Although at conject the participation of women in software development is quite high – compared to the average numbers in IT – we would love to have even more smart colleagues in general and female ones in particular. Fortunately there’s a program called Cybermentor, which allows women working in the field of MINT (mathematics, IT, natural science, technics) to share their professional enthusiasm with school girls via email exchange.

Underrepresentation of women in these fields is not caused by lack of talent, but by wrong stereotypes and missing appropriate role models. Aim of the program is to support and boost the interest of girls in these fields, which is quite high and unbiased in primary school, but declines in the period of adolescence. Therefore it seems to be promising to intervene in these age.

The mentoring program was started in Baden-Württemberg three years ago with around 200 pairs of one mentee and one mentor. The next phase starting in April 2009 is extended all over Germany with 800 pairs, who exchange at least one email per week. Currently there are already more then 1000 girls interested and we are proud to announce that two of them will have a mentoring partner at conject, because Andrea and me take part in the program.

For more information about the program go to: http://www.cybermentor.de