July 2020 Female Tech Leaders Magazine

ISSUE NO. 14

FEMALE TECH LEADERS

WOMEN IN AI TO FOLLOW 10 FEMALE TECH VLOGGERS ON YOUTUBE MEASURING INNOVATION

QUANTUM MACHINE LEARNING: WITH PYTORCH AND QISKIT

WWW.FEMALETECHLEADERS.COM

FEMALE TECH LEADERS contact: emma@digitalbusinesswomen.com

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WELCOME LADIES! by

Candyce

Costa

We are living different times...

Lockdown, Black Lives Matter Movement, Working Remotely, people who are afraid to go back to our usual life, kids homeschooling, and we are trying to keep safe and moving...

Just like YOU! Don't be afraid to ask for help, ask for a chat via Zoom, remember that life is chaos right now and it is ok not to be ok!

Stay safe!

Candyce Costa Founder and Disruptor

OUR MISSION

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To empower and nurture digital and tech women in business and life to achieve their true potential and connecting them to create a collaborative and powerful community.

OUR VISION To create the most collaborative and encouraging platform to accelerate the change of the role of women in business and in the modern society.

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INTERVIEWS JOY ATIENO OTIENO KAROLINA KOMARNICKA MAHAM SHAFIQ MALIN FRITHIOFSSON MELISSA AHMED MITRA ROKNABADI NOBUKHOSI DLAMINI VANESSA VALLELY OBE VEENA RAMASWAMY

ARTICLES QUANTUM MACHINE LEARNING: HYBRID QUANTUM-CLASSICAL MACHINE LEARNING WITH PYTORCH AND QISKIT MKAI'S 15 WOMEN IN AI TO FOLLOW: SUMMER 2020 EDITION THE 2020 WOMEN IN SOFTWARE WINNERS MEASURING INNOVATION AND HOW YOU CAN DO IT TOO TEN WAYS WE CAN SUPPORT WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE DURING A CRISIS WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP THE NEXT GENERATION OF FEMALE TECH LEADERS 10 FEMALE TECH VLOGGERS ON YOUTUBE THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN AN ORGANIZATION SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING: 3 MUST HAVES FOR A SUCCESSFUL APP

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SPONSORED EVENTS(ONLINE AND OFFLINE) We are looking for companies and event organizations that are interested in raise their profile within our business community. Interested? Email us!

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BUSINESS PROGRAM We are looking for like minded business that wants to implement a business program to retain and attract more diversity to their business. Interested? Email us!

Support our magazine collaborations EMMA@DIGITALBUSINESSWOMEN.COM

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TRY TO BE A RAIN BOW IN SOME ONE ELSE'S CLOUD. MAYA ANGELOU

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PARCEIROS O Cloud Girls proporciona às suas participantes a possibilidade de aperfeiçoamento, recolocação, networking e muita diversão em um momento exclusivo para as mulheres.

We are a non-profit organization – made up of women – with a focus on the development of Cybersecurity.

Promove ações para atrair, motivar e fixar meninas da comunidade de Florestal nos cursos de informática e computação, visando aproximar a tecnologia do universo feminino, reduzir as desigualdades de gênero no mercado de trabalho e potencializar a participação feminina nestas áreas.

AI Girls is a female Brazilian technology community that aims female protagonism in the field of artificial intelligence and data science!

A Anjos do Brasil é uma organização sem fins lucrativos com o objetivo de fomentar o crescimento do investimento anjo para o apoio ao empreendedorismo de inovação brasileiro.

Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs.

INTERVIEW

JOY ATIENO OTIENO Digital Activist

Tell us about you and your career, Joy. Joy Atieno is an Actuarial Science graduate who possesses 5 years’ work experience with extensive engagement in the ICT world involving mentorship, collecting, analyzing data, mobilizing partners, resources and project management. Joy started her career in 2015 at Deloitte East Africa before changing career track and responded to the call of humanity. She has since 2016 combined her academic achievements and diverse working experiences to contribute to making a difference for the youths through Digital activism. Joy also led an innovation academy, Upskill (upskill.ac.ug), in Uganda that seeks to address the high unemployment of youths by bridging the skills gap. Upskill runs free masterclasses in digital marketing, data analysis and web development to equip youths with the most in demand ready-to-work skills to compete favorably in the increasingly digital economies. Joy also runs #CodeQueen, a women’s only coding training with Educating The Children to bring more girls into STEM. Did you always know that working in technology was what you wanted to do and how did you decide to start in tech?

I have grown and been brought up in Sub-saharan Africa the entirety of my life. The region is considered the youngest in the world but we are also grappling with acute unemployment among the youths. I always knew I will have an interest in Tech when I decide to minor in IT at University but I never knew it will be my career path. I majored in actuarial science and even practised it for one year at Deloitte East Africa but soon quit. I quit because I had chosen a career not because my passion, strengths and goals align to it but simply because it could earn me good money to take care of my extended family. It is upon quitting that I realized so many other of my peers are stuck in unhappy relationships with their careers and did not know a way out. I started exploring my options in the Tech wolrd and soon I had amassed lots of skills. However, I realised that the knowledge I had was not definite for other of my peers and I realized where the gap was: most of the were tech-savvy but they just didn't know how to tap into that strength and make it a source of income. My journeys with Digital activism started there and I have never looked back in my quest to help youths in sub-saharan Africa address their skills gaps by leveraging on tech.

