing.

Discussion Topics for Your Women in Tech Group

Before you head to your first meeting, or even when pitching the idea of the group to potential attendees, it’ll help to have an idea of what will be discussed. Here are some ideas to get you started:

What you wish someone had told you at the very beginning of your career.

How to set yourself apart as a new hire at a tech company.

Issues that women face at work because tech is such a male-dominated field.

Preparing for and resolving common conflicts in the workplace.

Talk about a negative experience you had at work. What would you have done differently or how would you advise someone else to handle the same situation?

How tech experts are handling the most current cybersecurity threats.

You don’t have to have a complete beginning-to-end outline for what to discuss. The idea is to present a topic everyone will be interested in and benefit from, and then open up discussion so people can comment, brainstorm and form conclusions.

Final Thoughts

There’s a lot that goes into starting a women’s group. From your very first group, start taking notes. You’ll be able to send recaps to your members and also come up with new ideas for future groups or recruitment strategies. Also, make some of your group meetings non-technical — every once in a while, just get together with the group for the fun of it.