Utilize women working in the Health and High Tech sectors more often as role models to make the sector more attractive to new female talent. Let them present themselves through social media, events and partnerships. By doing that, other women can be inspired to work in Health and High Tech.
That is the idea from the ‘Women in NXP‘ team that they won the 24-hour Nimma Hacks hackathon with. The results were announced last weekend. The team went home with a €10,000 implementation budget to put their idea into practice.
Women in tech
“It’s bizarre, we weren’t expecting that,” says Chantal Verhoeven of NXP. “I am working actively on the issue of inclusiveness within the works council at NP. I also follow the activities of the Women in NXP international group of employees. Together with a few active female colleagues, we felt like joining a hackathon. We are made up of various different ages and nationalities. But all of us care a lot about the topic of ‘Women in tech’.
Role models
Her colleague Lisa Zijm adds: “We started to do some brainstorming and a ‘root cause analysis’ using the ‘5 times why method’. This clearly showed that there is a lack of female role models and that organizations often tend to present their vacancies from a male perspective. Ultimately, that led to our idea: the Female Role Model Agency: Role it out.”
Female brainpower
The prize was presented by the Nijmegen municipal alderman for economy, Monique Esselbrugge: “The municipality facilitated the hackathon because we think it is important to have healthy companies as employers in the city. Among other things, the set challenge called for thinking about attracting more women into technology. This yielded teams with plenty of female brainpower and creativity. The winning team from NXP was made up of participants from very diverse backgrounds. All currently employed in technological fields, but whose previous education included a study of Dutch language and literature, for instance.”
Community
They proposed to let women in technology be role models for girls who have yet to make their study choice and to build a community around that. Esselbrugge: ” Apart from the fact that it was a good plan, it was also presented very professionally and was well-founded. In my opinion, this made Nimma Hacks an extremely successful event!” The second prize also went to a women’s team made up of HAN students who are studying Commercial Economics – Innovation.
Nijmegen-wide
The partners of Nimma Hacks are taking a serious look at all submissions, so that all opportunities are seized to get more young people and women interested in technology. Esselbrugge: “We hope that the results will lead to a Nijmegen-wide project/campaign, which will be beneficial to all companies.”
