Microsoft attracts women to IT with $1M donation

Microsoft today announced a $1 million grant and a four-year commitment to the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) to encourage women to pursue careers in IT.

The announcement was made at today’s Future Potential in IT seminar held at Seattle University. The series is a national program, co-founded by Microsoft and the Society for Information Management, designed to encourage young people to consider a career in information technology or a related field.

“We are delighted with this gift and this alliance,” said Bradley Feld, NCWIT board chairman and managing director of Mobius Venture Capital Inc. “We believe that only by working together with corporations such as Microsoft will we be able to address the need for a greater diversity in the sciences.”

“It is a virtual certainty that all workers will have some sort of IT function as part of their job duties, and yet IT enrollment at local colleges is down as much as 60 percent, with enrollment numbers for women lower than in 1971,” said Jon Roskill, vice president of U.S. Marketing at Microsoft, to the audience of more than 400 students from Seattle University and other local colleges and high schools.

“The need is greater than ever to find the most talented people to fill key jobs within the tech industry. With the changing face of today’s workforce, Microsoft is committed to diversity as a long-term business strategy and strives to be the leader in attracting women to careers in high technology. This is an exciting industry and we are passionate about meeting the challenges our business faces around pipeline issues. Together with NCWIT, we will help ensure that women have an equal chance for success in this lucrative field.”