Women, Technology and White Town

By Hanna Aronovich in News on Nov 1, 2006 6:34PM

Women in technology are hard to find, and we don’t mean the White Town album. According to the 2001 Current Population Survey data, one out of 10 employed engineers was a woman, while two out of 10 employed engineering technologists and technicians were women. Women made up 17 percent of all industrial engineers, 12 percent of metallurgical/metal engineers and 11.5 percent of chemical engineers. Among all other engineering specialties, women represented fewer than 11 percent.

Such statistics make us happy that organizations such as Women in Technology International exist. And on Thursday at Northwestern’s Kellogg Conference Center, the organization will honor those women who have excelled as industry and civic leaders in the Chicago IT community.

This year’s winners are:
Noreen Iles, VP, Technology Solutions, Freddie Mac
Jan LaHayne, VP, Chief Information Officer, Littelfuse Inc.
Susan Malisch, VP, Chief Information Officer, Loyola University
Barbara A. Zeller, VP, Information Technology, Nicor Inc. and Nicor Gas

So, play that White Town video, and reminisce about how far we’ve all come – musically and in gender equality – since 1997.