We are thrilled to share with you something that has been in the works for quite a while….Hammersmith Support has launched in Nashville, Tennessee! This new location for Hammersmith Support is a huge homecoming for founder Heather Locke. Born and raised in Knoxville, and educated at the University of Tennessee, bringing a branch of her business to her home state is a big part of Heather’s dream for her business and her family. Read on to find out more about this exciting news!

Same Great Service in an Additional Location

Having relocated from Knoxville to Phoenix twenty years ago, Heather always dreamed of being back near her extended family someday. But after starting a family and a business in Arizona, getting back east seemed unreachable. However, with the success of Hammersmith Support, the opportunity to expand the business to her home state started to look like it could actually work. Heather had this to say about why Nashville felt like the ideal location for the expansion:

“There’s a mural in Nashville that says ‘I believe in Nashville.’ I took a picture of my daughter in front of it last summer and I thought, ‘Why not Nashville?’. I started putting the pieces in place to expand my business here so that we could spend more time near family and in the other state I love!”

Meet the Team

Having boots on the ground in Tennessee was a must. The Hammersmith Support team grew by two to now include the Nashville team: Kelly Foster and Kaylie Nordin. Kaylie is the owner of Only1 Marketing and is expertly handling the marketing and launch of Hammersmith Support. Kelly is the administrative assistant for Heather and skillfully manages the inner workings of the office, keeping things moving smoothly.

Schedule Your In-Person Meetings This Summer

We are thrilled to be able to offer in-person meetings in Nashville this summer! And as always, our 30-minute virtual complimentary consultations are always available too. Book your appointment! Learn more about all of the services Hammersmith Support offers. And lastly, if you are hungry for more posts, visit our blog page.

Hammersmith Support is a proud member of Lead Up for Women and we are excited to introduce you to the founder, Colleen Biggs. In the organization’s own words, Lead Up for Women “… is an elite community of female entrepreneurs that are driven by their passions, support, and promote with a purpose to fuel female voices with power.” This dynamic group accomplishes its mission with events hosted by members, monthly networking “Lunch-n-Learns,” bi-monthly magazines with articles written by members, the Speak Up to Lead Up podcast, and many more impressive and exciting events.

Hammersmith Support loves to support women and women-owned businesses, which is why we are a proud member of Lead Up for Women! Our founder, Heather Locke, will be sponsoring an upcoming Lunch-n-Learn, The One Thing: Success Lists vs. To-Do Lists, on Thursday, May 6th. We hope you’ll join us for this exciting event and we know you’ll enjoy learning more about Lead Up for Women’s Colleen Biggs, too.

Tell us a little about you.

Technically, I’m a corporate drop-out! After serving in Corporate America for over 25 years, I took the leap of faith to Entrepreneurship. I knew for many years that I wanted to find my way and inspire others in building businesses outside of corporate, and after coaching and consulting for over 18 years and launching over 300 businesses, I knew I needed to blaze some trails, especially for women.

Why did you start Lead Up for Women?

Lead Up for Women was born out of the need that all female entrepreneurs have – the need to be seen and heard. It’s so difficult to expand your influence in the current oversaturated social media marketing culture, so I decided to work on the promotion side of the business for women. Lead Up for Women spotlights all females on many different platforms. We host a podcast and provide podcast interviews to our members, as well as publish a bi-monthly magazine that produces articles written by our members. This not only provides credibility but also exposure for each woman to expand her influence and attract more customers. I absolutely believe that each one of us has a superpower that only we can possess. We are here on this earth to provide that unique skill to those that become our customers and need us. I provide the pathway for female entrepreneurs to feel empowered along that journey, to accelerate their business success.

Talk to us about your “why” and how that motivated you to start your business.

Females are strong advocates for many! We fight for others, serve, nurture and control the majority of the global economy, yet, females still tend to step aside or take the back seat when it comes to their families, communities, careers, and starting their own businesses. Getting funding alone is a feat for a female small business owner, much more difficult than their counterpart, the male. I’m drawn to work with females and always have been. After coaching hundreds of CEOs in the past several years, I was able to assist them in uncovering their superpowers. You see, we all have what it takes for us to lead without permission, and soar in anything we decide to take on as females. However, sometimes, we need a tribe of other like-minded women to be there along the journey to support each other, lift each other and provide a safe and nurturing community so we all win! Corporate was riddled with competition and judgment, which I don’t miss! I know that we can change the blueprint of the position of a female in business forever if we all band together and rise!

What is unique about your style and product offering?

Most other organized Women’s Organizations exist to bring women together for collaboration and networking purposes. I think this is phenomenal, and so needed. Lead Up for Women provides this and much, much more! Women Entrepreneurs need spotlights to step into to expand their influence and attract more clients. I take the “hustle” out of the “hunt” and show women how to accelerate their businesses through attracting clients, via authenticity, showing up everywhere, all the time! I’m as transparent as it gets. Do I work hard? Sure, but it’s the hard that pays off exponentially! I teach women in Lead Up how to leverage their time for money, value their time, protect their boundaries and focus on the successes in our businesses, not the time suckers that we all think are needed to “produce results.” I walk the walk and talk the talk, every time. It’s all about priority!

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

Be you, because everybody else is taken. That might seem like a simple phrase, but most aren’t authentic. When you drop the armor and show up as you, every time, everywhere, people really get to know you and others want to do business with people they know, like, and trust! Get to know people, really know them. Show them you care and like them back. Build trust by making the first move to trust them! It’s a simple formula in business that most overlook time and time again. And lastly, don’t be afraid to trust yourself and take the leap of faith to grow to the next level for yourself and your business. Trust me when I say, you are your own safety net!

Get in Touch

Click over to find out more about Lead Up for Women, sign up for membership, join an event, listen to their podcast, read the blog and more!

Join Us for Lunch-N-Learn on Thursday, May 6th!

We’d love to have you join us for the Lunch-n-Learn, The One Thing: Success Lists vs. To-Do Lists, hosted by Hammersmith Support’s Heather Locke on Thursday, May 6th!

We are excited to bring you this client highlight for Root + River! Emily Soccorsy, co-founder of Root + River, is a W Source Scottsdale Arcadia chapter member along with our founder, Heather Locke. It was a fantastic compliment that Root + River reached out to Hammersmith Support when they were ready to rebuild their site to not only change the look and feel, but also to improve the infrastructure of the site.

Root + River

Emily and her co-founder, Justin Foster, created their company out of a deep passion for helping businesses discover and then master their brand. As a brand strategy business, they want their clients to not simply sell a product. In their words, they are “… a brand strategy team. We guide leaders to master intrinsic branding. Intrinsic brands are known by their consistently evocative language, standard-setting experiences and legendary storytelling.” In other words, they aren’t your everyday marketing company! Emily often draws on a board during strategy sessions to help create a visual motion to the work being done – in fact, she created all of the icon graphics on the new site, giving it that personal touch that fits the Root + River brand perfectly.

The Challenge

With the previous Root + River site, there was a lot of information. And rightly so – Root + River’s process and vision is a beautiful story. The look and feel of their site needed to be changed to align with the company’s brand standards. Lastly, the team wanted to update photography as well as color schemes and the overall feel of the site.

The Solution

Hammersmith Support enlisted Jena Gribble of Blush Cactus to create a design that embodied the Root + River brand. The rebuild included streamlining the look and feel of the site by visually breaking it into sections that could be more easily digested. By taking some of the verbiage out of the home page and replacing it with short descriptions and snappy headlines, visitors are now able to get a bird’s eye view of who and what Root + River is before diving in further. Icons, created by Emily, were added in place of and in addition to some descriptions, and the overall colorscape was updated for a look and feel that aligns with the brand’s standards. Lastly, we used new and existing photography but gave each image the same filtered view, which made the site feel cohesive and also gave a visual glimpse into the history of the company.

Now that their site is live, Root + River is continuing as a Hammersmith Support monthly maintenance client. In addition to updates, backups, and lead testing, we will also provide any content updates and development support that the company needs.

Root + River & Hammersmith Support Branding Event

Hammersmith Support is proud to be partnering with Root + River for a branding presentation: “Your Brand Is Not What You Think It Is,” coming up on April 28th at 4pm. Led by Emily Soccorsy, CEO and co-founder of Root + River, the event will focus on what branding is and isn’t and will re-frame brand experience, brand message, and ideal audience. Emily will share insights into how to stand out, and be genuine and original while you do so. She will also dive into a new way to connect with your ideal clients and help you determine how to know if you have a resonant brand message. Emily’s insights make branding less complex and more effective because they are based on brain science, who you really are, and what will most effectively differentiate you in a highly competitive market. Click here to register!

Thinking Your Site Might Be Ready for a Rebuild?

Not every site needs to be completely rebuilt. Often, if the infrastructure of the site is in good shape, visual changes may be all that it needs. Not sure where your site falls on rebuild or refresh? Visit our Calendly page and schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation and let’s talk.

We are thrilled to bring our readers an interview with Amanda Catarzi of Inkery Co. Amanda’s story is incredibly powerful and her experiences have been and still are a driving force for her work. Inkery Co. creates copy and provides social media training for small businesses. But it’s not just a job, it’s a passion. Amanda doesn’t just want to help her clients sell products. She is dedicated to helping her clients to find their own voice in their business, and their life too.

We found Amanda to be absolutely amazing – and we think you will too!

Tell Us a Little About You

Amanda Catarzi, Inkery Co.

I was raised in a cult and I am a survivor of sex trafficking, too. I am grateful that I was able to escape that situation and because of that, I dedicated 10+ years of my life to fighting sex trafficking. My work has led me to counseling the New Zealand Government, writing federal legislation, and even as far as going undercover to bust and break up trafficking rings.

Writing has always been an outlet for me – especially when I had no voice and no say in my daily life. I am grateful to have been able to take that love for writing and turn it into a successful business. I am a seasoned copywriter and I am passionate about giving others a resonating, impactful voice.

Talk to Us About Your “Why.” What Motivated You to Start Your Business?

I was burned out from social work but really enjoyed the writing I had done for the non-profits I worked for – I loved giving others a voice. It was a natural transition for me to continue writing and helping others with their messaging.

What Is Unique About Your Style and Product Offering?

My social work background gives me the ability to get to the root of who you are, what your brand is about, and find your authentic voice. I can peel back the layers of life and clean up your message, reviving it, allowing you to connect with your audience.

What Advice Do You Have for Other Entrepreneurs?

Know your worth and stick to your guns – limit who can speak into your life. Not all coaches and influencers are interested in your personal success.

Get In Touch

Visit Amanda’s site, Inkery Co at https://www.inkeryco.com/.

IG: @amandacat

Twitter: AmandaC.

LinkedIn: Inkery Co.

Hungry for More Inspiring Stories?

Head over to our blog page and read all about the amazing businesses we have been lucky enough to highlight.

Have you ever had an idea or a need for your business and didn’t know where to start figuring out how to make it happen? Enter Kelly Lorenzen of KLM Consulting. As a full-scale business project manager, Kelly specializes in helping small businesses “wherever they need it.” Kelly’s goal is to give back the one thing her clients often need most – TIME. By improving existing practices through training and consulting, or designing entirely new practices in order to improve workflow, KLM Consulting really can do it all.

Collaboration Is Key

One of the ways in which Kelly has been so successful is by connecting with other small businesses. For her, bringing people together to foster and build community is one of the most important parts of her business. The primary way she does this is with Collaborative Connections, her live radio show that is converted to a podcast, then posted on her website and on podcast platforms, as well as YouTube and a blog post – so much fresh content from one show!

Each show focuses on various business topics and fostering collaboration between her clients and others in the community. The result? It’s 3 fold; it is a value add for Kelly’s clients, all guests get to highlight their business, and guests and listeners alike walk away with a tip and/or a new resource for their business.

If starting a podcast has been on your mind, we’ve got Kelly’s best advice on why you should get started and the best way to do it.

Technology

When it comes to actually creating a podcast, Kelly says not to let the technical side slow you down.

“Outsource what you don’t know / what is slowing you down. The value of the podcast is having it out there, not in learning how to produce it. Having a professional do the technical side will make the process much more smooth.“

Kelly relies on Phoenix Business RadioX to host and produce her live radio show and podcast. They take care of everything – not only is it professional quality, but the final product includes all the bells and whistles so it’s fully optimized as well.

Best Advice

“Just do it! Jump right in and start. You can always change your strategy later. Don’t become paralyzed trying to figure out the best approach.”

Her other important tip is to leave your opinions at home. Listening to someone on a soapbox is only going to keep someone entertained for so long. Focus on creating a collaborative space with varying topics and opinions in order to keep your audience interested. In addition, be sure to provide value for your listeners with free tips, information, and good advice.

Listen In

Our very own Heather Locke of Hammersmith Support, along with several other small business owners, was featured on the Collaborative Connections Radio Show to discuss the importance of technology in this digitally-focused time. Listen here!

Let Hammersmith Support Help

Got questions about how you can add podcasts to your website? Thinking your site may need some additional work? We’re here to help! Book your free 30 minute consultation to talk through all your questions.

Do you know that feeling when you need something new? Whether it’s new shoes, a great haircut, or a next-generation computer – you’re just craving something fresh in your routine? Well, that’s how we’ve been feeling about our website. We just needed something new. And so to kick off 2021, we are launching the new and improved Hammersmith Support website! We’re excited to show and tell you about what we’ve done and also to give you some food for thought when it comes to your site.

Design

While maintaining our current branding, we did want to shake up the design of the site. Heather had some new images taken by Karianne Mundstedt and the goal was to capture the very relatable “work from home” style that we’ve all been living in this past year. We also updated the layout and changed icons to improve our product description for potential clients.

Services

We have honed our services over the last year to more accurately serve our clients’ needs. Because of that, we wanted to present more detail on the site around the services we provide. In addition, we added more calls to action, making it easier to get in touch and start the design process. We added more details throughout the site as well that will make it easier for our clients to understand our process.

Click over to see all our changes here!

Food for Thought

If all this talk has you thinking about your website and what improvements or refreshing it may need, we’ve got some ideas for you. Here are a few areas that can be the focus of a site refresh – many of which have far-reaching benefits beyond aesthetics!

  • New Images: updating images and completing all of the descriptive information like alt text is great for the site’s SEO.
  • Adding a Blog: another great SEO win, but blogs are also great value adds for clients and potential clients as well.
  • Content Updates: have your services, “about us” information, and or product offerings changed? Even if they haven’t, it’s worth reviewing the content to see if you can add information, or even delete or edit the content for more concise information.
  • Start a Podcast: much like a blog, a podcast drives great SEO and is beneficial for clients as well.
  • Behind the Curtain: Ensuring that your site is up to date, including plugins, will keep your site rolling smoothly.

We’re Here to Help

At Hammersmith Support, websites are our specialty. We can help with that new year’s business resolution by getting your site on a monthly maintenance package that can include any of the updates we suggested above! Click over to our Calendly page to schedule your free 30-minute consultation and let us know how we can help you.

This past weekend, the Hammersmith team brought our families together to serve our community. We chose to assemble and donate Welcome Baskets to UMOM New Day Center in Phoenix, Arizona. UMOM restores hope and rebuilds lives by providing shelter, services, and affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness. The baskets are handed out at intake at UMOM and are full of personal care items so that they can enjoy a hot shower with the comfort of their own supplies. These baskets play a big role in the life of a person who is working to overcome homelessness.

Meet the Team

From left to right: owner and founder of Hammersmith Support Heather Locke, team member and owner of BW Concepts Beth Wand and Hammersmith Support team members Carla Brundige and Lisa Finn.

