The Association for Computing Machinery's Council on Women in Computing supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to ACM members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women. ACM-W is an active organization with over 36,000 members.
Celebrations of Women in Computing
ACM-W sponsors annual celebrations focused on women in computing. ACM-W provides $3,000 for each celebration, and also raises and disburses corporate sponsorship. Each celebration organizing committee is responsible for additional fundraising within their conference area. ACM-W supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to Association for Computing Machinery members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women. ACM-W Celebrations are regional conferences with global participants from industry, academia, and government. Celebration participation is growing and these events represent some of the largest gatherings of women in technology. The original Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing was recognized by the US White House on their page "The Untold History of Women in Science and Technology" in the entry for United States NavyRear Admiral Grace Hopper. In addition to this noteworthy beginning, the conferences have attracted the participation of technology notables including Anita Hill, Priscilla Chan co-founder of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Justine Cassell of Carnegie Mellon University, one of the top universities in Computer Science. The list describes the expansion of celebrations globally to include the largest gathering of women in computing in India.
ACM-W has 137 active chapters at schools around the world. The student chapters serve to increase recruitment and retention of women in computing fields at the university level and offer student activities and projects that aim to improve the working and learning environments for women in computing.
Awards
Starting in 2006, ACM-W has offered an annual Athena Lecturer Award to honor outstanding women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science. ACM-W also offers an ACM-W Networking Award for active student chapters.
ACM-W publishes a monthly newsletter that highlights people, opportunities, accomplishments, and current issues associated with women in computing. The newsletter was started in 2008. Each monthly issue can be found via the ACM-W website.
