Booz Allen Goes BIG for Women in STEM

Over the past six years, Booz Allen Hamilton has worked to fuse advanced technical capabilities with its 104-year consulting heritage. That journey has led the company to the intersection of two careers with underrepresentation by women at every level: management consulting and technology. Now, the women of Booz Allen are uniting to achieve gender parity by addressing unconscious bias throughout the employee lifecycle. As part of Women’s History Month, the firm hosted a series of events – such as the Uniting Women in Technology forum and Gender Equality Design-o-thon – intended to embolden and appreciate our incredible female leaders and colleagues. Below, are some reflections by women leaders driving the transformation. 

Purposeful Outreach – Attracting and Hiring Top Women Candidates

“Studies show that unconscious bias permeates every step of the recruiting process—from employer branding to job descriptions, resume selection, interviews, and salary offers. To help address these challenges, we recently hosted an all-inclusive networking and recruiting event focused on hiring women in STEM positions. We had more than 100 women candidates, held 35 formal interviews, and hosted a panel of women leaders to share their journeys in digital, cyber, and analytics. We plan to incorporate our lessons learned throughout our recruiting lifecycle, with the ultimate goal of achieving gender equality in our workforce.”
– Patricia Porter, Vice President and Sr. Recruiting Manager

Tribe Creation – Providing Education, Networking, and Sponsorship Opportunities for Women

“Being a woman data scientist in a field dominated by men can be challenging. While we are fortunate to have a culture at Booz Allen that values diversity and inclusion, we still face issues that cannot be overcome without gender parity. In the meantime, we have networks of women who are banding together to elevate one another in data science, cyber, and technology. These networks give women opportunities to find career mentors, talk through technical challenges, and perhaps most importantly, build friendships within the firm.”
– Dr. Lauren Neal, Principal Data Scientist and founder of Booz Allen Women in Data Science

Intentional Change – Activating Our Culture of Gender Equality

“One of the key pillars of our Innovation Blueprint as that we cannot ‘go it alone,’ and that absolutely applies to our efforts to achieve gender equality. We are active members of the Society of Women Engineers and proud supporters of the Girl Scouts and Girls in Technology. We also host regular events to support girls and women in STEM within and outside of Booz Allen. For instance, during Women’s History Month, we had more than 100 data scientists, technologists, and designers come together for a design-a-thon focused on advancing gender equality. We explored ways data can be used to improve decision making for gender-related workforce issues, and we hope to use insights from the event to conduct a Gender Equality Hackathon this summer.”
– Julie McPherson, Senior Vice President and Leader of the Digital Solutions Business

Courage Ignition – Challenging Women to Go BIG

“The first step toward conquering unconscious bias in our society is to inspire confidence and opportunity for the millions of women and girls who are passionate about STEM careers. That’s why we are challenging women across Booz Allen to go BIG for their careers and for gender equality in our society. BIG is an acronym to describe three reasons we believe women in STEM can change the world: We are Brave. We are Intersectional. And we have the Grit and grace necessary to solve gnarly problems. Together with colleagues of every race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, we can achieve gender parity in our generation.”
– Jacque Myers, Senior Associate and Co-Chair of the Digital Solutions Women’s Network

Booz Allen is incredibly proud and excited to be part of the movement to advance and empower women leaders in STEM and create parity in the workforce. The firm is committed to hiring qualified and diverse candidates who will use their STEM skills to change the world, and it looks forward to hosting more events that bring people together to make a meaningful difference. 

To learn more about how Booz Allen is working to solve gender inequality, click here.