JOY ATIENO OTIENO Do you notice a lack of women in technology? If so, why do you think that’s the case?

There is an acute lack of women in the Tech space and speaking from my experience in sub-saharan Africa, it stems from the cultural upbringing of girls. For example when most parents but children toys, a girl will be given a doll and a boy will be given a toy phone.

When probably a phone or a remote in the home malfunctioning, the son of the home is called upon to try fix it and not the girl. Such subtle actions then start institutionalizing the biases that women cannot make it in IT. The biases then trickle into even the job market where hiring companies will look for a man for an IT position and not a woman. The other aspect is the lack of intentionality in many intervention initiatives to tailor projects in a way that favors and speaks to the interests of women. The men have gone far ahead of the women folk and as such a lot of HARD WORK will have to be put in to see that women can catch up but enough of that is not happening yet Who are your role models for women in tech? Grace Hopper- she just kept pushing the boundaries despite being a woman of color.

She never took no for an answer and made the impossible possible even making a computer speak English!

Ada Lovelace- she existed at a time when it was difficult for women to have a voice let alone pursue a career in Tech. She overcame all those barriers to forever stamp her name in the Tech history books..

What advice would you give to a woman considering a career in your industry or what you wish to know before starting your career/business?

I would advise any woman joining any career path to always follow their passion. The best way to find out your passion is by first discovering your purpose because your purpose is unchanging. If you feel that you wanna make the world better for women and children then find a passion: a course that will help you realize that purpose. It could be being a pediatrician or a children's rights advocate or an elementary teacher but whatever it is let it align to your passion and purpose. You will live a fulfilled and happy life doing what you love most but still be able to pay the bills and afford small luxuries.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have felt discouraged to pursue your dreams as a woman? How did you handle it?

I have been in that situation. I had gotten into a role where I felt I and found the ideal position that I had longed for for a very long time so that I can effect all the plans around youth and especially women empowerment through running free masterclasses to address their skills gaps. I pumped into that role all my energy, passion, drive and every inch of experience that I had amassed. The workplace became very toxic with one micro aggression after another and soon I was fired over very flimsy and trumped up charges. I had moved into a foreign country with my kids and we had barely settled down when this happened. I was so disillusioned and felt so lost and demoralized. I couldn't find the strength to get up and pick the pieces; it was easier to stay down there and wriggle in the dust. It took some months before I got the strength to jump back and take up the course of digital activism again.

JOY ATIENO OTIENO What do you think companies can do to encourage more women to choose careers in tech and rectify the imbalance?

First of all companies need to believe more on the Tech capabilities of women and give them a chance to prove themselves. It could be as some as giving the next web design job to a woman developer.

Secondly, companies need to invest in their female work force by encouraging them to take up IT through internal skilling, upksilling and reskilling programs. Such programs help even those that are ignorant to understand the importance of IT in the current work places. 50% of job currently require some IT skills and 75% of them will require them in less than a decade. For more women to get into TECH it shall require a lot of intentionality in everything all stakeholders do.

In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle for women to succeed in the workplace/business?

Lack of intentionality. In the homes, schools and even workplaces there is such lack of purposeful intention to help more women truly succeed. A lot of what we see is lip service you know where an organization thinks having 70% women in their ranks is good enough or even having a female CEO.

How do you find inspiration in your life? I find inspiration from the beneficiaries whose lives I have touched and helped turn around in the various projects that I have taken on. I often reach points where I want to give up but then I remember that I wouldn't just be letting down myself only but also the thousands of youths across East Africa that look up to me. Seeing a young person find bearing, purpose and be able to sustain themselves gives me the greatest joy, strength and motivation to keep on with Digital activism.

To what do you attribute your success?

I attribute my success to first my faith in God. I also attribute to my kids who have helped me stay grounded and focused even at times when it seemed like it was all over. I further attribute my success to the thousands of youth across East Africa that have trusted me so much and allowed me to be a part of their transformation.

It is, however, foolhardy and vanity if such actions are not accompanied by enabling environments and policies that truly help the women succeed.

There is need to create environments that truly embrace women e.g most workplaces won't allow mothers bring their children to work or will not allow them enough maternity leave or if they allow, it is not sufficient. There is need to really preach water and drink water by radicalizing and aligning every aspect to truly realize success of some at the workplace.

POWERED BY

DON’T LET SUCCESS GO TO YOUR HEAD NOR FAILURE GO TO YOUR HEART. FAVORITE QUOTE JOY ATIENO OTIENO

KAROLINA KOMARNICKA Head of Marketing, Gemba

Tell us about you and your business.

I'm the Head of Marketing for Gemba, the virtual reality workplace designed by The Leadership Network to help forward thinking businesses upskill their people to meet the changing demands of the digital era. I'm responsible for all brand communications, campaigns and I actively promote the mission behind Gemba and VR learning as a keynote speaker at events such as The XR Summit and Women of Silicon Roundabout. In addition, I've recently directed a documentary series in association with Hugo Boss, LEGO, Electrolux and Toyota showcasing what it really means to be an executive in a global corporation and, once the pandemic is over, series 2 will go behind the scenes and show how global organisations are implementing immersive technology. And, very soon, I'll be launching a new podcast, it’s the first of its kind filmed entirely in VR and called The Real Place. Myself and Anna-Lisa Wilcox my co-host will be bringing some of the world's leading executives into the Gemba VR space to ask them for one prediction about the future of work, and their advice on what we can do now to prepare for it.

