3 Mar 2022
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Sam Sprigg
Women’s History Month: Celebrating Women in XR
Metaverse
Women in AR/VR
March is Women’s History Month, and what better time than now to celebrate all of the incredible women working in the XR industry today. Over the years, AWE has been fortunate enough to have hundreds of amazing women grace our stage, from founders and CEOs to skilled developers and creators, educators, technologists and entrepreneurs.
Women are playing a major role in driving the XR ecosystem forward through their leadership and innovation. The work that women are doing today throughout the augmented and virtual reality sectors is helping to shape the future of the technology, meaning women all across XR are making history in their own way.
There is still a way to go in terms of reaching gender parity across the tech sector though. A 2021 study led by Accenture and Girls who Code showed that the percentage of tech workers who are women today (32%) is actually less than it was in 1984 (35%), and that 50% of women who take a tech role move on from it by the age of 35.
As we work towards building the Metaverse, an experiential social environment that should be open, accessible and welcoming to everyone, it is vital that it is shaped by everyone too. AWE’s core values include ‘openness, diversity and inclusion,’ and an important step towards building the Metaverse, as well as reaching gender parity within the XR community, will be to increase the levels of diversity and inclusiveness that we see across the tech sector.
Therefore, one objective for the XR community, as well as the wider tech community in general, must be to support women, open up more opportunities and enable them to thrive. AWE will always work to support women and has its own aim of gender parity among speakers at its events. In fact, we had a record number of female speakers at AWE USA 2021, and this is something that we strive to increase year-on-year.
Celebrate with us some of the inspiring women that have spoken at AWE in the last few years and watch the YouTube playlist below to see some of the incredible work that women are doing in the XR space:
Check out these companies dedicated to providing resources for women working in the XR space and tech sector, including:
XR Women was founded as a solution to the absence of consistent communities for women in any stage of their journey in XR, and the organization is helping to create space that is welcoming for all in the metaverse.
National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) convenes, equips, and unites nearly 1,500 change leader organizations across the US to increase the influential and meaningful participation of girls and women in the field of computing, particularly in terms of innovation and development. NCWIT focuses on improving diversity across the entire spectrum: K-12 through college education, and on to academic, corporate and entrepreneurial careers.
The WXR Fund invests in gender diverse seed stage companies that are transforming business and human interaction with spatial computing (VR/AR) and artificial intelligence (AI). The fund also supports entrepreneurs through the early stages of their start-up thanks to its broad relationships across VR, AR, investment and media communities.
WomensVCFund ll is committed to funding companies with gender inclusive leadership. The fund focuses on venture-worthy women entrepreneurs seeking Series A and B financing at revenue-generating, capital-efficient companies where senior leadership includes both women and men, something that the fund deems a more “risk-intelligent” approach to venture capital.
Women Who Code prepares this generation of women in tech to be tomorrow’s role models. This global nonprofit started as a community group in 2011 and has since grown to 290,000 members in 134 countries. Women Who Code offers low to no barrier-to-entry programs, events, scholarships and more to help women in their careers and to build tech and leadership skills.
Girls in Tech works to erase the gender gap in tech by providing experiences and educational opportunities to women. The Girls in Tech global community is 50+ chapters strong with an impact of more than 100,000 members in 30+ countries.
The CyberXR Coalition is the diversity and inclusion effort of the XR Safety Initiative (XRSI), a worldwide not-for-profit organization that promotes privacy, security, and ethics in immersive environments. The CyberXR Coalition was formed to address the global necessity of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the cybersecurity and XR domain.
Women-led companies on the XR EcoMap (Ecosystem Map) is designed to help people understand what organizations are working to grow the industry, and what opportunities are available at these organizations. It also highlights companies led by diverse founders, including women-led companies, in an effort to increase and showcase the true expanse of the XR community.
Don’t forget, AWE also provides its own resources, available to everyone, including:
- The awe.live community hub, an always-on platform for the XR community where women working in the fields of augmented and virtual reality can connect with one another, learn more about the industry, and grow their network;
- AWE Nite meetups where people can connect with fellow XR professionals and those looking to collaborate;
- AWE Academy workshops designed to help enhance XR professionals’ skills. Classes cover a range of topics, from Fundraising 101 to WebAR workshops, taught by some of most experienced instructors in the XR industry;
- A vast library of video content on AWE’s YouTube channel covering a variety of topics and tutorials from AWE’s live and virtual events;
- An XR jobs board to help you find your next role within the AR/VR industry;
- Other blog posts from AWE celebrating Women in XR, as well as how-to guides covering some of the best tools and platforms for those looking to get started in the XR space;
- The AWE Weekly Spatial newsletter that covers the week’s most important news announcements, as well as the Monthly Spatial news recap, both providing the best rundown of the latest XR products and solutions.
