Education and Economic Development

In addition to our employee Women's Networks, Cisco is actively involved in creating opportunities for women and girls outside Cisco to achieve in technology areas of academia, and undertake high-tech careers.

The Gender Initiative was established by Cisco in 2000. The goals of the Gender Initiative are to:

• Address recruitment and strategies for women in the IT industry
• Help ensure women have access to the same career opportunities as men, and prevent them from being channeled into low-paid IT jobs
• Disseminate best practices research findings to instructors around the world
• Provide women with the IT skills necessary to participate in all aspects of the global economy

Since its founding, the initiative has developed numerous supporting projects, training modules, marketing materials, Websites, and presentations to encourage young women in the United States and in developing countries to consider careers in engineering and technology.

Cisco is also involved in programs to encourage girls and women to use technology and to pursue careers in technology. The Girls in Technology Initiative seeks to encourage girls and young women to consider careers in engineering and technology. This initiative is further supported by the Women's Networks, by connecting members— women who work in engineering and technology jobs—with students in high schools and universities, with the hope of ultimately increasing the number of future women engineers.

We support Inspiring Girls Now in Technology Evolution (IGNITE), a nonprofit program operating in three U.S. western states, whose mission is to encourage girls to consider high-tech career choices.

Cisco also partnered with the Florida Department of Education, Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation, and the Florida Community College System on the Florida Girls Get IT Initiative to research, develop, and implement a framework to help increase female participation and graduation rates in IT, science, and engineering.