Reflecting on our growing community: 2025 Highlights
By Adriana Wilde and Cigdem Sengul
As 2025 comes to an end, we would like to take the opportunity to look back over the past year of ACM-W newsletters and reflect on the themes emerging from our discourse. What stands out most is that our community is growing in scale, confidence, and global reach, and the ACM-W newsletter has been shaping into a vehicle for telling the stories of a vibrant, expanding community of women in computing. The ACM-W communications team has been making every effort to provide an effective outlet to celebrate achievements, share career narratives, and strengthen connections across regions. We have welcomed two new amazing volunteers into our team, Jessica Yauney and Fawzia Kara-Isitt, to support this endeavour.
Chapters’ Growth and Strengthened Networks
Whilst our earlier newsletters regularly reported chapter activities, the emphasis has now shifted towards celebrating the scale and diversity of the ACM-W community. This year’s posts have celebrated chapter growth as a globally strategic milestone, the international engagement with our maturing global network, and the accounts of their leaders at a personal level.
Indeed, one of the most visible developments this year has been the rapid expansion of ACM-W chapters worldwide. In our post “New ACM-W Chapters in Q2–Q3 2025” (by Asegul “Ace” Hulus, member of the Global Chapters Committee), we highlighted the creation of 24 new student and professional chapters across multiple continents, our largest in recent memory. We have also celebrated the stories of volunteers supporting this growth in “HERSTORIES: Professional Chapters Committee”. Asegul also took us on a global virtual journey, visiting each ACM-W Professional Chapter. And through her articles, we got to know the leaders of many chapters across the globe, understand their challenges and find joy in their successes.
Celebrating Excellence: Awards, Fellows and Rising Stars
A second noticeable shift has been the increased prominence of award announcements and profiles of leaders across ACM-W. As per Billie-Jean King’s words, “if you can see it, you can be it.” The newsletter is committed to enhancing the visibility of women in computing by highlighting their achievements, including notable scholars, early-career “Rising Stars,” and other visible role models, e.g., through interviews with ACM Fellows and Rising Star Award recipients.
These stories offer recognition and visibility of role models for students, early-career researchers, and mid-career professionals. Unlike typical award announcements, we aimed to integrate awardees’ voices, career reflections, and community impact to provide a more authentic opportunity to connect with the leaders shaping computing today.
Renewed Energy Around Events and Community Gatherings
An increasing number of in-person gatherings and celebrations has brought renewed energy to the newsletter. In September, womENcourage 2025 created a welcoming atmosphere and strong community spirit, bringing together women to network, share stories, run workshops, and deliver insightful talks. We look forward to womENcourage 2026, which will continue to showcase the growth and impact of this flagship celebration of women in computing. We have also reported exciting events with emerging leaders at “Scientia Karachi ACM Celebration of Women in Computing” in Pakistan co-hosted by the Scientia Karachi ACM-W Chapter and Habib University (September) and ACM Celebration of Women in Computing, organized by the NUS ACM Student Chapter, at the National University of Singapore – they have become buddy chapters with the new Monash Malaysia chapter (May). Furthermore, the first collaboration between ACM-W, ComSoc WICE and N2Women took place as a panel at IEEE INFOCOM 2025 in London in May.
In April, OCWiC Celebrated 20 Years of Supporting, Celebrating, and Advocating for Ohio’s Women in Computing! In March, ACM-W North America hosted a booth at the SIGCSE TS 2025 Conference and connected with passionate educators, researchers, and advocates for gender equity in computing. ACM Celebration of Women in Computing at Kiel University, which featured a women’s talk marathon. In February, we celebrated with Air University at the Multan Campus.
We look forward to many more of these events and gatherings in the new year!
Supporting Scholarship and Diverse Pathways into Computing
Scholarships and student opportunities remain a central element of the newsletter, but recently, we have shared more reflections on where these initiatives have led recipients. In particular, we have restarted the series “Above and Beyond Scholarship” project, where Jessica Yauney will be following up with ACM-W past recipients to share stories about their research, leadership activities, and contributions to their communities. Our new series, U-RISE: Unconventional Routes into Computing – Re-Imagining Skills & Entry, led by Fawzia Kara-Isitt, aims to question the “typical” pathways into computing and to recognise and highlight the diversity of career trajectories.
A Community Growing in Scope, Visibility and Confidence: A View to the Future
Our newsletters and social media posts have become more
- global, with a continued chapter growth and reports from regions given prominence.
- celebratory, giving visibility to achievements, awards, and leadership.
- narrative-driven, with personal stories, interviews, and reflections.
- interconnected, with events, chapters and committees cross-referenced throughout.
This trajectory reflects the broader development of ACM-W as an international organisation whose activities and impact continue to grow. In our January article last year, we promised continuing Celebrating Technology Leaders webinar series! Our final webinar aired in June, where Adriana talked with Women Driving Innovation in Open Source. Stay tuned for new developments in this area, where we are hoping to bring the voices of ACM-W closer to our community.
As we move forward, we welcome chapters and members to share their stories, achievements and reflections. Your contributions shape the voice of ACM-W and help us celebrate the remarkable breadth and strength of our global community.
