Utah First State to Declare Girls in Tech Day to Recognize Talent & Expand Tech Pipeline

SALT LAKE CITY, March 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Women Tech Council (WTC) today announced the successful completion of the first annual Utah Girls in Tech Day on March 20, a day designated by the Utah Legislature and Governor Gary R. Herbert and in partnership with Women Tech Council, to increase the number of girls entering the tech industry. Utah is the first state in the nation to create a day dedicated to recognizing, engaging and activating girls in tech, and by doing so creates a unified effort of companies, educators, parents and communities to help activate more girls to tech, expanding the state's talent pipeline and economy.

"The long-term growth of any economy or industry demands a deep and broad talent pool of men and women who can drive high-performing teams and innovation," said Cydni Tetro, WTC president. "Getting more women into technology's talent pipeline is having a direct impact on the financial success of organizations and the growth of the entire technology community, which shows the increasing need for efforts like this to expand and accelerate that impact."

With thousands of unfilled, high-demand technology jobs open across Silicon Slopes, the demand for more technology talent is high, and even higher for women in tech. While a growing body of research shows that teams and boards with men and women outperform their male-only counterparts in revenue and profit, women are still grossly underrepresented in both the national and state technology workforces. Utah Girls in Tech Day aims to help reverse this trend by calling on industry professionals, educators, parents and community members to help girls learn about tech careers and gain inspiration and skills to pursue them.

"In the year 2020, we estimate there will be 1.4 million jobs in the tech sector and only 30 percent of those will go filled," said Rep. Val Peterson while presenting the bill proposing Utah Girls in Tech Day to the Utah House of Representatives. "…It's imperative that we work with our young people to help them select fields that will help grow our state and our economy."

To help engage all stakeholders in this effort and maximize impact, WTC created the Girls in Tech Challenge—a call for all companies, communities, educators and parents to actively create opportunities for girls to learn about tech careers and to recognize the amazing work that girls in tech are already doing. Numerous groups held events or outreach programs on the first Utah Girls in Tech Day, and many more committed to support additional upcoming efforts. For more information on this challenge, visit http://www.womentechcouncil.com/girls-tech-challenge/.

For more information about what more is being done to help girls pursue STEM fields, visit, www.womentechcouncil.org.

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About Women Tech Council:
Women Tech Council (WTC) is a national organization focused on the economic impact of women in the technology sector through developing programs that propel the economic pipeline from high school K-12 to the C-suite. WTC offers mentoring, visibility, opportunities and networking to more than 10,000 women and men working in technology to create business environments focused on inclusivity and high performance. Through this work, WTC propels women in technology careers and the talent pipeline by ensuring a strong, diverse and entrepreneurial technology workforce. For more information on Women Tech Council, visit: www.womentechcouncil.org.

SOURCE Women Tech Council

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