Just a quarter of UK tech sector workers are women. That’s just half the share of the overall workforce. An even smaller percentage of women go on to occupy high-paying positions. Although we’ve made some progress over the past decade, there’s clearly still a lot of work to do. To discuss these challenges in more detail, I joined a panel at British Land’s Women in Tech event last month.
There’s certainly no silver bullet solution here. But over the two-hour discussion, we uncovered some interesting learnings which could help to foment greater gender diversity in the tech sector.
What we learned
The discussion fell largely into four key areas:
Imposter syndrome: It’s easy for women to feel like they don’t belong in tech. It was entirely foreign to me when I joined the sector 25 years ago, on the back of a training in theatrical makeup, being a singer and working in B2C Marketing. I believe we have all felt out of place or out of our depth at some point in our careers, but there really is no need, whatever your background you always have something to give. I embrace diverse career histories in my team as it enables us to foster new ideas and innovative thinking.
Mentorship: I never had a mentor, although other panellists shared how important role models have been for them. In reality, there are mentors all around us and we can learn from anyone, and at any point in our careers. Everyone in an organisation, whether male or female, can lead by example, to create a space in which women can speak and be listened to. It is truly a shared responsibility.
Authenticity: Human lives are messy and complex – and of course this spills over into work. We shouldn’t have to pretend to be someone we’re not during the 9-5. We’re all more than just a colleague. Authenticity also means building a space for people to bring their authentic backgrounds, experiences and stories with them. Diversity of thought only comes from diverse teams.
Empathy: It’s not always about “leading through domineering.” Kindness and vulnerability can be inspirational too. This is where employers need to ensure they create a culture where it is ok to be vulnerable. We are all human.
It was a pleasure to be part of a panel of empowered and successful women and to discuss what obstacles we had to overcome in our careers and how we are taking those learnings and helping to empower our teams and the next generation of women in tech.
The bottom line: people are capable of doing amazing things. It’s all about giving them the opportunity to thrive. As it was said at the event. “We need to give women the space to set the world on fire.” We’ve come a long way, but there’s plenty still to do.
