International Women’s Day: How tech industry leaders are breaking barriers and driving change

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we reached out to some of the leaders in the technology industry to get insights into how they are breaking the barriers to gender equality and how they are empowering women to explore opportunities in the world of tech.

Multiple industry studies have made clear that diversity in the workplace does not only improve an organisation’s culture but also has a significant impact on profitability and productivity. However, while workplace diversity has made significant strides across industries over the years, there remain disparities that need to be addressed.

“Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time, and the greatest human rights challenge in our world,” says United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

In the technology sector, despite efforts to include more women, fewer than one in five IT professionals are female in many countries.

While global technology firms are expected to reach nearly 33 percent overall female representation in their workforces in 2022, according to Deloitte, change is still proving slow.

Closing the gender gap is important to the tech world. Big tech companies including Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are making big push towards diversity in the workplace. However, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to address the gender imbalance in the tech sector. The best way to drive diversity and inclusivity is through information and representation in the industry.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we reached out to some of the leaders in the technology industry to get insights into how they are breaking the barriers to gender equality and how they are empowering women to explore opportunities in the world of tech.

Carolyn Crandall, Chief Security Advocate and CMO, Attivo Networks

“Women need to take the time to help each other. Sometimes, we fight so hard that we don’t realize the impact of our actions.

Women in leadership roles can often be viewed as ‘aggressive.’ I have found that women often must work harder than men to be heard and taken seriously. Men appear to gain respect more automatically with their given title, whereas women with the same title often must fight for or be pushed to prove themselves to garner that same respect. But as we seek to advance our careers, we need to be mindful to have a positive effect on others and to not intentionally or accidentally create ‘roadkill’ of other women along the way. As the saying goes, be careful of who you burn on the way up as you might see them again on your way down.

Throughout my career, I have always sought out jobs that had scared me in some way. The skill or experience that I was missing, presented me with the opportunity to grow and be challenged. I encourage others to take big steps, but to also do this smartly by learning from others who have the skills, taking classes, or reading everything you can so that you become an expert in these new disciplines as well.”

Read the full article by Adelle Geronimo on ITP.net.