I was delighted to lead a session this week at Making IT Work For Women. The event, presented by Informatics Ventures and Women’s Enterprise Scotland, was the inaugural annual summit on female participation and thought leadership in the fast-growing tech industry.
Making IT Work For Women aims to inspire and stimulate discussion, address some of the issues linked to gender disparity in the tech industry and encourage the next generation of young women into STEM subjects. According to the SVP Startup Outlook Report 2017 published by Silicon Valley Bank, 68% of startups surveyed had no women on their board of directors, 53% of respondents had no women in their C-level management bodies and 27% of female-founded companies said the current environment was ‘extremely challenging’ as opposed to only 15% of businesses established by men saying the same. According to Women in Technology, the earlier stages show an even greater imbalance with only 7% of students taking Computer Science A Level courses being female; just 50% of this number will go into a job in the same field. The problem is real.
With keynote speakers, Lee Craigie, Diana Easley, Jean Kerr, Sharon Moore and Mark Logan, interactive sessions on Negotiations, Personal Impact and Effective Communication as well as a Panel Q&A Session, Making IT Work For Women truly was an inspirational event with many fascinating insights.
I look forward to building on the day’s success with next year’s event. Come along, be inspired and make a difference!