Women of Vision and Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women

At the Anita Borg Institute, the staff is focused and busy, as we prepare for Thursday's Women of Vision award ceremony . As I discussed in a previous post, we will celebrate the achievements of three amazing women - ABI's Women of Vision.

As we imagine a future where the technology culture is welcoming to women, it is imperative that we not only celebrate the achievements of women, but that we honor organizations that have the wisdom, the systems, and the commitment to develop and advance technical women. This year, for the first time, we also honor the Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women. This year's winner is IBM!

IBM demonstrated through measurable results the best outcomes for recruitment, retention, and advancement of technical women, and year over year change. IBM has a history of hiring women, from its earliest days, including my friend and mentor Fran Allen, who became IBM's first female Fellow. She also went on to become the first woman to win the ACM Turing award, the Nobel prize of the computing community. Today, IBM employs many leading technical women, including 13 fellows. IBM developed a systematic approach to mentoring and developing all of its employees that has served the organization well.

Thursday will be an amazing day, with an all day workshop featuring successful practices from a number of companies that are successful in recruiting, retaining and advancing technical women. This will be followed by a sold out evening where the inspiration of the winners feeds my soul for many months to come. I hope to see you there.