Do you notice a lack of women in technology? If so, why do you think that’s the case?

I definitely notice a lack of female executives in my line of work. Working with leading executives across Fortune 500 companies, the majority of them are male, and every campaign I work on, I struggle to secure female executives willing to take part. I believe there should be more regular forums for women to come together and exchange challenges and inspiration in a meaningful way. An annual conference isn't enough to find and truly connect with them. I benefit hugely from exchanges with women from all walks of life but they're too rare. I also would love women to be more highlighted throughout executive content, not as a spotlight feature once in a while, but regularly as people who drive meaningful change across companies on a daily basis. Myself and my podcast co-host Anna-Lisa made it our mission to regularly feature female executives to share their stories and successes.

KAROLINA KOMARNICKA Did you always know that working in technology was what you wanted to do and how did you decide to start?

Technology wasn't my first choice when choosing a career. I studied business management and after graduation, I wasn't entirely sure which path I wanted to follow.

While at university, I was asked to be a cofounder of an influencer-led fitness app and learnt a lot through that experience but I knew I wasn't ready to start my own business.

When I was hired by an insurtech company as my first full-time job after university, I had my first experience of marketing a SaaS platform. Within the first few months, I’ve experienced a significant learning curve, being exposed to high-profile meetings full of valuable insight and getting to know the key players in the FinTech space. It took me a while to realise that the only way I’ll be able to find my place and offer something different when it comes to marketing and communicating about tech-led products and solutions is by leveraging my outsider perspective, challenging well-established conventions and truly marketing human-tohuman. When done well, authenticity is a really powerful force connecting the brand to the customer. What I’ve learnt in my current role is to always focus on what makes people tick. I would take inspiration from talk shows and Hollywood movies and package that into media content that hooks the audience by sympathizing with them and giving them inspiration by learning from other executive stories.

Who are your role models for women in tech?

I admire all women who have made it to the top in their industry such as Ginni Rometty, being the first woman to head IBM, or Sheryl Sandberg becoming the first woman to serve on Facebook’s board of directors. I’d love to be able to meet them and hear about all the lessons they’ve learnt along the way that people like myself could learn from.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have felt discouraged to pursue your dreams as a woman? How did you handle it?

It can be discouraging being a young professional at the start of their career and not having enough female influence around you for you to look up to, get advice from and see that their voice matters and that they too can make an impact. I’ve always been ambitious, but sometimes it’s about remembering that you don’t have to be a founder of the company to make a difference. Reading the stories of other incredible female executives and recognising similar struggles always remind me to keep pushing, because every experience you go through builds you to be a stronger, more assertive person who stands up for themselves and goes after what they want.

What advice would you give to a woman considering a career in your industry or what you wish to know before starting your career/business?

My advice would be to not try and fit the mold.

There is a lot of content and books out there on how to succeed, what habits to adopt and how to think to be successful but I would encourage women to tap into what excites them and what they're passionate about and apply that to whatever job they're in, really using it to their advantage to offer something unique. It’s the only way for the work you put out to feel authentic and for you to be able to create great work you’re proud of. For me, it's about telling the stories of those behind the job title, adding authenticity and transparency to a buzzword-led industry and finding ways of making an impact even in the smallest ways.

I'd love to have more opportunities to connect with other women to be able to be inspired by their stories and continue to learn to be and do better, not just at the start of my career but as an ongoing source of wisdom and inspiration.

KAROLINA KOMARNICKA How do you find inspiration in your life?

I get inspired through other people and experiences. It's the most challenging periods of my life that I've learnt from the most, such as moving to the UK from Poland at 18, which taught me resilience, forced me to be more confident and involved some major character building, having lived quite a sheltered life for the longest time. It was the first time I’ve experienced what going out of one’s comfort zone really means and I’ve made it a point to always seek those opportunities to learn from and grow with, no matter how difficult.

Having practiced mindfulness for a while, I really take the time to recognise key and small moments in my life and reflect back on them to see how far I've come and give myself the credit for it. It's easy to go through life not feeling like you've accomplished anything extraordinary but we can find small wins in every day if we choose to.

To what do you attribute your success?

Discipline. Since a young age, I had a military discipline in me which resulted in me always being top of the class, graduating with first class honours even though I’ve only just moved to the UK from Poland and my English wasn’t anywhere near academic level. I would get up at 5am to study and sometimes not finish until 6pm, memorising full pages of textbooks ahead of the exams. I apply the same mindset to health and wellbeing. I haven’t skipped a week of workouts in over five years as I can see the difference in how I approach my day after I’ve trained.

Getting up that one hour early and being active is a small success before the day even started. I've always been ambitious but it's my discipline to stick to the routine that I know will allow me to achieve my goals that I attribute any success to.

What do you think companies can do to encourage more women to choose careers in tech and rectify the imbalance?

With the amount of women employed in the digital workforce hovering around 17% for the past decade, more definitely needs to be done to diversify the industry. I think there are some powerful solutions that companies can start implementing today, such as introducing coaching and mentoring schemes in collaboration with universities, matching students based on their aspirations and backgrounds to learn from and be inspired by women working in the sector they’d like to go into. It’s usually the informal advice that’s the most valuable and you can only learn that by getting to know the person who got to where you want to be.

Another important undertaking is offering more management roles to women who can serve as an example to follow for other female employees. When you meet women doing amazing things in a similar field to yourself, it reminds you that you can get there too.

In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle for women to succeed in the workplace/business?