Hammersmith Support team giving back to community

The Process

We recruited our families to help us sort and distribute all of the items including towels and washcloths, shampoo and conditioner, toilet paper, and oral care too.

families pack laundry baskets with personal care items

Some volunteers were more helpful than others….baby Teddy was much more interested in the empty boxes!

a baby in a box

The Results!

In all, we packed 20 Welcome Baskets for UMOM families! Taking time away from busy lives to remember those less fortunate was a wonderful way to bring our team together. Supporting our community is at the foundation of Hammersmith Support and finding new ways to give back is always worth our time!

laundry baskets full of personal care items for UMOM charity

Get Involved

If you would like to know more about UMOM, or would like to get involved, visit their website www.umom.org.

Also, we are thrilled to support our founder, Heather Locke, who has been nominated for the 2020 Arizona’s Finest for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! Arizona’s Finest honors the most accomplished, innovative, and emerging leaders and business professionals. The honorees highlight their commitment to and professional achievements in the community while raising awareness for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

We would be honored if you would consider making a donation to this amazing cause! Learn more about Arizona’s Finest and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: https://hammersmithsupport.com/…/giving-back-arizonas…/


We are very excited to introduce you to Emily Soccorsy of Root + River and a fellow member of the W Source Arcadia. We are also thrilled to announce the launch of her personal website that Hammersmith Support built!

As one of the cofounders of Root + River, a brand strategy practice, Emily works to help her clients create their brand from the inside out, utilizing their values and mission. The result is a strong, relatable, and unique brand for each client.

Read on to see Emily’s story and her advice for other entrepreneurs.

Tell us a little about you.

Lately, I’ve been telling people that if I had a religious practice, it would be language. I am a lover of language, of words, of narrative. I am a creative. I paint, I draw, I collage, I create digital drawings and I also craft prose and poetry and I recently co-authored a book called “Rooting Up: Essays on Modern Branding.”

I am also an entrepreneur who brings that creative spirit and passion for wordsmith-ing into my work as a CEO and co-founder of our brand strategy practice.

Being emotional, creative and business savvy are all one and the same to me. No separation needed.

I believe as humans, far too often, we push the creative or passionate or emotional parts of ourselves to the side. This is unnecessary and detrimental to our growth as human beings and business leaders. I want to integrate my many talents and interests in compelling ways to create things that are unique, true, innovative, revelatory for clients, good for the world, and profitable, too.

Of all the aspects of me, I am most proud of being a mother to two funny, kind, creative and smart daughters and a partner to my husband, Jason, who works in non-profit development.

Talk to us about your “why” and how that motivated you to start your business.

At Root + River, we believe that all great brands are spiritual experiences. We work with mission-driven leaders who are defiant about expressing their purpose, standards and beliefs in their brand. We help them uncover those core truths, once and for all, then coach them on how to integrate them into their culture and into their marketing.

We practice and teach what we call intrinsic branding (from the inside out) and pair that with humanistic marketing (marketing that engages an audience by appealing to common humanity and shared beliefs).

What is unique about your style and product offering?

We were motivated to form Root + River to alleviate business owners’ writers’ (and speakers’) block! Most business leaders, even those with a marketing background, struggle to articulate clearly and consistently express who they are and what they believe. If they can’t do that as well as they want to – they lose the chance to build their culture, attract amazing people and clients, and build a lasting and meaningful brand.

Our mission is to inspire leaders to go inward, to guide them to uncover the root truth of themselves and their brands.

Our gifts are uncovering and articulating those core truths and coaching leaders on using them in marketing. We wanted to share our gifts with the world.

We do everything differently at Root + River! After all, one of our core beliefs is in defiance. Here are three specific differentiators for our brand strategy engagements and coaching:

1. You are guided, not told. We are non-prescriptive. You are smart and grounded and know who you are. You live your brand every day. So we will never tell you what your brand is. Instead, we partner with you to guide you to uncovering and articulating it. Once we do that work together, we will refine and hone your brand message until it sings. Then, together, we will integrate strategy for how we share that with your ideal audience.

