Comments on: Advancing more women in tech is everyone’s challenge

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 14:03:00 +0000

As someone who did a computing degree then went into programming I think that for me the roles and environment are the most important aspect to look at. I moved away from programming to the client services team as the ‘traditional’ development roles were too restrictive and lacked the communication side that I longed for. For several of my female colleagues over the years they have found the same – we all longed to speak to people and were too tied to our desk.
I think it’s important to look at the roles themselves and see if they fit with what a each gender wants from it, with so many women leaving the roles once they are there, how can we make them more desirable? Surely the ‘one size fits all’ job descriptions don’t account for the different strengths of each gender – why is it that traditionally women choose caring professions? or client services? And also, for example, if a woman chooses a client services team in an agency rather than programming, making sure the ‘traditional’ female-centric teams are paid equally to the male-centric teams.
I’m lucky to be in an environment where there have been no barriers to entering a technology role, yet I’ve still turned away from it to some degree. I’m not sure what needs to be done, some of us want to be a part of it but it just doesn’t fit with us, how can we improve job roles to keep women there once they get there?

By: Kate Baucherel

Kate Baucherel — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 12:47:00 +0000

In reply to Rosie Brent. Thanks for the feedback Rosie. It's good to have a clear way forward from such an engaging Salon.

By: Kate Baucherel

Kate Baucherel — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 12:46:00 +0000

In reply to Laila. That sounds fantastic, Laila. I'm going in to speak to my daughter's Year 6 group soon, so hope that will help in a small way.

By: Kate Baucherel

Kate Baucherel — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 12:45:00 +0000

In reply to Krishna De. Your challenge was an excellent one Krishna, and would have been attributed but for the Chatham house convention of these events. I hope it's taken up by our Digital Leaders!

By: Laila

Laila — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 09:03:00 +0000

Great post Kate. Sad to have missed this event! I really believe that one key approach to solving this one is inspiring young girls to consider STEM *before* they settle on career choices. So much so that the team at Methods Digital (where I work) have decided to support Stemettes, a fantastic social enterprise that shows girls that they CAN do Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. You can read more here: http://mdigit.al/2ltXTGL

By: Rosie Brent

Rosie Brent — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 08:24:00 +0000

I also found this salon to be particularly enlightening and was very pleased to have been invited to attend. Hearing the stories of the fellow technologists around the room (both male and female) enlarged the scope of the issue for me and as Kate has done above helped “boil it down” into some fairly simple seeming action points. Now is the time to answer Krishna’s call to action – and do something every day to inspire and to affect change.

By: Krishna De

Krishna De — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 16:19:00 +0000

I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend this event and hear the different perspectives of the people at the table. There is clearly a lot of work to be done that will benefit the UK economy and citizens alike. It’s good to see that my statement at the end of the event “What have I (and we) done to inspire change today” was referenced in your article.