In my opinion, the biggest obstacle for women to succeed in the workplace is their own confidence. It's about small moments of courage like finding that voice in a meeting to let everyone know about your great idea, or submitting that application to speak and having the confidence to get up on the stage to share your story. We are our worst enemy sometimes.

POWERED BY

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, BUT IF YOU DO IT RIGHT, ONCE IS ENOUGH. FAVORITE QUOTE KAROLINA KOMARNICKA

MAHAM SHAFIQ Head of Technical Delivery DataPillar

Tell us about you and your career, Maham.

Throughout my university journey to IT Professional career, I’ve noticed that I’ve always been good with numbers and handling any data issue which lead me to AI and Predictive Knowledge. Since childhood, I dreamed of joining the Pakistan Air Force but due to my injury at the physical test and I didn’t get selected / recommended by the selection board.

Nevertheless, I started my IT journey by enrolling in Computer System Engineering.

“Technology is a male-dominated field and Men’s always been recognized for better at coding than women, but for me women are better at coding than men. I love challenges and my career selection was a challenge for me. I got a 4.0/4.0 in my very first semester. Then, for the first time it dawned upon me that I was made for this career. My passion for AI led me to join Artificial Intelligence Club, Pakistan’s leading AI community, where I was later appointed as Technical Manager. Later, I worked as a Machine Learning Intern at the National Center for Artificial Intelligence.

Fast-forward to 2020, I became the Youngest (22 years old) Female selected as Lead faculty of Quantum Computing at Presidential Initiative for Artificial Intelligence, joined DataPillar (Data Centric & AI Solution and Service Provider) as a Head of Technical Delivery, Pakistan. I’m also part of the WomenTech Network where I received Global Influencer Badge. During this COVID19 outbreak, I realized the importance of Tech and started a tech community eSoftX.ai where we arrange webinars on cutting edge software technologies.

What would be your message to women trying to get into technology?

I solemnly believe, and always advise my female fellows that feeling uncomfortable with your skill doesn’t mean you are unskillful or not made for tech, it indicates that you are in the learning phase; always give yourself another chance as fortune always favors the bravest; embrace your uniqueness; and focus on being the best that you possibly can be. To the women who don’t pursue their careers after getting an IT degree: Tech industry is risk-friendly, so better to take the chance or take the lead if you think something might work, it will strengthen you and make your future more secure.

MAHAM SHAFIQ A day in your business life! As a Head of Technical Delivery in DataPillar, one of my obligations is to ensure the business and technical groups are adjusted across different conveyance workstreams. As the urgent connection between the two, I must comprehend and interpret business needs and prerequisites to our tech groups, which is essential in guaranteeing we're making the best encounters for our clients.

Also, I must lucid any specialized updates into language that the non-technical colleagues and business groups can comprehend.

I blossom with critical thinking, so this role is ideal for me. As the connection between the business and technical groups, I get the chance to look into two totally different jobs, which keeps things fascinating. COVID-19 has changed our lives very much but, in my opinion, Now I have more time to properly balance my personal and professional life. I strongly believe in giving back to the society, to support newbies in tech, I give webinars on tech and mentoring sessions and also arrange through my community platform.

Technology is a male-dominated field. Tell us about your experience in the tech sector. Such few women reach the top of the tech industry because women rarely opt to study STEM (which is a result of the stereotype that men are better at math and science). I believe if as many women opted for STEM as men, we would see many more Ada Lovelaces and Grace Hoppers.

In my own experience, most of my male class fellows and colleagues have been very supportive and are always there to cheer for me.

Do you think there is a diversity issue in the tech sector? Do you notice a lack of women in technology? Has it affected you in any way?

Diversity and inclusion movements are leaping forward despite facing several setbacks. On one hand, tech employees recognize their immense power to speak up and bring change. On the other, those accused of sexual harassment and misconduct are too often facing too few consequences. People of color still receive too little venture funding, and tech companies are inching along at a glacial pace toward diverse representation and inclusion. Women in STEM professions make, on average, $16,000 less per year than their male counterparts - that goes beyond sexism or racism. Microaggressions are also common in tech offices. Most women experience discrimination or harassment in the workplace and eventually resign from their jobs.

Role models and representation have their psychological impact - they motivate and influence young girls to take up STEM careers. Lack of women at senior positions in the global tech industry perpetuates the myth that women are half as good at math and science as men.

Do you think it is getting easier for women to get into Tech?

Yes. Compared to a decade ago, women do have more opportunities in Tech now. In Pakistan, efforts have been made for creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment for young women. Programs and Bootcamps, like CodeGirls, WomenInTechPK , PWIC are working on injecting female talent into the IT sector.

Women of all levels are raising their voices against bias, gender pay gap, harassment, racism, and more. Above all, support at home plays a vital role in inclusion of women in tech.

MAHAM SHAFIQ Are there any particular women in tech who have inspired you?

Rana el Kalioubey inspires me most. She cofounded and is the CEO of Affectiva, an MIT Media Lab spinoff credited with creating the category of Artificial Emotional Intelligence, or Emotion AI. She raised $50M+ in capital from top-tier investors and non-dilutive funding.

Rana el Kaliouby’s idea for how technology should work in parallel with empathy is courageous, inspiring, and optimistic. “Girl Decoded” her book is both an intense coming-of-age story and a call to each of us to be more mindful and compassionate when we interact online. It's really great to see a Women Founder like Rana in the AI sector that is a motivation for many Ladies in tech.

