Technology Needs Women! | Mona Badie | TEDxAirlie

What happens, unintentionally, when the people who design, engineer and develop a technology or product don’t resemble the actual users of the product? The results can be deadly! And yet, women are severely underrepresented in Technology careers. One of the drivers behind this inequality is the insufficient exposure to technology at a young age. Without even realizing it, we have socialized pursuing a career in technology to be more attractive to men. Thankfully, it’s not too late to make a change. Mona’s passion is to help close this exposure gap starting in our local communities by building a bridge for girls to become more interested and confident in technology, graduate with technology degrees and successfully work on engineering teams to design and develop a product that accurately represent the end users. As a mother, grandmother, and technologist, Mona won’t stop advocating for this change on a local and national level. Mona Badie, a 14-year GE veteran, is Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer for GE Hitachi Nuclear, a $1B Global business based in Wilmington. In this role, Mona is responsible for all Information Technology systems as well as Digital Transformation and Commercial Software, including the Industrial Internet efforts. Mona is a big advocate of Women in Technology. Amongst other initiatives, she leads the “Girls in Technology” program to encourage girls to participate in STEM fields. Mona earned her Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University. She is married with two children and resides in Wilmington with her husband. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx