Empowering Women in Engineering: AWE’s 2025 Roadmap at Attentive

Hey everyone! My name is Reagan Smith - I am a Staff Software Engineer at Attentive and the 2025 Chair of Attentive Women in Engineering (AWE). I’m excited to share what we have planned for 2025.

At Attentive, AWE is our employee resource group for women software engineers, where we build community and help foster equity and belonging. You can learn more about all of our ERGs that celebrate and support our diverse team on our website.

Having a diverse workforce isn’t just nice to have. Research shows that diverse teams lead to better outcomes for our customers.

• Gender-diverse teams innovate more. A 2019 Accenture and Girls Who Code report found that tech teams with equal gender representation were 1.4x more likely to innovate and build products that serve diverse users.
  
• Diverse product teams spot bias earlier. A World Economic Forum study showed that diverse engineering teams more effectively identify algorithmic bias and accessibility issues early in the product design process.
  
• Representation strengthens teams. According to NCWIT, gender-diverse software teams demonstrate stronger cohesion, better code reviews, and greater satisfaction with end products.
  

When we build with a broader range of perspectives, we build better — for everyone.

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At Attentive, building inclusive teams isn't the work of one ERG— it’s a shared commitment. AWE partners with leaders, allies, and teams across the company to help ensure women engineers have the opportunities, resources, and support they need to grow — and to make Attentive a place where women engineers can build rewarding careers. A few tangible changes we’ve helped drive:

• Highlighting “glue work” on the career ladder. Glue work — like facilitating team ceremonies, onboarding new engineers, interviewing, and helping build a strong culture — often falls on women, who are 48% more likely to volunteer for this work (source). We’ve worked to make sure this critical work is recognized and rewarded.
• Making tiger team selections public. A tiger team is a small, specialized group of experts brought together to solve a specific, high-stakes problem quickly and effectively. These ad hoc opportunities should be open to everyone — not just those tapped quietly by leadership. We’ve made that process more transparent so opportunities are open and equitable for everyone.‍
• Impacting career growth. Last promotion cycle, we saw a record number of women engineers promoted — a reflection of the talent on our team and equitable support structures we’ve helped to build. From mentorship programs to promotion workshops, we’ve invested in making career growth more transparent and achievable for everyone.

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What’s ahead for AWE in 2025?

The AWE leadership team has outlined three key priorities for this year. These will help us focus our time and energy where it matters most:

1. Create a culture of belonging in Engineering.
   We’re focused on fostering an environment where women engineers feel supported, seen, and set up to thrive. That means creating space for connection through regular community events, while also spotlighting achievements, sharing career growth stories, and building programs that help women advance and lead across the org.‍
2. Amplify the voices and experiences of women engineers to leadership.
   ‍We’re committed to surfacing themes and feedback from our members to leadership and partnering on solutions. This includes hosting career-focused programming — like our fireside chat with Tara Benjamin, our Senior Director of IT — to spotlight pathways to leadership and create space for candid conversation and connection.‍
3. Highlight Women’s Presence in the Hiring Process
   ‍We’re deepening our collaboration with recruiting by encouraging members to refer talented women in tech and by advocating for more balanced representation on interview panels. Our hope is that candidates meet a variety of voices and perspectives—giving them a clearer picture of our teams today and the inclusive culture we’re striving to build.

We’re excited for a big year ahead for AWE and Attentive. If you’re into building cool products and helping shape inclusive teams, we’d love to connect. Take a look at our open roles here!