What are some of the biggest challenges that women who want to venture in the world of technology face today?

Lack of women in powerful positions in the field. This reality discourages women from taking up STEM careers. Nevertheless, we still have women like Sheryl Sandberg, Marisa Mayer, Ginni Rometty to look up to. I truly believe that we will see more female tech leaders in the years to come.

Demands from personal and professional commitments can overburden a woman, forcing her to choose between work and family. Lack of support from family, who still cling to age-old cultural biases against working women, can be demotivating. In a male-majority workplace, women often feel as if they don’t fit in. Moreover, female tech workers report a higher rate of sexual harassment because fewer targets exist here.

What do you think companies can do to encourage more women to choose careers in tech and rectify the imbalance?

IT companies need to recognize and admit to the problem of gender inequality. They need to diligently transform their corporate culture into one that respects all employees, regardless of gender, and make discrimination and harassment socially unacceptable.

They also need to go beyond forced compliance to fully eliminate gender-related IT employment issues.

Women in senior leadership roles will always positively encourage other females to join an organization that is supportive of advancing women’s careers, thus increasing overall company growth and productivity.

What do you think we should be doing more to encourage more girls to consider a career in tech?

Technology exists for men and women and so does IT employment. As companies and families work to erase gender-based prejudices, more women will aspire for a career in the tech industry. Girls need positive male and female role models so that they will never consider their gender as a negative attribute. Schools need to eliminate gender biases to make girls and young women feel comfortable enough to enroll in STEM studies. As more women join STEM to pursue careers in tech, this field will start to become more attractive to women.

It’s also crucial that women help other women pursue technology careers. Role models play a vital part of the journey. I really appreciate your move of highlighting inspiring stories of female leads through this magazine. We have already seen women doing great things in tech in recent years, and I am confident that this presence will continue to grow and reach total 50/50 equality in the field in the coming decades.

IT’S NOT A FAILURE, IT’S UNFINISHED SUCCESS! FAILURE IS SIMPLY THE OPPORTUNITY TO START AGAIN - THIS TIME WITH MORE EXPERIENCE. FAVORITE QUOTE MAHAM SHAFIQ

MALIN FRITHIOFSSON Ecosystem Hero Of The Year Nordic Startup Awards 2019 Published Author Public Speaker Equality expert | You have mentioned you did not see yourself a "techy" because you studied Gender Representative. How did you find yourself in Tech?

Not to sound too "self-help-bookey", but I usually say that my journey into tech came about from me continuously making purpose driven decisions when it comes to my career. Instead of studying or working to become a certain profession, I've chosen my education and my work based on what will help me achieve my purpose of creating a more endurable world for women and girls worldwide.

First, this lead me two a double degree in both gender studies and global development studies but as the consequences of the lack of female participation in technical innovation processes became more and more clear, as well as more and more severe - I knew that were I needed to work on making a change. Now, working at a combined VC and incubator for tech startups, I get to not only support female entrepreneurship & innovation - but also guide male led innovation to not neglect adopting a diverse set of perspectives into their products or services.

The AI built by companies comes with bias and we can see how harmful would be to get it on with it without bringing the discussion as an urgent priority. For example, Amazon stopped using a hiring algorithm after finding it favoured applicants based on words like “executed” or “captured” that were more commonly found on men’s resumes. What would be in your opinion, the best way to tackle those bias in AI? We need more gender studies major in tech! We need more philosophers, theologist, anthropologists and humane ecologists!

The challenges of building inclusive AI cannot be solves through a technical perspective alone. in many ways, since the algorithms need to be trained to work for the world we want, not the one we currently have, finding or building the right data training sets should be tackled by a team of diverse educational disciplines and lived experiences.

MALIN FRITHIOFSSON You also said that you are a hardcore feminist. Looking at all ethical challenges we have, how do you see the AI challenges in building our news society when we are expecting for a more incluse and diverse one?

I thing AI is a double edged sword; it has the potential to heavily improve our standard of living in a multitude of areas, but if not implemented thoughtfully it also stands the risk of cementing our current social structures into fixed digital structures. With out current social structures not being equal, this could be devastating. Even with perfectly written code, AI must be trained on huge sets of data. Most data available portrays the world as it is today, whether that be in the use of gendered language, statistics, or others forms. The problem is that the world today isn't equal, and we're teaching these algorithms just that. An AI in training can pick up on small things, like the frase "men & women" using the word "men" first and learn something from that. or it can pick up on the fact that for every woman pictured in a business magazine, there are 9,5 men pictures -and learn something from that. If we're not careful, we will have taken all the injustice of our current social structures and built them into all AI decisions being made - which in the future will be a lot.

We also talked about Gender Innovation and how we all have so much bias (even though we don't want to recognize them). How can we close the gender gaps in tech and STEM? We must make the STEM industries more attractive to women. By this I don't mean we need to change the work itself, since a vast majority of women leaving them fields say that they did not do so because of the actual work, but we need to change the world culture and the work environment in STEM industries.

Even countries with a lot of institutional equality, like Sweden, have a huge problem with cultural inequality. You might have all the legal or financial opportunities to pursue a career in STEM - but if you are made to feel unwelcome, isolated or even threatened by the culture any reasonable person would pack up and leave for another industry where you can actually enjoy working as much as you enjoy the actual work.

Let's talk about Investment in Female Founders. You mentioned that VC in Sweden is less than 2% towards female founders. What would be the biggest obstacle for a female founder (or a team of female) in Sweden?

