In 2016, technology is used every minute of every day in some way, shape, or form. Daily usage ranges from checking your Instagram feed to Googling a question you are too embarrassed to ask — in which Google returns 20,000 answers in 0.04 seconds. Thus, it is not a shock to anyone that technology has grown incredibly fast in the past decade. For instance, every car produced today has more computing power than the Apollo 11 rocket that put a person on the moon. IBM’s Watson is diagnosing cancer more accurately than oncologists. Farmers are using satellites and weather predictions to increase harvests.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Tech Industry is projected to double in size by 2020. With only 26 percent of women working in technology, "Girls Who Code," a nonprofit organization, is aiming to close the gender gap in the industry by training young women in software development. To date, "Girls Who Code" has educated more than 3,000 high-school age girls and has set the goal to reach one million young women by 2020.

Why is this important? Is it not just another excuse for women to fight for equal pay?

To start off, we aren't even talking about equal pay. We are talking about women seeking opportunities that spark their initial interest instead of being categorized into not liking math or science because they are in a "Man's Field."

If women don’t participate in tech, they are losing the chance to influence the largest economic and social change of this century.The fact that women represent such a small portion of the tech workforce shouldn’t just be a wake-up call, it should be a Sputnik moment. It threatens our country’s continued economic prominence and risks our future competitiveness. It should awaken all of us to act.

If we want the U.S to continue innovating and creating new ideas that revolutionize the way we live, the female perspective is needed in order to provide insight and progress into the future.