Technology women want more company

Boosting the numbers of women in technology jobs is a key goal of a group which is celebrating its first year of existence.

Women in Technology, which this week held its first Christchurch meeting, wants to replicate for women the kind of networking their male colleagues do at the pub.

“Women don’t have a beer together at the end of the day,” says WIT founder Carol Lee Davidson, an Oracle employee who says she has sunk about $50,000 of her own money into the group.

“It’s about increasing the talent pool.”

The Christchurch meeting drew about 40 people, says WIT advisory board member Dominique Dowding, an “excellent” turnout representing a broad cross-section of the technology sector.

Dowding, a software developer, is anxious to reverse what she says is a decline in the number of women employed in the sector. The group hopes to do so by encouraging networking and providing career growth opportunities.

It also wants to get the message out to schools, and has applied for government funding to take a road show around the country promoting technology job openings for women.