NewCo Austin 2016

Session Title: Why Do We Need ChickTech?"

For many women, technology careers don't feel like a viable option. This is not just due to sexism and unconscious biases, but a lack of women applying and staying in technology roles. A study of UT students in 2009 found that 26.6% of males surveyed chose a degree in Engineering or Computer Science, whereas just 6.2% females surveyed chose the same degree path.

Programs like ChickTech educate girls on what they can do with a career in tech and sets them up with mentors to help them succeed.

After the inaugural ChickTech: High School in 2013, research showed that ChickTech changed high school participants’ attitudes and feelings around technology and their place in creating it:

71% of our participants had never attended a technology workshop before ChickTech.
118% overall increase in confidence in participants technology skills.
Those who are very interested in a technology career increased from 14% to 46%.
60% reported an increase in interest in a technology career
In 2015 ChickTech: High School showed tremendous results:

55% of our participants had no experience creating tech projects before choosing ChickTech
participants who felt “confident” or “very confident” in their technology skills increased from 27% to 74%
participants who felt “informed” or “well informed” about technology increased from 46% to 91%
we increased the number of high school participants who were “interested” or “very interested” in a tech career from 47% to 89% …in only one weekend.