Katherine Ceballos has been looking for a job in her field of digital art and video game design for the last seven months. She has yet to find a good fit.
The recent UW-Madison graduate said she was a first-generation Latina college student, and lacks a network of mentors. If a technology job opportunity does cross her path, it’s unpaid. And when Ceballos has taken part in programming to help her find employment, “I didn’t feel welcome.” It doesn’t help that the tech industry can be cutthroat and competitive, she said.
But Ceballos is determined to keep trying. She attended a job fair at the UW-Memorial Union Thursday — one that men were discouraged from attending. The event was the first job fair hosted by Madison Women in Tech, a nonprofit working to increase female representation in the local tech industry.
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According to U.S. Census Bureau data, women made up 27% of jobs in the fields of science, tech, engineering and mathematics in 2019. That’s despite making up 48% of the national workforce.
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The fair was held as part of Forward Fest, Wisconsin’s largest tech and entrepreneurship festival.
Ceballos said she networked with many of the employers that had booths at the fair and had a positive experience. It was nice to be in a space where her specific needs as a prospective employee were taken into account, she said.
Businesses as large as Verona-based health software company Epic Systems Corp. — Dane County’s biggest employer with 10,000 staff members — recruited prospective candidates at the fair, as well as video game development companies Raven Software, of Middleton, and Filament Games, Madison.
Tara Gimmer, left, talks with Jaya Pillai, the business development manager for Flow Enterprises, during Forward Fest’s Women in Tech job fair at Memorial Union in Madison. Thursday’s event was designed to give companies a chance to recruit more women into the tech industry.
Other businesses included a mix of startups, insurance entities, retailers that work with Amazon and Google’s Madison arm.
The Women in Tech fair was a way to meet female candidates more intentionally, the employers said — amid an ongoing national labor shortage that has spared no industry.
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It’s a shortage that research shows disproportionately impacts minorities, women included, in tech fields that remain male-dominated despite efforts to increase diversity.
Nuanced problem
According to a 2015 study conducted by the University of Washington psychology department, there are several reasons women are underrepresented in tech.
It points to research showing that women may become dissuaded from pursuing a tech career early on because of stereotypical influences and cultural expectations. Further studies have spotlighted the impact of the workplace environment itself, and a lack of belonging reported by female employees.
There’s also evidence of historic hiring bias. One study the report points to found that science faculty were less likely to hire a female candidate than they were an identical male candidate. Another study found that when hiring for tenure track positions, participants were more likely to vote to hire a male applicant than a female applicant with an identical resume. The reasons for the biases are nuanced, according to the study, but they likely also stem from societal perceptions.
Tech companies and applicants looking for work attend Forward Fest’s Women in Tech job fair at Memorial Union. With men outnumbering women in STEM fields, the fair looked to balance the odds.
Women still carry the burden of child care, for example, said Laura Dresser, a professor in the UW-Madison Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work and Center on Wisconsin Strategy, for which she is also an associate director.
Worsening that burden is the “volatility of schools and child care” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. Affordable child care is hard to come by, Dresser said, and the education system has faced instability as a result of the health crisis.
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Dresser said there are ways tech companies can be more deliberate about diversifying their talent pools, including leadership positions. They can provide child care supports, she said, and structure roles around the individual candidate’s strengths and background. And organizations can help women build their network.
Events like Women in Tech are good examples of the latter, she said, as they provide an access point for businesses to hire candidates they might have previously, and some advertently, overlooked.
Hiring with intent
Jim Halberg, software development manager with Madison online clothing store Shopbop, said the retailer was recruiting for two positions the day of the fair.
It’s been a bit more difficult amid the labor shortage for Shopbop to fill tech jobs, he said, adding that the business has high standards for who it onboards.
“We find ourselves not as diverse as we would like to be,” he said. The company has conducted trainings to make their hiring practices more focused. “We believe if we are more diverse, we will be a better company.”
Thursday’s fair was held as part of Forward Fest, Wisconsin’s largest tech and entrepreneurship festival.
But for Filament Games, “we’ve been booming the past year,” said Sydney Meyers, a user interface designer for the game developer.
