Did you know? Only 25% of IT jobs are held by women, and only 14% of top executives are women. Those are some staggering statistics, especially for young women starting out in their careers. Luckily, we have the power to change it.

Here is how we can start fixing the gender diversity issue in IT:

Awareness

The first step to empowering women in your organization is bringing awareness to the challenges some women face in the industry. Women are underrepresented in the technology business and need both men and women to champion the first step.

Conversation

The next step is to get the conversation going. At Corus360, we host quarterly Girls Rule IT (GRIT) meetings with all the women in our business. During this meeting, we talk about everything from challenges in IT to financial planning and secrets of success. It creates an atmosphere that is conducive to growth and career development that is vital to success.

Involvement

Technology jobs are among the fasting growing in the county, yet young girls are being left behind. According to Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization supporting women in computer science, by 2020 there will be 1.4 million jobs available in computing related fields, and US graduates are on track to fill 29% of those jobs. Women, however, are on track to fill just 3%.

It’s time to get involved in organizations like Girls Who Code or a Lean In chapter in your city, and start supporting the next generation of women in technology.

Mentorship

Mentorship plays a major role in employee engagements. Having a mentor makes an employee 83% more likely to stay with an organization—an extremely important statistic when thinking about the number of women who leave technology roles each year.

This step has been most beneficial to my career. It’s important having other women to look up to. It is someone like you who has dealt with some of the same challenges in her career. Having a mentor and being a mentor breeds a culture of women supporting each other.

It’s a proven fact that diversity breeds innovation. According to McKinsey companies in the top quartile in terms of gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. Also, in startups, female-founded technology businesses outperform all-male teams by 63%. The world needs more women entrepreneurs in business and technology, and it’s time for every business to take the right steps to empowering women in their organization.