Amazon’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for women and girls

Amazon Future Engineer is a comprehensive childhood-to-career programme that inspires, educates and enables young people from lower-income backgrounds to realise their potential in computer science.

Since its launch in 2019, Amazon Future Engineer has forged relationships with organisations such as Teach First and the Royal Academy of Engineering to address issues identified as barriers for entry in STEM fields for children and young adults from underserved backgrounds. The programme is estimated to have reached over 190,000 students from lower-income backgrounds through its wider engagement and initiatives by the close of 2021.

Women are still significantly underrepresented in engineering and technology. Last year, Amazon, the Royal Academy of Engineering and BecomingX launched a film series called ‘Engineering Heroes’ which profiled pioneering women engineers Dame Stephanie Shirley CH DBE FREng, Ursula Burns FREng, and Professor Sue Black OBE to challenge public perception of engineering as well as inspire the next generation of young people, from all genders, ethnicities and parts of society.

Find out more about Amazon Future Engineer.

The Amazon Future Engineer bursary is a national bursary programme aimed at supporting women A-level and BTEC/OCR(or Scottish equivalent) students from low-income households who wish to study computer science or related engineering courses at UK universities.

Women are still significantly underrepresented in engineering and technology in higher education. UCAS data on university application and acceptance figures for the 2020 cycle highlighted that women represent just 16% and 18% of accepted applications to computing and engineering degrees respectively.

These bursaries aim to help address underrepresentation and accelerate the rate of progress. They will provide successful women applicants with a financial support package worth up to £20,000 to cover expenses related to attending university, including tuition fees or accommodation and living costs.

Find out more about Amazon Future Engineer Bursaries.

AWS GetIT is an initiative designed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) to encourage girls aged 12-13 to consider a career in tech – challenging long standing gender stereotypes.

Running between the autumn and spring terms of the school year, AWS GetIT invites teams from different schools to an app-building competition to solve real issues faced by their school or community. Along the way, participants learn practical digital and IT skills, experience working as a team, and gain self-confidence by presenting ideas to wider audiences – all while being exposed to IT as a potential career. Since AWS GetIT’s launch in 2018, tens of thousands of students from schools across the UK have participated in the programme.

Find out more about AWS GetIT programme.

There are 13 global affinity groups within Amazon and among these are networks dedicated to supporting, connecting and empowering women such as Women at Amazon, Women in Finance & Global Business Services, and Families@. Women at Amazon is a global affinity group for women, non-binary employees and allies at Amazon with over 80 chapters worldwide. Women at Amazon is committed to attracting, developing and retaining women in both tech and non-tech roles across all of Amazon's businesses.

The Women in Finance & Global Business Services (FGBS) Initiative (WiFi) is a group for Amazon women in FGBS and their advocates to network, partner, and be part of a larger community. WiFi focuses on recruitment, retention, advancement, and allyship.

Families@Amazon’s mission is to share knowledge, foster career growth, and cultivate community connections among families, while advocating for policies that help make Amazon a great place to work.

The reverse mentoring program pairs a junior employee mentor senior employee mentee. Where a typical mentoring program may focus on a senior employee offering career guidance, reverse mentoring empowers junior employees to act as mentors; explaining their lived experiences with relation to factors including gender, race, disability, caring responsibilities, sexual orientation and others, and considering how their personal journeys have impacted their professional careers. Senior leaders, as mentees, are able to consider experiences that may differ from their own, and are given opportunities to learn about DEI topics in a real, tangible manner, ultimately becoming more inclusive leaders.

Employees are encouraged to participate in the many mentorship programmes and career events available. Many of our employees are mentored by more senior colleagues to help them specifically with career development.

We also offer a peer-to-peer mentoring programme that gives employees the opportunity to learn from their peers and a senior Amazon leader. Throughout the year employee complete compulsory unconscious bias training and attend events and training from different business teams on areas like challenging bias and managing stress.

Feedback in a 2019 research study conducted by Amazon and WISE listed ‘lack of confidence’ as the top blocker for women contribution in the workplace. In March 2019 Amazon Amplify was launched, designed to help participants from all backgrounds with actionable tips that enable them to speak up, become a better ally and lead inclusively.

Amazon Amplify is broken up into two sessions, one for all employees and one for senior leadership and has been delivered to thousands of employees.

Bias Busters, launched at Amazon in 2020, is an initiative which our leaders adopt to help identify and counteract bias in the talent review process. This lets us have frank, honest discussions about biases that may be impacting employees and take action where necessary to ensure employees are assessed fairly and equitably.

We are members of WISE who aim to achieve gender equality in STEM by driving diversity across the UK. In 2019 we also became a signatory to the WISE Ten Steps Commitments to help us improve gender diversity by retaining and attracting women talent.

Amazon’s partnership with WISE provides access for Amazon employees to training courses, public speaking masterclasses, online networks and greater access to events.

Find out more about the WISE Ten Steps programme.

We are members of EveryWoman, who connect organisations across the world with inspiring, informative and educational content. Amazon’s partnership with EveryWoman provides access for Amazon employees to training courses, public speaking masterclasses, online networks and events to help them progress their careers and overcome common challenges that women face in the workplace.

Find out more about EveryWoman.