We know from research studies that women are asked other, more negative, questions by investors when pitching for funding. We also know from research that the very same pitch is judged more harshly when delivered by a female voice. I think this is due partly to implicit bias on the part of investors, and partly due to the lack of female investment managers.

We know that confirmation bias as a thing, and that we tend to like and trust people that remind us of ourselves. So, if the investment teams are all made up of white men, its not that surprising that it is also mostly white men on the receiving end of venture capital. So, I think the biggest obstacle for a female founder in Sweden would be to genuinely be evaluated based solely on merit.

MALIN FRITHIOFSSON Chalmers Ventures has a program to support students to become entrepreneurs.

Can you talk a bit more about the programs?

We do!

We have a collaboration with the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship where the second year masters students can chose a track called "venture creation". in doing so, they will be matched with an idea provider - which we have found and evaluated beforehand - and get to spend their last year starting a business based on that technology provided.

Usually the idea providers are researchers who have come up with some cool new tech that they wish to be applied and utilized out in society, which makes it a perfect match for these entrepreneurial students to come in and start a business around it How important is for the young generation to have Role Models in Tech and STEM? I think its very important - role-models can expand the area in our minds of what is available for us to achieve. Dreams are so important, and women have for generations not had the same space to dream as men; we've had unfair limitations placed on our very imaginations.

Being able to find representation in STEM will give the framework for the new generation of women on which to model their dreams around - which is really the cool thing about role models.

There is a gender diversity issue in the tech sector (not only in gender, to be honest, but this is a discussion for another day). What is your biggest piece of advice for getting started with diversity and inclusion?

Acknowledge that you, and your company, isn't bias-free.

There is no such thing as a true meritocracy when there are humans involved.

You ARE biased, we all are, and that's the end of it. Its only when we acknowledge this inescapable fact that we can but strategies and structures in place to limit the effect our biases have on our business decision making. so my best advice is to say "I am biased - now what can I put in place to stop this bias having effect on my decisions?"

What would be your message to women trying to get into technology?

Do it! you're needed - and it's fun to be a part of creating the future.

ALWAYS BE LOUD ABOUT WHAT IS IMPORTANT FAVORITE QUOTE MALIN FRITHIOFSSON

Laurie Wang ARTICLES

Quantum Machine Learning: Hybrid Quantum-classical Machine Learning with PyTorch and Qiskit Quantum Computing is the most hyped-up topic in 2020 after Google has announced Quantum Supremacy with the debut of a newly engineered solution. Quantum Computer has huge power to outperform classical computers in most of the Machine Learning Tasks.

Quantum Computers use Qubits that are similar to the bits in classical computers with additional ability superposition and entanglement. Gigantic amounts of data can be computed with quantum machine learning algorithms, quantum ML increments such abilities shrewdly, by examining quantum states (qubits) and systems.

Performance enhancement can be achieved by shifting difficult calculations to a quantum computer or optimize quantum algorithms using classical ML architectures.

What is Quantum Machine Learning?

Quantum Machine Learning is actually built on two concepts: 1- Quantum data 2- Hybrid quantum-classical Model

1 - Quantum Data Quantum data is any data source that occurs in a natural or artificial quantum system. This can be data generated by a quantum computer like the samples gathered from the Sycamore processor for Google’s demonstration of quantum supremacy. Quantum data exhibits superposition and entanglement, leading to joint probability distributions that could require an exponential amount of classical computational resources to represent or store. The quantum supremacy experiment showed it is possible to sample from an extremely complex joint probability distribution of 2⁵³ Hilbert space.

2 - Hybrid Quantum-Classical Model The quantum-classical hybrid neural network can be implemented by using a parameterized circuit for hidden layer of our neural net. What is meant by the parameterized quantum circuit? A circuit where the rotation angle of each gate is specified by the classical input vector’s components. The previous Layer’s output is collected and used as an input for our parameterized circuit. Our quantum circuit’s measurement statistics can be collected and used as input for the following layer.

In this article, I will step by step go through how a classical neural network can be partially quantized to create a hybrid quantum-classical neural network. We will code the integration of state of the art open-source platform Pytorch and Qiskit.

Handwritten Digit Recognization Using Hybrid Quantum- Classical Approach Let’s begin coding for our very first problem and observe how quantum-classical fusion achieves speedup. We will begin our discussion with neural networks and along the way will develop a handwritten digit classifier from scratch. We will be using PyTorch because it is cool! This MNIST classifier will predict between two classes 0 and 1.

Prerequisites To understand the benefit of this hybrid approach one must have knowledge about classical neural networks. Let’s dive into the basic Machine Learning Concept Needed for this topic, For detailed concepts behind the inner intuition I highly recommend you to read other articles related to Machine Learning.

Classical Neural Networks Neural networks are typically organized in layers, work in a similar way as the human brain.

Layers are made up of a number of interconnected ‘nodes’, these nodes are referred to as perceptron. A perceptron is typically a simple, easy-to-compute, and nonlinear function that has one or more inputs to a single real number. Perceptron has an ‘activation function’. Patterns are presented to the network via the ‘input layer’, which communicates to one or more ‘hidden layers’ where the actual processing is done via a system of weighted ‘connections’.

