The Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award
Diversity has been shown to be critical to innovation, decision making, and organizational performance.1 Companies comprised of greater gender diversity benefit from the positive image it conveys to their customers, and are better able to penetrate new and existing markets for business success.2
The Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award recognizes an organization that has demonstrated measurable results in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of technical women at all levels. Grounded in organizational research and based on quantitative data, the award measures the current representation of technical women as well as improvement in women’s representation over time. The Top Company is widely recognized as a leader in leveraging diverse talent for greater innovation.
Why participate?
- Technical women are looking for companies that recognize the value of a diverse workforce. The award serves as a tool to attract and retain top female technical talent, increasing the return on investment of diversity and employee engagement initiatives. The winning organization can display the award logo in its recruiting and retention efforts.
- The award winner is celebrated as an employer that recruits, retains, and advances technical women effectively, based on demonstrated results. The winner will be recognized at the prestigious Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards dinner, attended by 700 technology professionals, as well as at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, the premiere conference showcasing technical women and a top recruiting destination for companies. The award winner will also be widely featured in our newsletter and online communities outreach.
- Companies who apply for the award will receive substantive value for participation. ABI wishes to assist all applicant organizations in increasing the recruitment, retention, and advancement of technical women. As part of your participation, you will receive customized analysis and feedback with benchmarking information from the ABI researchers.
Award application and selection process
May 12 – Application Open
November 15 – Application Closes
November – January: Evaluation and selection process
February 2011 – Winner announced
May 12, 2011 – Award presentation at the Anita Borg Women of Vision Awards
Application Form
Frequently Asked Questions
Project Leads
Caroline Simard, PhD, Vice President of Research and Executive Programs, Anita Borg Institute
Shannon K. Gilmartin, PhD, Research Consultant, Anita Borg Institute; Director SKG Analysis; Consulting Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, Stanford University
Social Science Advisory Committee
Kjersten Bunker Whittington, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Reed College
Andrea Davies Henderson, Assistant Professor of History, Cal State Northridge
Matt Huffman, Associate Professor of Sociology, UC Irvine
Alexandra Kalev, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Arizona
—
References:
1. Ashcraft, C. and Breitzman, A. (2007). Who invents IT? An analysis of women’s participation in IT patenting. NCWIT.
Gruenfeld, D.H., & Preston, J. (2000). Upending the Status Quo: Cognitive Complexity in US Supreme Court Justices who overturn Legal Precedent. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Hamilton, B., Nickerson, J., and Owan, H. (2003). Team incentives and worker heterogeneity: an empirical analysis of the impact of teams on productivity and participation. Journal of Political Economy, 2003. 111: p. 465-497.
Hambrick, D.C., Cho, T.S., and Chen, M.-J. (1996), The influence of top management team heterogeneity on firms’ competitive moves. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41: 659-684.
London Business School. 2007. Innovative Potential: Men and Women in Teams.
Page, S. (2009). The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton University Press.
Pelled, L.H., Eisenhardt, K.M. and Xin, K.R. (1999). Exploring the Black Box: An Analysis of Work Group Diversity, Conflict, and Performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(1): p. 1-28
2. Gandz, J., (2005). A Business Case for Diversity. Canadian Department of Labor: Ottawa, Canada.
National Academies of Science (2002), Committee on Diversity in Engineering Workforce. Diversity in Engineering: Managing the Workforce of the Future.
Kathy Harris, D.M., Raskino, M. (2007). Women and men in IT: Breaking sexual stereotypes.
Thomas, D. (2004). IBM finds profit in diversity. HBS Working Knowledge, 2004.