Softjourn CEO Emmy Gengler sat down with Adriana Gascoigne, the founder and CEO of Girls in Tech (GIT), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that focuses on leveling the playing field for women when it comes to jobs in tech.
Only a quarter of the technology workforce was female in 2015, according to a survey by the National Center for Women & Information Technology,1 and little of that seems to have changed in recent times.2 Girls in Tech is a direct response to this, and has since expanded to include other minorities such as LGBTQ. Workplace diversity is not just an inclusion fad—McKinsey research shows that gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform their peers and ethnically-diverse companies are 35% more likely to do the same.3
Gengler and Gascoigne discuss GIT’s inception, the background of the issues the nonprofit seeks to solve, the partnership between GIT and Softjourn, and, lastly, advice for female entrepreneurs. Read on below for the full interview.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
1Women In Tech: Facts, Figures And Percentages.
2Dickey, M. R. (2019, June 17). The future of diversity and inclusion in tech.
3Hunt, Victoria and Prince, Sarah (2015, February) . McKinsey. Why diversity matters.