Technology Needs Women

June 2, 2019

2 Min Read

What happens, unintentionally, when the people who design, engineer and develop a technology or product don’t resemble the actual users of the product? The results can be deadly. And yet, women are severely underrepresented in Technology careers. One of the drivers behind this inequality is the insufficient exposure to technology at a young age.

Without even realizing it, we have socialized pursuing a career in technology to be more attractive to men. Thankfully, it’s not too late to make a change. Mona Badie’s passion is to help close this exposure gap starting in our local communities by building a bridge for girls to become more interested and confident in technology, graduate with technology degrees and successfully work on engineering teams to design and develop a product that accurately represent the end users.

As a mother, grandmother, and technologist, Badie won’t stop advocating for this change on a local and national level. A 14-year GE veteran, she is Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer for GE Hitachi Nuclear, a $1B Global business based in Wilmington. In this role, Mona is responsible for all Information Technology systems as well as Digital Transformation and Commercial Software, including the Industrial Internet efforts. Mona is a big advocate of Women in Technology. Amongst other initiatives, she leads the “Girls in Technology” program to encourage girls to participate in STEM fields.

About the author

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Natasha Zena

Around age eight Natasha Zena was told it was a woman’s job to take care of the home and since then she has built a career out of telling women they can do whatever the hell they want to do. She is the co-founder of Lioness, the go-to news source for everything female entrepreneur. Natasha was recognized as an emerging leader in digital media by The Poynter Institute and the National Association of Black Journalists. She has mentored women entrepreneurs and moderated panels at a number of national accelerators, Startup Weekends and conferences such as The Lean Startup Conference, the Massachusetts Conference for Women, Women Empower Expo and Smart Cities Connect. Natasha is also the author of the popular whitepaper, "How To Close The Gender Gap In Startup Land By 2021." In her spare time, she writes short fiction and hangs out with her son, Shaun.