The hidden layers then link to an ‘output layer’ where the answer is output as shown in the graphic:

Quantum Neural Network A quantum neural network (QNN) is used to describe a parameterized quantum computational model that is best executed on a quantum computer. This term is often interchangeable with the parameterized quantum circuit (PQC) Step#1 — Importing necessary Packages from Qiskit and Pytorch To get started we’ll need to install Qiskit. If you have Python >= 3.5 and Jupyter installed you can run this locally. Or alternatively, you can run this in Google Colab (if you have a Google account).Before starting we make all the necessary imports.

Step#02 — Loading MNIST Dataset Originally Dataset is available on Yann Lecun’s website. Don’t forget — “Garbage in, garbage out !”, So make sure to Clean the dataset. Using few lines of code in PyTorch we can easily download the cleaned and already prepared data.

Step#03 — Tensor to List To connect Qiskit and Pytorch object we define a function to convert tensor to a list in Python, such that they can be fed into quantum circuits in Qiskit.

Step#04 — Make Quantum Class With Qiskit We can conveniently put our Qiskit quantum functions into a class. First, we specify how many trainable quantum parameters and how many shots we wish to use in our quantum circuit. In this example, we will keep it simple and use a 1-qubit circuit with one trainable quantum parameter θ. We hard code the circuit for simplicity and use an RY−rotation by the angle θ to train the output of our circuit. The circuit looks like this:

Step#05— Make Pytorch’s Forward and Backward pass for Neural Network Now that our quantum circuit is defined, we can create the functions needed for backpropagation using PyTorch. The forward and backward passes contain elements from our Qiskit class. The backward pass directly computes the analytical gradients using the finite difference formula.

Step#06—Finally, Train the Model Finally coming towards the training part using Stochastic gradient descent algorithm. I have trained it till 30 epochs

The point of this exercise was to get you thinking about integrating techniques from ML and quantum computing in order to investigate if there is indeed some element of interest — and thanks to PyTorch and Qiskit, this becomes a little bit easier.

References: 1- https://www.tensorflow.org/quantum/concepts 2-https://qiskit.org/textbook/ch-machine-learning/machine-learning-qiskitpytorch.html

MAHAM SHAFIQ Know more about Maham Shafiq on her interview clicking on her photo.

MKAI'S 15 WOMEN IN AI TO FOLLOW: SUMMER 2020 EDITION Ahead of our summer of 'Using AI for Good' Expert Forums, the MKAI leadership team has nominated and then selected '15 women in AI to follow on LinkedIn and Twitter' based on their work, influence and impact in the world.

MKAI is committed to promoting women in AI and making every event we host inclusive and accessible. Here's our 15!

1) Catherine Breslin - Director, Cobalt Speech and Language

Follow for: Speech recognition, voice, natural language understanding #speechrecognition #voice #NLU Catherine is on Twitter and LinkedIn 2) Beth Singler - Junior Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence at University of Cambridge

Follow for: Society and AI, anthropological perspective on robotics and machine learning #Society #AI #Anthropological #Robotics #MachineLearning #ML Beth is on Twitter and LinkedIn

3) Danielle Belgrave - Principal Researcher at Microsoft

Follow for: Healthtech; Biostatistics; Statistical modelling #Healthcare #Biostatistics #Statisticalmodelling Danielle is on Twitter and LinkedIn 4) Verena Rieser - Professor of Conversational AI & Head of NLP and Co-Founder at Alana

Likes to tweet about: Reinforcement learning; natural language generation; conversational AI #Reinforcementlearning #NaturalLanguageGeneration #NLG #ConversationalAI #NLP Verena is on Twitter and LinkedIn 5) Joanna Bryson - Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School

Follow for: Ethics and AI, transparency in technology, human-robot relationships.#Ethics #AI #Transparence #Human-Robot #RelationshipsJoanna is on Twitter and LinkedIn

6) Timnit Gebru - PhD Candidate at Stanford University

Follow for: Computer vision, ethical AI team, FATE (Fairness Transparency Accountability and Ethics in AI), algorithmic bias #ComputerVision #EthicalAI #FATE #AlgroithmicBias Timnit is on LinkedIn 7) Maria Luciana Axente - Responsible AI & AI for Good Lead at PwC UK AI Ethics advisor for APPG AI, tech UK, UNICEF, World Economic Forum

Follow for: AI ethics principles, AI for good, Responsible AI, AI Strategy#AIethics #AIforgood #ResponsibleAI #AIStrategyMaria is on Twitter and LinkedIn 8) Sarah Porter - CEO InspiredMinds | TMinus30 | IntelligentHealth Global | World Summit AI | UN Keynote speaker | Chair WomeninAI

Follow for: Global AI perspectives, big ideas, HeathTech#GlobalAI #BigIdeas #HealthTechSarah is on Twitter and LinkedIn

9) Kate Devlin - Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence at King's College London

Follow for: Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence, human-computer interaction, the role of robotics and AI in human sexuality #Social #Cultural #AI #Human-Computer #Robotics #AIHumanSexuality Kate is on Twitter and LinkedIn 10) Kriti Sharma - AI products | Forbes 30 under 30 | Speaker @TED

Follow for: AI chatbots, 'Botness', thought leadership on education and domestic violence #AIChatbots #Education Kriti is on Twitter and LinkedIn 11) Wendy Hall CBE - Professor at University of Southampton

Follow for: UK AI skills, web science, women in science and engineering#AISkills #WebScience #WomeninScienceDame Wendy Hall is on Twitter and LinkedIn

