Working mothers, particularly in the fast-paced tech industry, have a tendency to get left behind after taking their maternity leave. While there are numerous programs to encourage girls to become more interested in STEM fields, such as Girls Who Code and Iridescent, there is a glaring lack of resources available on the other side of the equation to provide training opportunities, flexibility, and midcareer boosts to keep women in tech after having children. If this problem remains unaddressed, data suggest that the issue will lead to a completely male-dominated industry. According to a 2013 study, half of female STEM professionals leave the field within 12 years, compared with less than 20 percent of women in other fields. And this doesn’t just mean these women switched to less competitive fields—STEM professionals are much more likely to leave the workforce altogether after having children. One of the main issues in overcoming this problem is addressing the institutional and cultural biases against women in the tech workplace. “Returning women,” as they are called, need to be embraced in order to close the industry’s enormous gender gap. “The tech industry is desperate for highly skilled workers,” observes Lisen Stromberg, author of Work, Pause, Thrive: How to Pause for Parenthood Without Killing Your Career. “They need to reframe their hiring policies so that women want to work for them.”