The organization wanted to create a program which would put into action its values around fostering diversity and inclusion and reducing the gender gap, specifically in the technology industry. In response, it created the “Women that Build” program, which groups together several initiatives – including an original awards program recognizing women in technology; webinars by and for women; education, mentorship and training programs designed to engage women in technology from all backgrounds and geographies; financial and volunteer support for women from vulnerable communities; and public goals designed to increase hiring of women in management positions. The overall objective of the Women that Build program was to create a more inclusive technology community that women were inspired to join, felt they could join, and thrived once they got there, both inside the company and outside of it, in its communities across the globe.

Providing women with equal access to technology skills and careers – an area which has traditionally been regarded and staffed as a male-dominated space – is beneficial across geographies. Today, technology drives most of the world’s changes, and in the past 20 years, technologies from social media networks to cryptocurrency have completely transformed our economy. Providing women, especially those from vulnerable communities, with in-demand technology skills helps give them access to traditionally well-paying, secure employment. It also helps ensure that technology solutions at some of the world’s largest, most influential companies are created by diverse teams. As women continue to fight for diversity and inclusion across the broader workforce, the Women that Build program and its initiatives help provide them at all life stages with a continuous space for inspiration, confidence, support, and knowledge.

Founded with strong organizational values prioritizing diversity and inclusion, we decided to take action to create initiatives to support women at each stage of their journeys with technology. Our idea was to create an all-inclusive program that included a variety of initiatives to increase women’s inspiration to pursue technology, confidence around technology, technology skills and knowledge, and satisfaction with their technology careers. What started with a few solo programs has grown into a comprehensive program of initiatives that build off of each other to support girls and women at every stage of their lives, education and careers – from childhood to re-entering the workforce. With the Women that Build program, we want to generate substantial changes in not only our company but every company by sharing best practices, adopting commitments, setting challenging objectives, and spearheading the generation of spaces for reflection and real inclusiveness to ultimately transform the technology sector.

To create the programs which would make the strongest difference in increasing gender equality, we conducted original research of the major regions where our organization operated – including EMEA, Latin America, North America, and globally – to see what and where issues were impacting women and non-binary people the most inside and outside of our organization. From there, we were able to get a better understanding of how we should create our program to make the biggest impact across different regions. Our target audience for the Women that Build program is women across age groups – including children, high schoolers, college-aged, early-career, mid-career and senior-career people, with strategies and initiatives designed to engage each. We also designed several programs specifically to reach women in the most vulnerable communities. We assembled people from across our organization to create and lead this new program, ensuring diversity of thought.

After several years of spearheading programs to support diverse, vulnerable communities, in 2020, we created our “Be Kind” program, which organized DE&I efforts into the pillars of “Sexuality and Gender Diversity,” “Accessibility,” “Ethnicity and Race,” and “Social and Economic Background.” To improve gender equality, we created the first edition of our Women that Build Awards and scholarship program, took action to reduce pay gaps internally, held hundreds of unconscious bias trainings, gave 3,500+ scholarships to young female coders, and set a public goal of having at least 50% of women and non-binary people in organization management by 2025. Since 2020, we’ve continued to scale what is now known as our Women that Build Program, creating impactful initiatives like “BIG,” which helps women join or return to the technology industry, and regional partnerships to promote the development of girls and women in technology all over Latin America and India.

With each initiative in our Women that Build program, we have successfully reached women and non-binary people of different backgrounds to help inspire them to pursue technology and build their technology skills, leading to the improvement of overall gender equality globally. We have helped inspire more than 10,000 women in the last three years in Latin America and India; recognized 30 winners and awarded 40+ scholarships through our women awards program; created events and training to foster inclusive perspectives in 35+ technology communities; awarded 3,500+ scholarships through 76 educational initiatives; had 48% of women on our payroll participate in leadership training; accelerated 30% women-led startups through our accelerator fund; led 100+ hours of inclusivity training; had 12,500+ participants in our diversity and inclusion training, and more. At our organization and across the technology industry, we’re inspiring a genuine, core belief that women belong in technology.