Advocating for Women in Tech

I still get excited when I see women in leadership, I love it when I see women smashing it and doing well.  But I don’t want to get excited by it, I want it to be the norm and not the novelty.  We should celebrate women in the world of tech, but recognise we still have a way to go.

Gender Equality

Let’s throw some numbers at you to set the stage.

Looking across all industries, nearly half (46%) of entry-level positions are held by women, makes sense, we’re half the population. But this almost halves to one in four (25%) at the C-suite level. Then, when we look at the C-suite roles in STEM industries, it halves again to one in eight (12%).  That makes less sense.

In tech companies, only 1 in 4 leadership roles are women and we’re still only 30% of the overall workforce in tech. 

Let’s stay on trend with AI. Women make up less than 26% of the AI workforce, that’s a future problem for us all if there's a risk of unconscious bias in AI systems. Especially as the numbers go even lower when you look at some of the big tech working in the AI space: 15% at Facebook and 10% at Google. So bear that in mind when you’re critically evaluating AI outputs, and if you’re in a position of influence, advocate for women to join the industry or your teams.

Why does it matter? Because diverse companies perform better, and because retaining women in the workforce, removing barriers, and reducing the gender pay gap can have a significant impact on the economy. Research shows GDP in the UK could be boosted by £125bn if we address this issue. 

The good news is these numbers are all growing so progress is being made, but what more can we do?

Mentorship and Development

All organisations should be creating:

• Leadership development programmes for women
• Mentoring schemes for women
• Opportunities to showcase women in tech as role models
• Education for awareness of unconscious bias
• Networking and learning groups for women
• Diversity and inclusion initiatives
• Gender paygap reporting
• Formal recognition mechanisms for achievements and progress 

 

Advocacy

Women supporting women will always mean a lot to me.  Let’s continue to provide each other with a supportive environment for our ideas, businesses, and careers to grow. Show up to the events, like and repost women generated content, mentor others and embody that saying: ‘we all rise when we lift each other’.

We need good men (shall I just stop the sentence there? Kidding!).  We need good men as allies to champion women, advocate for women to progress into leadership roles, highlight the achievements and ideas of women, make sure women are represented in the room and at the events and on the panels. Help us make the progress we need. You can tell yourself it's just for the good of the organisation and the economy if that helps.

We also need to continue to highlight the importance of STEM in education, particularly getting women involved at a young age.  Digital skills need to be funded and we need to advocate for educational opportunities for all.

Inclusive Workplaces

I’ve been lucky that I’ve not experienced any aggressive sexism or discrimination in my career, I’ve worked with some amazing men who have supported me.  But I have had thoughtless comments – I remember when I used to travel a lot on projects, and a senior exec asked me who was looking after my child to enable me to travel?  A nice polite, thoughtful enquiry, right?  But he wasn’t asking the fathers in the room the same question, it was just the norm that men could do these jobs but, in his eyes, it was odd for a woman, a mother, to be there too.  And this is the thing, there is often no malicious intent in treating women differently, or overlooking them for promotion, and that’s why we call it ‘unconscious bias’.  I did ask him who was looking after his children and I think he understood then, but ongoing conversations in this arena matter.

But creating diverse and inclusive workplaces is more than just women – it’s gender, race, religion, ability, sexuality.  And it’s not just a checkbox exercise like those ‘go woke, go broke’ fools think it is, having diverse perspectives gives you an advantage in solving problems, creating innovative solutions, and connecting with a wider audience for your products and services.

We also need to be removing barriers for joining or staying in the workforce.  That means flexible and remote working, it means making childcare accessible and affordable, and it means continually offering training opportunities.  None of these should be women only issues, but unfortunately it still does predominantly affect women. I had high hopes for a while that the pandemic would create that permanent shift to remote working which would help more women be able to work in the areas they wanted to, but the research is showing that since the pandemic there’s been an increase in women leaving the workforce compared to men, women experiencing gender-based violence, and increases in unpaid labour such as caring for relatives. All organisations, and government policies, can do better to address this.

Finally, pay us equal to men for equivalent roles, it's not hard. If you have the data to calculate your gender pay gap, you already know who is affected and how much is needed to close it. Instead of celebrating incremental progress, take action and fix it.

Positive Mindset

I could talk about this all day, and I’ve become much better at it with practice, but to progress in our careers we can’t sit back and wait for all these institutional issues to be resolved, we need self-belief and we need to drive ourselves forward, and get in the rooms we need to be in.

Every morning I recite my positive affirmations – they change as needed, but often: ‘I am successful, I am attracting opportunities, I am good at making things happen’.  The more I do this, the more I believe it and the more it gives me the confidence to propel myself forward, even to do things like post this article.  I believe what I have to say is worthy and can offer value to others.

This positive thinking does have a grounding in neuroscience.  One of the favourite things I’ve learned in this area is about the reticular activating system in the brain.  This is the part of the brain that processes millions of incoming pieces of information throughout our day, and it’s responsible for bringing things to our attention that is relevant to us, that we need to know.  This is why when you buy a new car you think that no one else has that car, and then all of a sudden you see that car everywhere. Or you make a big impulse purchase, and then the following days you see advertisements for furniture sales that would have been useful before you spent all that money.  But it's because the brain now deems it worthy information to bring to your attention.  So, if your brain is thinking positively, looking for opportunities and ideas to help your career, this is the information your brain will present to you, and it will provide evidence to confirm that cognitive bias, that yes, you actually are good at making things happen! 

We also need to get better at self-promotion.  I don’t know many women who are comfortable at doing that.  I often wonder if my LinkedIn is too ‘me, me, me’ and it can feel embarrassing when I’m talking about my career journey at events – am I coming across as over-confident?  Do not let that self-doubt in.  It’s important to showcase yourself, not just to get yourself more clients or that promotion, but because it’s important for other women to see that it’s OK to shout about your wins, and actually, it’s very motivational, I love seeing that with other women.  One tip I can offer if you’re still not comfortable doing it, get yourself a group of women and have an agreement where you post about or speak up in meetings about the achievements or good ideas of each other.  (I am more than happy to do that for you, drop me a message with anything you’d like me to celebrate for you). Highlight your contributions whenever possible, whether in meetings, on social media, or at industry events. Speaking up not only spurs on others, but it also boosts your visibility, solidifies your reputation and combats the underrepresentation of women in tech roles.

Networking

I’m convinced nobody really likes networking, is it just me? It could be, I am an introvert.  I liken networking events to going to the gym; for both I sit in the car outside for a while and psyche myself up with some positive self-talk before I can go in, but then when I do, I always feel better for it.  You never regret going to the gym - or to networking events.

Networking is important to meet like-minded positive people, learn best practices and new ideas, make connections, and to identify those women that you can help or mentor, or to find those amazing women you can emulate as role models.

Let's acknowledge the progress, but also commit to further action, advocating, supporting, and uplifting women in tech every day, because when we empower women, we empower the future of technology and innovation.

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