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After arriving at Yahoo! last year, I hoped to make myself at home by seeking out the "Women in Technology" group I assumed must exist at such a large company. Nothing turned up. Hmmm, maybe gender really is a non-issue here, I thought, being new to Silicon Valley. With so many geeks, there must be plenty of female geeks as well. After working for three years in compiler development, it was really refreshing to have a few women on my team, so I shrugged off my concern.

To get to know my new colleagues, I followed the weekly "Big Thinker" series featured on Yahoo!'s corporate intranet. For about eight weeks straight I read about guys (nominated by guys) who'd invented, championed, or delivered something awesome at work.Product meetings, tech talks, even the cafeteria definitely skewed male.Come on, I thought, there must be women 'big thinkers' doing awesome tech stuff around here too. How could I find them?

In Oct 2006, a few women scientists had just returned from the Grace Hopper Women in Computing conference. Good timing. After an inspiring conference named for a pioneer programmer, I imagined they'd be primed for my idea – so I organized a meeting to start a women-in-tech initiative at Yahoo!. We met, launched a mailing list, and the community grew. That was just over a year ago.

Fast forward to the final weeks of 2007: Yahoo! Women in Tech is now 250 members strong and includes women from IT, web developers, software engineers, computer scientists, researchers, and tech recruiters. We've partnered with other organizations for women in tech, such as the Society of Women Engineers, FountainBlue, and Women 2.0. We've hosted events focusing on personal and professional development.

In 2007, we also reached out to more than 100 girls, to encourage them to enter science and engineering fields. My particular passion for K-12 outreach goes way back. It was sparked in grad school when I helped IBM run workshops for girls. I loved my work at IBM, but trying to impress kids by describing the thrill of compiler dev was a challenge.

At Yahoo!, we have the perfect environment to inspire the next generation of women to consider careers in computer science and engineering. Yahoo! is fun, colorful and, most important, it's highly visible to kids. After running our first Yahoo! Women in Tech outreach program for high school girls, I knew we were on to something. The reaction was huge: Many of the girls wanted to start work at Yahoo! immediately! Think of it as early-stage recruiting.

I want to send thanks to all the Women in Tech volunteers around the company (guys too!) who've contributed time and energy to forming a network, identifying great role models, and giving back to the community.

She's Geeky polaroids from Liz Henry. Used with permission.

Women in Tech banner photo by Karolina Buchner. Used with permission.

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