2. You will be branding long after we’re done. Our work long outlives our engagement. Our objective is to uncover and articulate a brand that lasts for the life of your business and teach you how to keep it going. We go that deep and are that specific and intentional. We don’t believe in drop-in consulting or learned helplessness. We don’t use taglines or manipulative, flash-in-the-pan marketing. We don’t want to sell you ongoing marketing tactics. Instead, we craft everything with a long-term mindset, hand it over, then stay available for future growth or strategy shifts, should they occur.

3. Your branding will touch every part of your business. Branding is everyone’s responsibility, not just the leader of the company or for the marketing director. It’s a practice everyone in your organization is already engaged in daily. We work to increase the organizational brand intelligence and solidify the common language of the brand. We engage with whole teams to roll out brand language and collaboratively apply it to sales, culture and HR, as well as brand and marketing.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

My advice to other entrepreneurs is multifold:

  • Develop a tribe. Entrepreneurialism is frequently lonely work. It requires a tribe for support, for curbing loneliness and isolation, and for challenging your thinking. It is too easy get stuck in the echo chamber of your mind and not have anyone to play devil’s advocate or challenge your thinking. As an entrepreneur, you need this.
  • Find someone to hold you accountable and love you up. Again, being an entrepreneur is arduous, constant and full of forks in the road. I have found that making progress depends on having someone holding you accountable because you will always have 1,000 things to do. The accountability person can help you focus on the one most important thing in front of you. This person can also be a cheerleader, a mirror for your successes and someone who loves on you on those days you feel crappy. I recommend this be someone outside of your business, like a coach, a mentor or a good friend who is also an entrepreneur.
  • Take breaks. It’s too easy to work your heart out as an entrepreneur. Pretty soon you’re also working your mind and your body off and de-prioritizing your friends and family, too. The sooner you can develop a discipline around taking breaks, taking time off, sequestering yourself in something joyous, goofing off regularly, and doing nothing at all regularly, the better you will be as a leader, and as a human.
  • Finally, tend to your brand by doing the deep work. Your brand is how other people experience what you believe. Your root beliefs are the reason people want to work with you. They power you every day. If articulated and shared, they could also be attracting people who believe what you believe, while repelling from you the people who do not believe what you believe. This repelling effect will save you so much time, energy and resources as an entrepreneur. Being truly different in your brand provides a huge return on investment.

Contact Emily

www.emjoyinc.com

@emilyatlarge

www.RootandRiver.com

@rootandriver

humans@rootandriver.com

Want More Interviews?

Click over to our blog for interviews, industry information, and more!

Did you catch our post about the history of women in technology last week? Even at Hammersmith Support, we learned a lot from that post! This week we’re excited to bring you a brief Q&A from several modern-day women in tech.

Question: What Advice Would You Give to Young Women Working in, or Aspiring to Work in the Technology Industry?

Preeti Adhikary, Director, AI Lead at Emergents @ Weild & Co. | Forbes Communication Council | Yale MAM’21

“There are a lot of technical and non-technical roles within the tech industry. My advice for women would be to know where they can start and also understand where they can end up. Never stop learning and improving/upskilling yourself. Be an active networker even when you’re not looking for a job.”

Alexandria Ross, Ross Consulting

“Persevere. Don’t cave in when times get tough. No matter what you are feeling on the inside, project calmness and coolness. We must continue to pave the way for women to change the tide and continue to make major inroads to tech. The old mindset is dying out and the new generation has the opportunity to be the change we want to see, equality in tech. I worked in tech when there were very few women, but my love for the technology fueled my determination.”