The company had several jobs open Thursday, all listed on a monitor that attendees could scroll through. Filament Games was at the event, Meyers said, because the company supports the Women in Tech cause.
Nicole Brey, product manager for Middleton insurance company Cap Specialty, said the company was trying to get its name out there and recruit female candidates. Brey also touted the company’s remote work policies amid the labor shortage, but said Cap Specialty’s workforce is only 30% women.
Comfort zone
Peyton Turner, UW-Madison computer science and psychology double major, said that finding a job as she enters her “super-senior” year is an imperative — even six months before she graduates.
Impending student loan debt and high rent prices are the main drivers of her search, she said.
She networked with eight companies Thursday, and said it “feels nice” and “less intimidating” to have attended an event catering specifically to women.
Otherwise she would have to “toughen myself up and put myself out there more aggressively,” she said.
Photos: Paintings and sculptures of Georgia O’Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe and created by Paul Chase are displayed in his garage in Galena, Illinois. The artwork will be part of an exhibit that opens Thursday in Sun Prairie.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Paul Chase never met Georgia O’Keeffe but he did receive this correspondence from the artist in 1976.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Using a photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe by her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, artist Paul Chase is sculpting this piece of marble for this week’s show in Sun Prairie.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Some of the guitars collected by Paul Chase hang in his studio in Galena, Illinois.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Paul Chase will exhibit this week his portraits and sculptures of Sun Prairie native and world-renowned artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Chase, who has a home studio in Galena, Illinois, is a distant relative of O’Keeffe and grew up in Sun Prairie, where the exhibit opens Thursday in the historic Crosse House, 133 W. Main St.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Paul Chase looks over some of his sculptures in progress.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Paul Chase looks over raw blocks of marble from Tennessee and Arizona that he uses in his sculpture work. Chase, who lives in Galena, Illinois, spent nearly 35 years as an art teacher.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Some of the tools used by artist Paul Chase, who paints and sculpts.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Sculptures of Georgia O’Keeffe and the view from Paul Chase’s studio in Galena, Illinois.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Galena, Illinois, artist Paul Chase has created 12 paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, the world-renowned artist who spent her early years in Sun Prairie.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Tools and a sculpture in the studio of Paul Chase.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Some of the portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe created by Paul Chase.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Paul Chase has created 12 portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe that will be part of an exhibit that opens Thursday in Sun Prairie. The paintings reflect different periods of O’Keeffe’s long life.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Paul Chase in his studio in Galena, Illinois.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Paul Chase, a distant relative of Georgia O’Keeffe, has tried to replicate one of O’Keeffe’s sculptures. His version will be part of an exhibit that begins Thursday in Sun Prairie.
Reminders of Wisconsin
Georgia O’Keeffe, who was born on a farm near Sun Prairie, created this painting in 1931 after visiting New Mexico. It now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
This is a painting of the home in the town of Sun Prairie where Georgia O’Keeffe was born in 1887. The home was destroyed by fire in 1971.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
Joe Chase, a former mayor of Sun Prairie active in the city’s historical society, shows off a display about O’Keeffe in the Sun Prairie Historical Library & Museum. Chase is also a distant relative of O’Keeffe.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
A photo of Sarah Mann of Sun Prairie, who was one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s early painting instructors.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
In 1968, Georgia O’Keeffe appeared on the cover of Life magazine. At the time, the artist was 81 and living in New Mexico. A copy of the magazine is on display at the Sun Prairie Historical Library & Museum.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
A 32 cent stamp of a flower painted by Georgia O’Keeffe was issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1996.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
One of the many displays about Georgia O’Keeffe at the Sun Prairie Historical Library & Museum.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
There are reminders of Georgia O’Keeffe throughout Sun Prairie, including this acrylic cow in Cannery Square painted to resemble an O’Keeffe painting. O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie in 1887.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
This historical marker about Georgia O’Keeffe is located next to City Hall in downtown Sun Prairie.
Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit
This sign along Highway T in the town of Sun prairie shows where Georgia O’Keeffe was born in 1887.
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