OutGeekWomen’s Contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The UN SDGs provide a blueprint for human progress and a clear call to action for businesses to contribute to a better future. While it might seem a little too far from our daily work routines, the SDGs serve as guidelines for the steps we take —when working on rebuilding our workplace policies, choosing business partners, or designing an inclusive and productive office environment. At OutGeekWomen, we strongly believe that little steps in the right direction will result in major changes. Join us on our journey.

OutGeekWomen - Women in Tech
3 min readFeb 1, 2022
UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, the United Nations launched 17 Sustainable Development Goals to fight inequality and injustice, end poverty, and tackle climate change. Because we’re in tech, we will focus on goals that are accessible to us, and gender equality — and equity — is something that we can contribute to. Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is integral to each of the 17 goals.

Gender discrimination doesn’t only hold too many women back, but it also holds companies and economies back too. The economy can not operate at its full potential with hurdles for half of its contributors, which brings us to the next point: gender parity is not only a fundamental human right but also a critical economic opportunity. In tech, it’s an opportunity for both small companies and tech giants.

A 2020 report from McKinsey titled Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters, found that diverse companies perform better, have more engaged employees, and retain workers better than companies that do not focus on D&I. Diversity wins is the third report in a McKinsey series investigating the business case for diversity, following Why diversity matters (2015) and Delivering through diversity (2018). Diversity Wins shows not only that the business case remains robust but also that the relationship between diversity on executive teams and the likelihood of financial outperformance has strengthened over time.

We enable inclusive and diverse teams

We have identified three priority SDGs that will enable us and our partners to make our social, and economic contributions and accelerate the delivery of other SDGs.

OutGeekWomen’s priority SDGs — Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Partnership for the Goals
  • SDG5: Gender Equality. Structural drivers of gender inequality must be dismantled.
  • SDG8: Decent Work And Economic Growth. Promote decent and productive employment with fair compensation.
  • SDG17: Partnerships For The Goals. Strengthen the means of implementation and partnerships for accelerated career and economic growth.

We encourage companies to think beyond established hiring and employee retention practices and consider the impact of their decisions on the local communities and beyond. At OutGeekWomen, we are committed to playing our role and we believe we can increase the speed and scale of progress across the number of SDGs by leveraging our passion for events and diversity, quality of our services, and partnerships with progressive employers that support our mission.

OutGeek x Women is a leading series of tech events, with a primary focus on empowering the voices of women in the tech industry. Supported by remarkable companies like SpaceX, Google, Cognizant, Amazon, DECIEM, Allianz, CCC Intelligent Solutions, McMaster-Carr, Accedo, and numerous others, our mission centers on advocating for women in tech and establishing a supportive community for those seeking career advancement.

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