Women are historically underrepresented in both the technology and insurance industries, and COVID-19 isn’t helping things. According to the
With those considerations in mind, the insurtech Clearcover has announced a women-led STEM internship program. Created by company software engineers Grace Meilen and Gabby Williams, their goal is to give individuals from overlooked populations in the industry an opportunity. The leaders “want to change the narrative” with the STEM program after realizing “we were the only women in the room and knew it was a need for change,” says Meilen.
“I think it would be better if we could train a generation of younger, diverse engineers,” says Williams.
The percentage of women in the workforce has dropped to 57%, the lowest level since 1988, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Recent projections share that employment for women may not recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.
Interested applicants for the STEM internship will be embedded in a development team as they work on real production code. Interns will get full time experience to improve skills to push them to grow further, and to get a taste of being an engineer in the industry and gain the experience and additional knowledge to grow and be successful.
“We designed the internship process from an engineering perspective,” Meilen says. Williams adds that interns will be embedded into their teams the same way full-time employees are and encouraged to become familiar with other parts of the organization.
Clearcover will work with affiliates including boot camps, colleges, and skill schools to recruit female interns. Its goal is to work with institutions that also have a goal to improve diversity in the workforce. While applicants are encouraged to know one programming language to apply, it is not mandatory to because the organizers are willing to teach.
“I think we really want to focus on creating a space that is designed to support, not just for people who have historically made up this industry, but people that we want to make up this industry going forward and assure they stay in this industry,” says Meilian.
