‘Their history is just erased’: Google drops a key program for boosting women in tech

By CNN Newsource

Published October 23, 2025 5:00 AM

By Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — The email that said the career resource program for women would no longer be part of Google was terse and followed months of eroding support. But the deletion of years of Women Techmakers’ work came as a significant shock to its members.

“Everything that I ever hosted and facilitated for Women Techmakers is gone. And there are just as many ambassadors who were in the community that put in so much effort to be part of this, (and) their history just erased,” Sherry Yang, an engineering manager in Canada and an ambassador for the group, told CNN.

Google earlier this month offloaded the key career resource program for supporting women in tech and severed its integration within the company. The decision was communicated to members in a short email with little explanation earlier this month. It left members feeling surprised, upset and sidelined as the company removed years’ worth of content and videos they created.

The end of Women Techmakers served as another sign the search giant is unwinding its diversity programs as such initiatives face increasing political pressure.

Google announced an external organization called Technovation will take over the group, but members of Women Techmakers told CNN they feel they have lost an important direct association and pipeline with one of the world’s most influential technology companies.

“The message it sends to women in tech, and really women in general, is that we cannot count on unwavering support from big corporations,” Vassiliki Dalakiari, a former Women Techmakers ambassador and AI research and development manager in Greece, told CNN. “We need to keep speaking up until we are heard. Google helped to do that, and they decided to quietly turn their back on us.”

Google declined to comment. A person with knowledge of the program said that Google is supporting and providing funding to Technovation through the transition phase and that the company believes in Technovation’s “ability to execute impactful, global programs.”

Technovation CEO Tara Chklovski told CNN that the organization is getting funding from Google “to provide deeper programmatic support” to Women Techmaker members. The group will still have access to events, programs and “technology leaders from multinational companies from around the world (in addition to Google),” she said.

But the members say they feel tossed aside by Google after years of building a community many said helped them in their career and personally, as they forged their careers in a male-dominated industry.

‘Big fat silence’

Women Techmakers started at Google in 2012 to provide “visibility, community, and resources for women in technology” around the world through trainings, scholarships and event funding, regardless of whether they worked at Google. The most involved and experienced members could become ambassadors and even get funding to help them attend Google developer events.

But in February, Google told employees that it would no longer set diversity hiring targets and would evaluate its other diversity programs. The company said as a federal contractor, it needed to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion programs for government agencies and contractors.

Members of Women Techmakers who spoke to CNN said they started noticing a shift since then.

One member of Women Techmakers based in Asia, who asked to only be identified as Tia, said it became increasingly difficult for ambassadors to get support for events and travel funding.

Dalakiari told CNN that Women Techmakers Ambassadors did not receive the same level of support as they had in the past for the company’s Berlin developers conference over the summer.

“There was no travel coverage, no invitation to the community events or meetups. It felt like we were included in name, but not in practice,” she told CNN.

Then, in early October, members received short emails, obtained by CNN, informing them that the program would end at Google and shift to Technovation, which started as a youth technology education organization 20 years ago.

Technovation says its mission is expanding to include adults and has vowed to maintain Women Techmakers’ mission and approach – as well as access to Google events and programs. But many women in tech said Google’s handling of the news signalled it wanted to quickly distance itself from diversity programs.

“No global call. No formal announcement. No real explanation… just an email, and a big fat silence since then,” Leyla Damoisaux-Delnoy, a Brussels-based data scientist, posted on LinkedIn. “When a company’s commitment to equality ends with an email, it says a lot about what the commitment was really worth.”

Several members CNN spoke to said they were shocked when Women Techmakers YouTube videos and LinkedIn posts were removed without warning. For some members like Yang, that meant vital proof of their work with the global internet juggernaut — like videos of events they led and panels they moderated — suddenly disappeared.

Tia said she and other members are feeling “something between devastation and rage.”

“Ending a global women-in-tech program without informing or engaging its most active contributors sends a clear message and it’s disappointing,” Dalakiari said. “WTM made a real difference, and I’m not sure that decision reflects the values many of us signed up to represent.”

Women in tech programs flailing

Google’s decision to offload oversight of Women Techmakers is just the latest indication that tech giants are scaling back their diversity programs this year.

Tech workers active in programs meant to support women in the field told CNN they have seen a noticeable shift in funding and support in recent years.

Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who studies workplace inequality, said tech firms previously made investments to improve women’s representation after facing scrutiny from gender equality organizations, federal regulators and their own employees.

But things changed in 2025.

“The pressure from the federal government is off, and now they actually fear that the Trump administration will come after them if they have any targeted programs,” he said.

Internally, more tech companies like Amazon and Meta are culling their diversity programs.

Earlier this year, Dell shut down its Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN). The company told CNN in a statement that the sunsetting of the women’s program coincided with shutting down their “Dell for Startups” program and is part of a “broader internal business strategy shift.”

“Our commitment to empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs and fostering an inclusive workplace and ecosystem remains unwavering,” the company said in part.

Members of Google’s Women Techmakers program told CNN they believe Technovation is a reputable organization with good intentions. But they’re concerned that it won’t have the same funding or impact as a company with the size, resources and recognition of Google.

Still, company culture matters more than dedicated programs when it comes to supporting women and other groups, Tomaskovic-Devey said.

“It probably does not matter much if targeted programs return. What matters is if Google, or any of the other big tech firms, actually manage their workplaces so that everyone feels respected and included,” Tomaskovic-Devey said. “Poor management will lead to backsliding where it really matters, in the diversity, productivity, and creativity of their workforces.”