Kate Schneider, Director of Product, CYTK

“There are three key traits I’ve cultivated throughout my career that have proven extremely useful as I’ve navigated the occasionally treacherous waters of being a woman in technology. First is perseverance. I never give up unless all hope is gone or I’ve managed to find or create a more advantageous opportunity (I can’t stress enough the importance of networking to help with the latter). The second is curiosity. Not only is this a quality that leads to resourcefulness, it is an essential trait that I look for when hiring. The third is confidence – building it takes effort and what has served me very well countless times is wielding it when my scabbard appears empty. By choosing to trust my instincts and rely upon myself even when I wasn’t feeling it, I was able to push through difficult circumstances and take the necessary risks to succeed.”

Akemi Ueki, VP Marketing and Business Development, Biosensing Instrument

“Get an education, put in 100% effort and speak out! Women’s views bring new and refreshing perspectives in a male-dominated high tech world, so don’t be shy about speaking out.”

How Hammersmith Support Is Empowering Women in Business with Technical Training

As we continue this month with our focus on women, we want to continue to support women and empower them with skills to excel in the technology field. One of our core values is giving back and we want to help train not only women and girls, but everyone on the technology we use and empower others with the skills to manage their website and make technology less intimidating.

To expand our focus on our core value of giving back, we are offering free training sessions that include tips on how to maintain and understand your WordPress website.

Book your free WordPress training session today!

Last week, we touched on why gaining certification as a Woman-Owned Business matters. This week, we’ll add some context by looking at this in a bit more depth. How much do you know about the history of women in tech? Would it surprise you to know that the earliest coder was a mathematician named Ada Lovelace, who executed the first computer program in 1833? Or that women were responsible for programming as far back as World War II? Read on to find out more about women’s roots in the industry, where we are today, and what the future holds for women in tech.

Past

As far back as World War II, programming and coding were used to support the allied war effort – and the work was done predominantly by women. In fact, in the early 1940s, actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr created “frequency hopping,” using radio frequencies as a way of avoiding third-party jamming signals. Her invention is considered to be the precursor to Wi-Fi. Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, programming-related jobs, including punch-card operators and technicians who wrote instructions for room-sized computers, were considered secretarial. In general, men focused their efforts on hardware and women on software.

This trajectory continued through the mid-1980s until the advent of personal computers. At home, boys were more generally encouraged to foster computer skills, so that by the time they hit college, they had more confidence and experience with computers than did most girls. This early exposure, along with gender-biased treatment and promotions in larger companies, led to a steady decline of women in technology that has continued.

Present

Surprisingly, according to the New York Times, by 2010 the number of US women in technology-related fields had dropped to 17%. By contrast, in India, a country where women are faced with many additional barriers to education, including 8 p.m. curfews even in college, approximately 40% of students studying computer science are women. When interviewed, women in the US who had left the technology field cited issues such as lower pay for the same work and being left behind when promotions were available, despite being just as qualified if not more for positions. The excitement and love they had for their jobs had been squelched over the years in larger corporate environments.

Where Are We Now?

The good news? The future looks bright for women in tech. In early education, there is a greater emphasis on providing STEM-based learning to boys AND girls. Girls and boys alike are gaining early exposure to and experience with programming by playing code-based games like Osmo and Roblox. Many more student and young entrepreneur organizations are focusing on mentoring girls and young women, which can make a tremendous impact on their success in the field. Organizations such as Girls Who Code and Built by Girls offer opportunities for young women to learn the basics and beyond of programming, build confidence, and provide support for exploring technology-related questions. They focus on mentoring and empowering, helping to develop a network for girls and young women interested in entering technology-related fields.

Let Hammersmith Support Help Empower You and Your Business

At Hammersmith Support, we want to help ensure the future of technology is bright not just for women and girls, but for everyone. We believe in providing our customers with the very best service, empowering them to understand technology and supporting our community by modeling what it looks like to run a successful Woman-Owned Business.

Our core values are transparency, giving back and customer service. We want you to understand the technology you use so that you can be confident that you know how your website works and have a hand in keeping it working. To further our focus on our core values, we are offering free training sessions that include tips on how to maintain and understand your WordPress website.

Visit our Calendly link to book your free WordPress training session today!