Women are a powerful force, and the businesses they lead contribute to a more inclusive world. This International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month in the United States, we celebrate the strides the world is making towards gender equality, while acknowledging there is much more work to be done.
The United Nations recognizes that gender equality is a fundamental human right—the basis for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. According to the Global Gap Report 2023, women’s global economic participation and representation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and in senior leadership positions are declining. Closing the global gender gap is critical to sustainable economic growth, increasing access to new markets and opportunities for more people. When we invest in women, we can accelerate progress.
Through the Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Initiative, we’re proud to support gender equity and Microsoft partners who are driving innovation and playing a part in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Microsoft collaborates with nonprofit partner-led associations like Women in Cloud (WIC) and The WIT Network (WIT) on initiatives that support gender equality, and I encourage partners to learn more about and engage in upcoming events with these communities.
- The Women in Tech Network (WIT) supports women in organizations within the partner ecosystem through training, mentorship, and development, improving business results. In March, Microsoft is partnering with WIT to celebrate Women’s History Month by offering programs designed to inspire and empower women—join me and learn from an extraordinary lineup of panels and speakers. Visit The WIT Network for details.
- Women in Cloud (WIC) is an economic development organization focusing on digital co-sell marketing and entrepreneur advocacy, taking collective action to generate $1B in new net economic access for women entrepreneurs and professionals by 2030 through global partnerships with corporations, community leaders, and policymakers. Join and learn here.
Join us to celebrate women-owned and led businesses leading in their respective industries, from security solutions to health and manufacturing innovations, each making a difference with their customers and communities.
- Affable BPM, founded and led by Rajashree Varma, CEO, uses AI and automation to streamline end-to-end business processes to help healthcare organizations improve efficiencies, optimize resources, and reduce the cost of care.
- Cyproteck, led by Cherie Griffith-Dunn, CEO, provides healthcare cybersecurity solutions that enable a robust security architecture to safeguard sensitive patient data and protect critical systems, supporting customers in mitigating the evolving threat landscape.
- Ectron Corp, led by Kary Dodd, president, enables small and medium manufacturers to leverage edge computing and data from the factory floor to drive analytics and decision-making that enhances efficiency and optimizes resources to support competitive and sustainable operations.
- Excelia, led by Lisa Ann Edwards, CEO and founder, is pioneering AI-driven coaching solutions that help organizations unlock individual potential and data-driven insights to inform their talent development initiatives.
- MeVitae, led by Riham Satti, co-founder and CEO, provides an AI-powered recruiting solution that reduces biases, ensuring a fairer and more equitable hiring process and enabling their customers to build a diverse workforce and stay competitive.
- Meylah, under the leadership of Chaitra Vedullapalli, co-founder and CMO, empowers sales and marketing organizations, as well as leaders of tech companies, by offering innovative go-to-market solutions that streamline the automation of marketplace-focused demand generation workflows to facilitate a more effective co-sell partnership with hyper-scalers.
- TrustElevate, led by Dr. Rachel O’Connell, founder and CEO, provides a privacy, security, and trust technology platform designed to handle children and young people’s data, supporting a safer internet and companies’ compliance with local and international privacy and security laws.
Together, we can invest in women by sharing resources, collaborating, and fostering environments that support them to lead and grow their innovations and businesses. We invite you to get involved and accelerate our collective progress.
Learn more and make a difference