At Sophos, we strive for gender balance in the workplace. But we recognise that as an industry, technology is currently failing to attract women. That’s why we’re pleased to be part of a group of 18 organisations from all areas of the technology sector who are tackling the shortage of women in the industry.
By signing the Tech She Can Charter we have committed to work together to encourage and inform females about technology roles.
Source: PwC Women in Tech
Led by PwC, the charter aims to look at the industry as a whole, and challenge the causes behind the shortage of women. It starts with the culture at school – young girls often aren’t readily being offered science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) as career options, they aren’t being provided with information about what working in technology involves, and they’re not seeing enough female role models in the sector. This needs to change.
The Tech She Can Charter founder and Women in Tech Leader at PwC, Sheridan Ash, explains:
Waiting until women are entering work is simply too late – to boost the number of females in technology we need to take coordinated action to start inspiring girls to consider technology careers while they are still at school…Promoting visible and relatable role models is a huge part of this, as it’s hard for girls to aspire to be something they can’t see. There are many brilliant women working in technology roles right across the UK, from creatives and designers, to coders and data scientists. Technology is open to all and we need to get that message across.
As part of the initiative, we will be helping to deliver that message to schools by working with educators and policy creators to change the curriculum. In association with teachers, we’ll also be developing educational content to inspire young people and running a campaign to change the current idea of working in technology, as well as helping to celebrate female role models.
JB
This is great, but young women may not see many women in IT roles today due to other problems which need to be addressed. An obvious one is gender bias, including from other women – a global reluctance to entertain the application of, interview, hire, or reward/promote women in computer positions. Some reasons include “culture fit” – maybe the existing team is a group of guys and someone doesn’t want the potential HR headache of adding a woman to the mix. Then there’s the natural bias against someone who is the right age/marital status for having children – so on and so forth. These problems are REAL and any young lady with IT as a career choice is going to run into them and (may) be dissuaded until people start changing their internal practices from the bottom (HR, recruiters, etc) all the way to the top (C-level). It is frustrating to see people repeatedly assume that the small number of women in technology careers is simply a lack of bodies/awareness, when there are other (sad but true) reasons for it.
Steve
If someone has the necessary skill set and work ethics,there should be no problem. With a degree in electronics, prior to the onset of the formal information, I feel we performed the groundwork for age, however those who work for or in a call center networking a large number with a server do not realize they are bur a small part of the IT potential.
Anonymous
Fantastic to see Sophos supporting this great initiative. Encouraging school age girls to consider a career in tech is the way to build a balanced workforce going forward.
Alex
Good to know that women are being promoted on every field of life.