International Women’s Day (IWD) is a date to celebrate the women’s rights movement, recognise the achievements of women and also provide a platform that challenges inequality. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #ChooseToChallenge. Here at Beeta, we recognise the value of a diverse team and are continuing to work towards making our business and the tech industry an inclusive space. In line with the event, we are celebrating our female leaders and sharing some insight on their role in the tech industry and their greatest achievements to date!
Timi: I’m a Software Developer. I cover design, implementation and the maintenance of software.
Theresa: I’m the Head of Client Services at Beeta – this means my highest priority is to make sure our clients are always well-informed, looked after and happy. My day-to-day tasks are extremely varied though and involve anything from project and account management to finance, general office admin and some HR too.
Gillian: I’m a Software Developer working mainly with our Lead Developer to engineer bespoke solutions for client needs. I work predominantly with C#, .NetCore, SQL and LINQ, on Blazor Frameworks.
Timi: I think the thing I am the proudest of is becoming a Software Engineer. It has been a long path that has involved many hours looking at the screen not knowing what was going on with the code, until one day it all just started clicking. From that point, it has been so much fun and there was not a day I didn’t learn something new!
Theresa: I never quite know what to say when being asked this question, but I think it would be to move to the UK, do my master’s degree and find my first proper full-time job as an Account Executive at a marketing communications agency in Newcastle. It doesn’t seem quite as scary now, but I remember it being a huge step at the time. Looking back, it’s something I’m definitely proud of.
Gillian: I’d organised a week-long event for 70 people from all over the world in Nassau. 2 weeks before the event there was a hurricane that destroyed the hotel and a lot of the surrounding infrastructure. I had to find a new hotel with availability where a similar programme could be held, work out the additions to the budget and get sign-off from the client. Once signed off, I organised a new programme, communicating all the changes to every delegate and updating itineraries in multiple languages. I also chartered a plane to make the transfer from the original location to the new location on Great Exuma – about an hours flight away. – It was a hugely successful event despite the last minute changes!
Theresa: This sounds cheesy but the first person who comes to my mind is actually my mum. She has always been an extremely hard-working woman who has successfully juggled career and family – looking back, I don’t know how she did it!
Another woman I admire and have always been a big fan of is Lady Gaga. She is not only an amazing artist, but also supports a variety of good causes with her Foundation ‘Born this Way’. I just love how she does her own thing and doesn’t care what other people think.
Gillian: My sister Ruth – She has an amazing career that she works exceptionally hard at and is greatly respected in her field as well as being a fantastic wife and mother. She’s just a general, all-round, awesome human.
Timi: I guess its standard. Although, I don’t know how it is to be a male in tech.
Theresa: I guess sometimes you do find yourself being one of the only females ‘in the room’ (digital or actual room pre and post Covid). I wouldn’t say I am intimidated by this though, but I have been lucky enough not to have had a bad experience. I have felt welcome in the tech community from the beginning. I’m not going to say that there isn’t room for improvement though as I am sure not all women share the same experience.
Gillian: Exciting! I love learning which is just as well as there is always something new in development to get your teeth into. I love that there is such variety to the work and the roles in this field.
Timi: Everyone should realise that IT is the best!
Theresa: It is all about supporting young people and the next generation. This can be as simple as doing workshops in schools to show that working in tech doesn’t mean you have to be sat writing code all day (however, this is also not as boring as it sounds 😉) and how diverse the different job opportunities and roles are. This will then encourage a more diverse group of people to get interested and eventually pursue a career in the industry.
Gillian: I’m happy to see that a lot of the things that can be done to encourage diversity are being done, particularly in relation to increasing the number of women in tech. Good advice for female students when choosing GCSE’s and A-Levels is vital to enable more female engineers and events like Grace Hopper are deeply encouraging when it comes to finding tech jobs for women.