Bitwise Industries Founder and MotherCoders Join Forces to Uplift and Empower Women in Tech

(April 2023)

Irma Olguin Jr. the founder of Bitwise Industries, a tech-focused social enterprise, and MotherCoders, a tech education nonprofit founded in 2013, have announced a partnership to form a new nonprofit called Bitwise Impact to expand and amplify the work of MotherCoders.

MotherCoders was established with a single mission: to help mothers advance their careers in technology. Founder Tina Lee, who started the organization after feeling that she did not belong in the tech industry, wanted to create a community where mothers could learn tech skills while having access to affordable childcare and social support. Over the past ten years, MotherCoders has helped thousands of women, with 70% of participants being women of color, and 68% increasing their average income. The organization has received support from tech giants such as Google and Facebook and has won several awards, including a finalist prize in the 2015 Bay Area Google Impact Challenge.

The partnership will build on the work of MotherCoders, especially in the wake of the Covid pandemic, which disproportionately impacted women and left many mothers struggling to balance work and caregiving. According to an April 2022 report published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, nearly 60% of parents cited lack of childcare as their reason for leaving the workforce. And since childcare responsibilities in the U.S. largely fall on the shoulders of moms, an estimated 1 million women are now missing form the labor force.

As a newly formed, wholly independent nonprofit, whose mission is to provide programs aimed at improving the lives of the underestimated and increasing workforce diversity, while working with community allies to build a more equitable society, Bitwise Impact will work to support apprenticeships for aspiring technologists that will soon include onsite childcare. As such, it will advance the next phase the MotherCoders mission to expand and diversify the tech talent pool across the 10 markets in which it operates, thereby carrying on the legacy of uplifting families and communities held back by systemic poverty and a lack of opportunities with a holistic approach to workforce and economic development.

Please check out MotherCoders Founder Tina Lee’s farewell message here.