According to the Economics & Statistics Administration (ESA), 47% of jobs in the United States are held by women, but only 24% hold careers in STEM. Despite this gender disparity, S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) has also proven to provide smaller wage gaps in comparison to Non-STEM fields. Here at The Orchard, we take pride in female leadership across all areas. We were extremely excited to host the organization, Built By Girls, to help spread our knowledge and encourage the young female leaders of tomorrow to pursue their goals.
Built By Girls is an initiative to encourage and support young women pursuing a career in technology. Their social program (known as WAVE) partners high school and college students, ages 14 – 22, with someone currently working in STEM. The girl meets with her assigned mentor for one hour, once a month. At the end of the WAVE, she receives three more contacts within the STEM field. All disciplines including product design, data analytics, engineering, marketing, and systems administration are welcome to get involved and mentor the young professionals. Participants have found that through this sharing of knowledge and connections, they have experienced success upon entering the job market.
Another program Built By Girls provides is their Hashtag Series. These sessions gather participating girls for informative panels and networking events within a technology company, and often revolve around a particular theme. Previous partners include Spotify, Snapchat, Pixar, Pinterest, Yelp, Huffington Post, Amazon, and now The Orchard!
The topic discussed at The Orchard is titled, Hashtag: Tech Of the Music Ecosystem. In this series, employees of The Orchard highlighted the way technology is used to support the exciting inner workings of the music industry. The event kicked off in round-robin fashion with a number of Orchardites. Three to five girls were paired with an employee and were able to chat about their roles and goals before rotating to another. Following a quick pizza break, four of The Orchard’s leading technology minds took the stage to discuss their experience in panel format moderated by Built By Girls’ Shannon Li. Enjoy the full panel below featuring Product Manager, Kristin Briggs; Software Engineer, Jenna Feldman; former Associate Director of Product Design, Arielle Auricchio and VP of Analytics & Business Intelligence, Theresa Locklear.
With some of the best tech minds in the industry, many of which are female, The Orchard is excited to see a growing generation of women in STEM.
