Today on International Women’s Day, the market-leading developer of web filtering and monitoring solutions – Smoothwall – is launching its Tech Inclusion Programme to address the gender skills gap and inspire women to pursue a technology-based career.
The Leeds-based company has partnered with a number of key organisations who are driving change in this area, from PwC who are working to educate schools girls on careers in tech, through to the Tech Talent Charter who are guiding businesses with best practice to have an equal recruitment process for all.
The new programme also incorporates the work Smoothwall is doing with LeanIn, which provides women at the company a forum to speak openly about their feminine traits and how to manage them at work.
Claire Stead, Tech Inclusion Programme lead at Smoothwall, said: “Research from 2017 highlighted that only 17% of employees in the UK’s tech sector were women, and this shows huge gender disparity that needs addressing. As a technology company we take great pride and responsibility in leading the way on ensuring we have a diverse and inclusive workforce. We also believe that we should use our influence to make technology an industry that is accessible to everyone in their careers.”
Sheridan Ash, Women in Tech leader at PwC and The Tech She Can Charter founder, said: “By working together we can reach more females at an earlier stage of their lives. We need to work harder to raise awareness about the exciting range of technology roles out there, in a sector that has the power to change the world. 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 design thinkers, to coders and data scientists. Technology is open to all and we need to get that message across.”
