2026 WIT Awards: Nominations Are Now Open
Do you know a woman who’s leading the way in technology?
The WIT Awards recognize the remarkable women who explore, pursue, persist, and lead in technology — and the organizations making that possible. Nominations are open now.
Nominations close: May 29, 2026 / Awards Night: October 22, 2026
What’s New in 2026
After hearing from people across the WIT community, we’ve redesigned our awards framework around one core idea: Recognize the individual leader, not the company on her business card.
This year’s changes are designed to open the door wider and reflect the full arc of a technology career, and make sure we’re celebrating what matters most.
Key changes from 2025 include:
- There is no longer a 1-year tenure requirement for Woman of the Year nominees.
- We’ve renamed “Single Mother of the Year” to “SMP Success Award.” This is now open to all WIT Single Mothers’ Program graduates who are active in the Graduate Success Network, not just the most recent cohort.
- We’ve replaced the categories based on company size (Small/Medium/Large) with impact-based subcategories (Enterprise, Organizational, Emerging Executive).
- WIT staff will now assign specific subcategories after reviewing nominee applications; Nominators will not need to select a subcategory.
- We’ve developed tighter criteria for the Woman to Watch award to help zero in on the women making the biggest impact.
- We’ve added clear prompts for judges to reduce subjectivity.
- We’ve created clearer eligibility boundaries and disqualifiers to reduce misclassification.
Award Categories
Early Career Excellence Award
This award recognizes an early-career professional in technology whose initiative, creativity, and investment in others significantly exceed what is typical at her stage. This award is for leaders who are not waiting for permission to make an impact.
Who qualifies: An early-career professional in a technology or tech-enabled role with no formal management role. Women who are already leading teams or managing people can be nominated for Woman to Watch.
Woman to Watch
This award recognizes a mid-career leader in technology who has already delivered measurable results beyond her formal role, expanded her scope of influence over time, and made a deliberate, visible investment in advancing others. This is one of the most competitive WIT categories. General leadership ability and strong performance are not sufficient. Nominees must demonstrate specific, attributable impact and a clear trajectory toward executive leadership.
Who qualifies: A woman at the manager through director level in a technology or tech-enabled role. She is not yet a VP, C-suite, or an entrepreneurial leader at an equivalent level of executive accountability. Years of experience are not a qualifier; the role-based boundary is. If she is already managing people or leading teams at any career stage, this is the right category.
Woman of the Year
This is WIT’s highest honor. The award recognizes executive-level leaders who are accountable for significant, measurable outcomes, and whose leadership has created change that extends well beyond themselves. Nominees are evaluated on their body of work, not their current role or tenure.
Who qualifies: A woman with executive-level accountability for strategy, people, and outcomes. Title does not determine eligibility; what matters is the scope and nature of her ownership. Women in non-traditional titles, government, academic, startup, or mission-driven organizations who hold equivalent accountability are eligible and actively encouraged to apply. Women in career transition or layoff may be considered based on their recent body of work. The 1-year tenure requirement has been eliminated for 2026.
Woman of the Year Subcategories
The Woman of the Year award recognizes leaders across three subcategories: Enterprise Executive, Organizational Executive, and Emerging Executive. You do not need to select a subcategory when you nominate or submit an application. After applications are submitted, an internal WIT team will review each nominee’s application and assign the subcategory that best reflects the nature and scope of her impact. Every nominee is evaluated on the same criteria — what differs is the lens through which her contributions are recognized.
Enterprise Executive Impact
For executives who have delivered sustained, large-scale impact within a major or highly complex organization. The scale signal here is the environment itself: large enterprises, major institutions, or complex divisions where navigating size, geography, competing stakeholders, and organizational complexity is part of the leadership challenge. A long-tenured CIO at a Fortune 500, a division president at a major healthcare system, or a technology executive leading transformation across a global enterprise all fit here. What distinguishes this category from Organizational Impact is not whether influence crosses org boundaries, but rather the scale and sustained nature of what she has led and the complexity of the environment in which she has operated.
Organizational Executive Impact
For executives driving meaningful, measurable transformation within their organization, regardless of company size. This is the anchor category where the strongest nominees will land. The signal is the depth of change: What is fundamentally different because of her leadership? This includes executives at mid-sized companies, entrepreneurial leaders scaling a business, and executives at large organizations whose primary impact is within a specific function or division rather than at enterprise scale. Results should be specific and attributable: what changed, and why does it matter?
Emerging Executive Impact
For executives who are early in their executive leadership journey but are already delivering results that significantly exceed what would be expected at their tenure level. The key signal is disproportionate impact relative to time in the role: She has not waited to make her mark. First-time executives, recently promoted leaders, and entrepreneurial leaders in the earlier stages of scaling belong here. This is not a lesser category; it is a different lens. A nominee here may well outperform nominees in the other subcategories in terms of raw trajectory and momentum.
The following categories are self-nomination/application only.
Girl of the Year
Recognizes a high school student who demonstrates genuine curiosity, initiative, and growing confidence in exploring technology, and who lifts others around her in the process.
Who qualifies: Junior or senior high school girl who has participated in at least one WIT Girls program during their high school years.
Campus Club of the Year
Recognizes an official WIT Campus Club that has created meaningful opportunities for students to connect, develop skills, and build confidence and community in technology.
Who qualifies: Official WIT Campus Club in good standing during the award year, led primarily by students with faculty or staff support as applicable. Must demonstrate active engagement during the academic year.
SMP Excellence
Recognizes a graduate of WIT’s Single Mothers’ Program who is thriving in her technology career, growing her skills, delivering real results, and showing what is possible when determination meets opportunity. This award celebrates not where she started, but how far she has come and where she is headed.
This award is open to all graduates of WIT’s Single Mothers’ Program who are active members of the Graduate Success Network, regardless of which program year they completed. It is not limited to the most recent cohort.
Who qualifies: Any graduate of WIT’s Single Mothers Program who is an active member of the Graduate Success Network and is currently working in, or actively building toward, a technology or tech-enabled role. Eligible at any career stage. Previous winners are not eligible.
Calendar at a Glance
2026 WIT Awards / Key Dates
- Awards Nominations — Close May 29, 2026
- Nominee Applications — Close June 12, 2026 (must have a nomination for this step)
- Honoree Announcement — First week of July
- Finalist Announcement — Mid-August
- Finalist In-Person Interviews — September 18, 2026
- Awards Ceremony In-Person Event — October 22, 2026