Every year in March, the National Women's History Project celebrates Women in History Month. This year's theme is focusing on weaving the stories of women's lives and the impact they've had individually and as a whole on our nation's history. For centuries, women have been contributors in technology, and they've made a significant impression on the field.

Ada Lovelace is attributed with creating what many consider to be the first computer program in 1840. In 1946, Dr. Grace Hopper helped develop the Eniac, one of the first electronic digital computers. By the 1960s, women held 30 to 50% of programming jobs; however, that percentage has since decreased.

Today, women make up only 25% of the data technology field in totality. At Pragmatic Works, our staff consists of approximately 20% women — not unusual according to the book Women in Data.

However, there has been a growing movement surrounding encouraging young women to pursue technology as a career choice. According to a report from the University of California Berkley, the spring of 2014 saw an increase in the ratio of women to men in their introductory computer science class. The key is to engage girls when they are younger and encourage them to pursue an education in technology.

As encouragers of women in tech, our March free Training on the T's webinars will be presented by women who are leaders within the SQL community. As you can see below, they are breaking statistics and encouraging other women to join them in the exciting world of data technology.

March Training on the T's Free Webinars

Mickey Stuewe is currently is a consultant in California with a degree in statistics with a concentration on computer science. She has various certifications including a Microsoft Certified Training certification and recently wrote a book on Reporting Services. Her webinar topic, Creating SSRS Reports Efficiently through Best Practices, will be a great higher learning experience for those seeking stronger SSRS reporting skills.

March 3, 2015 11:00 AM EST

Hope Foley has over 13 years of experience in technology and is currently a Business Intelligence consultant in Indiana. Over the last 7 years, she has focused her career on database administration and architecture. Her webinar topic, Spatial Data - Looking Outside the Map, a topic with which she has vast experience, will cover the power of spatial data and how to utilize it for analytics.

March 5, 2015 11:00 AM EST

Jessica Moss is a well-known architect, speaker and author with over 10 years’ experience in SQL Server Business Intelligence. One area of her expertise is in dimensional modeling, so it’s no surprise that she chose to speak on Analysis Services: Multidimensional vs Tabular. This training session should be very insightful for those interested in learning about these model types.

March 10, 2015 11:00 AM EST

Amy Herold has been a Database Administrator for nearly 10 years. She has a passion for SQL Server and is constantly seeking new challenges. Focusing on the tool she believes every DBA should utilize, her webinar, Beginning Automation with Powershell, aims to answer all of your questions about how to get started and leverage Powershell to efficiently meet your needs.

March 12, 2015 11:00 AM EST

Ginger Grant is Pragmatic Works’ own Business intelligence Consultant. She has been pursuing her passion for technology since her youth, and she is MCA, MCP and MCTS certified. Her webinar, Predicting the Future with Machine Learning, will allow you to analyze cloud data.

March 1, 2015 11:00 AM EST

Shannon Holck is a Business Intelligence Engineer for National Cinemedia Media Networks in Denver, CO, working primarily with the Microsoft BI stack. A former Microsoft Certified Trainer and Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, Shannon traveled the world teaching C#, VB.NET, VB6, Java, Web development, and MS Office. Her webinar, Using Power BI to Identify Business Process Inefficiencies, will teach quick and easy ways build models and create visualizations to tell the data story.

March 19, 2015 11:00 AM EST

Cathrine Wilhelmsen is a Data Warehouse Solution Architect and a Business Intelligence Developer from Oslo, Norway. She recently won the peer-chosen Best New Community Voice Award for 2014. She’s a Microsoft Certified IT Professional and sits on the board of her local SQL Server User Group. Her webinar, Table Partitioning in SQL Server: A Magic Solution for Better Performance, will prove to be very beneficial in speeding up your tables.

March 26, 2015 11:00 AM EST

Wendy Pastrick is a Pragmatic Works’ Platform Database Consultant. With over 15 years’ experience and is a Microsoft MVP. She sits on the Board of Directors for PASS and is very active in the SQL Server community. Her training session, Demystifying AlwaysOn, will explore all the ins and outs of AlwaysOn for high-availability options.

March 31, 2015 11:00 AM EST

With their vast experience and stellar qualifications, these women will bring insightful and thoughtful lessons to their webinars. To learn more about any of our upcoming webinars or to register, please visit the Free Training on the T’s section of our website.