Known as “WiDS”, Women in Data Science initiative was launched at Stanford University in 2015 with a one-day technical conference featuring outstanding women doing outstanding work in the field. Soon after, volunteer ambassadors took WiDS around the world by organizing similar conferences in their communities under the WiDS umbrella. As the WiDS community grew, we added additional year-round programming in education, innovation and leadership to strengthen community connections, and support, educate and inspire women everywhere.
Our annual WiDS programming now includes 200+ conferences and events around the world, a global datathon, a podcast series, a WiDS Academy with upskilling workshops and our Next Gen outreach program, and our UpLink platform for career and training opportunities. WiDS Worldwide programs reach over 150,000 participants each year in more than 160 countries. Since early 2023, WiDS Worldwide is a fiscally sponsored project under Community Initiatives, with continued strong collaboration and partnership with Stanford.
Our Mission
The WiDS mission is to achieve 30% representation for women in education, innovation and leadership by 2030 with a long term vision of full and equal representation in Decision Making, Economic Prosperity and opportunities
Our mission is to achieve 30% representation for women in key areas of education, innovation and leadership by 2030 with a long term vision of full and equal representation in decision making, economic prosperity and opportunities. We are passionately dedicated to this 30×30 cause and to providing inspiration, community, education and career opportunities to all at no-cost.
Programs & Initiatives
WiDS Worldwide Conferences
Our annual central conferences and 200+ regional events worldwide attract 80,000+ attendees in 50+ countries, in-person and online, and have elevated thousands of women data scientists in academia, industry, government, and nonprofits doing innovative technical work around the world.
In 2023, we hosted our central in-person and live-streamed conference at Stanford on International Women’s Day (March 8). Our global virtual conference will take place on September 14. Everyone is welcome to attend free-of-charge.
Please check out our ongoing regional events, hosted by our 500+ volunteer WiDS ambassadors worldwide, and find a regional event near you to connect with and get inspired by fellow women in data science in your community.
Learn with WiDS
Inspiring, educating, and supporting data scientists around the world… WiDS programs consist of exciting datathon challenges, in-depth upskilling workshops, and resources for educators from secondary schools to graduate studies.
Datathon
The global and annual WiDS Datathon began in 2018, aiming to inspire women worldwide to learn more about data science by creating a supportive environment to hone their skills and connect with others in their community who share their interests.
The WiDS Datathon is hosted on Kaggle, using a predictive analytics challenge focused on social impact. In the WiDS Datathon 2022, 46% of the participants surveyed were new to datathon competitions, and nearly 80% were women versus the usual of less than 20% in other Kaggle competitions.
The WiDS Datathon 2024 will feature a predictive analytics challenge related to climate change. In 2022, WiDS ambassadors held 40+ datathon workshops in 20 countries to form teams and mentor participants. In all, the WiDS Datathon 2022 had over 4,000 registrants from 95+ countries, with over 25,000 submissions.
Upskill Workshops
WiDS technical Upskilling Workshops aim to inspire, educate, and upskill data scientists and aspiring data scientists worldwide. WiDS Workshops educate everyone, regardless of gender, while inspiring women and girls with role model instructors. Workshops are free and open to everyone. You can find WiDS Workshops on YouTube, including many sessions in Arabic and in Spanish.
WiDS NextGen
Our WIDS Next Gen program strives to inspire secondary school students to take relevant courses and consider future careers involving data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and related areas. We particularly encourage younger women and girls to consider these STEM fields by showing examples of successful women in data science and related roles. In addition, we strive to impress on all students that there are already excellent women in technical roles related to data science, and that diversity and inclusion are extremely important. We emphasize the real-world applications, as well as the societal and environmental impact of data science.
We’ve designed materials that are suitable for secondary school educators in mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, computers and more. These materials have also been made available to WiDS ambassadors who would like to host a secondary school track at their WiDS regional events.
WiDS Podcast
In 2018, the first episode of the WiDS podcast was published as a way to continue the conversations begun during the annual WiDS conference, and to inspire women and girls worldwide to join the data science field. In the podcast series, Co-hosts Professor Margot Gerritsen, Chisoo Lyons and Cindy Orozco interview female leaders across the data science profession, as they share their advice, career highlights, and lessons learned along the way. In 2022, Cindy conducted the first WiDS podcast episodes in Spanish. The nearly 50 podcast episodes launched thus far attracted listeners from 162 countries. The WiDS podcast has been named a New and Notable podcast by KDNuggets, and has earned a 4.8 out of 5 rating on Apple Podcasts.
WiDS Uplink
(Coming Fall 2023)
WiDS UpLink is our new opportunity platform to connect our community members to job, internship and practical training opportunities in industry, academia, nonprofits and government. WiDS UpLink provides career advice and support, and professional development resources.
