Philanthropist Melinda Gates is launching a new initiative aimed at bringing more women into technology.
While she will continue to work with the foundation, traveling the developing world to help improve healthcare and reduce poverty, the website Backchannel reported on September 28, Gates would also go out on her own to tackle gender inequality in technology.
Gates, who graduated from Duke University with a computer science degree and a master’s in business administration before working at Microsoft for 10 years, is setting up a new office where she will focus her attention and resources on attracting more women into technology fields.
[See also: Gates Foundation gives $80 million to closing the gender gap.]
Today fewer than one in five women have computer science degrees today, compared to about a third of women, according to Gates.
“Every company needs technology, and yet we’re graduating fewer women technologists,” Gates told Backchannel. “That is not good for society. We have to change it.”
Gates has not yet figured out how much to invest in the new effort, she said.
Meanwhile, Gates asserts one of the best ways to affect the future is to shine a light on the women who are doing the work now.
