Leanne Pittsford, the founder of Lesbians Who Tech, which is home to the largest number of LGBTQ+ technologists in the world has truly paved the way for LGTBQ+ individuals interested in the technological field. She has made it her mission to ensure that visibility within the tech world is achieved, as society becomes more diverse. Leanne has employed 40,000 LGBTQ+ women, nonbinary, queer women of color and allies within her company worldwide. To reach tech enthusiast nationwide she attended the annual San Francisco Summit leading to over 5,000 people in attendance thus making Lesbians Who Tech the largest LGBTQ+ professional event in the world and largest event for women in tech in the state of California. Her work overall has revolutionized the number of women and LGBTQ+ people to work and contribute to the tech world.
Before the founding of Lesbians Who Tech, Leanne worked for Equity California. This LGBTQ+ group worked to overturn Prop 8 which banned same sex marriage in California. During her time there, she became the head of operations for this organization working countless hours to ensure this proposition was overturned. Her activism and passion lead to the successful overturning of this proposition.
In addition to her influential activism role, she founded the platform Squad jobs. Squad jobs is a mentoring and recruitment platform that focuses on underrepresented technologists. This specific team’s focus is to eliminate bias in the recruiting world, ensuring that the hiring process is fair for all applicants. Squad jobs has successfully allowed for a stronger more diverse applicant pool allowing the fear of lack of diversity to be diminished.
Leanne, as an individual, has without a doubt impacted the job world for the better. In her efforts to create a more inclusive workplace for women, nonbinary and people of the LGBTQ+ community, she has facilitated millions of jobs for this community of people. If you are interested in a career in tech or have any questions about your career journey, making an appointment with a career coach would be an advantageous service to consider.
Photo credit to https://lesbianswhotech.org/about/#lwt-team