12) Chelsea Chen - Co-Founder of Emotech

Follow for: Robotics, AI, integrated marketing, user research #Robotics #AI #IntegratedMarketing #UserResearch Chelsea is on LinkedIn Emotech is on Twitter 13) Julia Shaw - Scientist, Author, & Co-founder of Spot

Follow for: Workplace of the future, inclusive workplaces, memory and psychology research, criminology #FutureWorkplace #InclusiveWorkplace #Memory #Psychology #Criminology Julia is on Twitter and LinkedIn 14) Sarah Rench - Director of AI and Industry Solutions at Avanade | Board Member | Most Influential Women in U.K Tech Top 100 in 2019 | Tedx Speaker

Follow for: FinTech, AI developments, global data, intelligent automation#FinTech #AI #GlobalData #IntelligentAutomation Sarah is on Twitter and LinkedIn

15) Ivana Bartoletti - Technical Director - Privacy, Deloitte & Co-Founder, Women Leading in AI Network

Follow for: Privacy by design, ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain technology, cybersecurity #privacy #ethicalAI #blockchain #cybersecurity Ivana is on Twitter and LinkedIn Compiled by MKAI - Milton Keynes Artificial Intelligence The four pillars of MKAI are: 1.) Connecting and developing AI practitioners and Leaders: through the live events and online community 2.) Creating valuable AI insights: by bringing the best and most up to date AI thought leaders to Milton Keynes 3.) Supporting businesses: to adopt, scale and benefit from ethical AI 4.) Encouraging inclusiveness and gender diversity in AI If you want to contact MKAI please send us a message if you would like to get involved in sponsoring, supporting or speaking at team@mkai.org.

Steering Group: Richard Foster-Fletcher | Ellen Ward | Jaisal Surana | Tim Teece

THE 2020 WOMEN IN SOFTWARE WINNERS The issues and problems that women face while working in the tech industry are welldocumented. Sadly, the coronavirus pandemic is having its own devastating effect on gender equality with the potential to set women back decades.

So this year, even though the lockdown prevented us from being able to host an evening reception, we felt it was especially important to highlight the theme of “Changing the Narrative”.

Women are making change happen for themselves and we wanted to give them (and the teams that advance them) the limelight.

The Women in Software Power List celebrates and showcases the female rising stars in the UK’s coding community. The inaugural list was launched last year at Level39.

This year we also launched the Changemakers list — it’s not just about the individuals, it’s also about the initiatives working to create positive change. Our Changemakers List celebrates teams from HR, Tech and beyond to showcase best practice in creating a more inclusive tech industry.

Earlier this year we opened nominations to the broader community and we also held a launch party at Makers HQ. Click to watch the videos:

We were blown away by the quality of the nominations, which came from all over the UK. Below please find the results.

The 2020 Women in Software Power List: Paula Muldoon — Backend Engineer, BRYTER Yasmin Desai — Product Owner, Revolut Genevieve Leveille — CEO and Founder, AgriLedger Anna Holland-Smith — Internal Developer Advocate, Automattic Lina Chan — CEO, Co-Founder, Adia Health Andreea Ionescu — Software Developer and CoChair of Women’s Developers Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Danielle Booysen — Junior Frontend Developer, Vodafone UK Jessica Falk — Software Engineer, Improbable Keltoum Boukra — Automation Team Lead, LabGenius Evelyn Utterson — Software Engineering Educator, Lloyds Banking Group Cassie Evans — Front End Developer, Clearleft Emma Steeley — CEO, AccountScore Suze Shardlow — Coding Instructor, Director of Women Who Code London and Chapter Lead of Ladies Of Code London Nicole Fu — Consultant, Nav.Marketing Akua Apeagyei — Engineer Apprentice, Lyst Ltd Samira Cheurfi — Senior Android Developer, Trainline Katya-yani Vyas — VP Product and Innovation, Azur Visnja Drinjovski — Tech Lead, MVFKim Diep — Associate Software Engineer, M&G Plc Mansata Kurang — Founder, VR Revival Sjoukje Ijlstra — Software Engineer, JP Morgan Merve Taner — Senior Software Engineer, Zencargo Eli Schutze Ramirez — Web Engineer, Monzo Tanya Eccleston — Software engineer, Depop Allie Gillon-Livesey — Vice President — Digital Innovation, J.P. Morgan Mathilde Ferrand — iOS Engineer, Ford Mobility Europe Melanie Rogan — Software Engineer, Financial Times Mabintou Kolley — Creative Director and Digital Designer, Clamp Agency Phillipa Rodney — Software Delivery Manager, Freddie’s Flowers Aurelija Stankunaite — Senior Agile Lead, Smart Pension The 2020 Women in Software Changemakers List: OneTech Code First Girls Tech Returners The Women in Tech (WIT) network at Unilever — Stacey Wills Coding Black Females The Tech She Can Charter Women Driven Development Like Minded Females — Sonya Barlow Zoopla’s interview guide Dassault Systèmes EuroNorth Lean In Circles About Adele Barlow Adele leads content and communications for Makers, a coding training provider helping to make the tech industry more inclusive. She is also the author of Finding Fulfilling Work, Leaving Law: How Others Did It & How You Can Too, and 8 Ways to Escape the MBA Debate. Her books explore the future of work for millennials based on her experiences helping to build the career change platform Escape the City, where she spearheaded The Escape School. She has written for the Huffington Post, Real Business and City A.M. and has worked in marketing for various startups. In 2019, she created the UK's first Women in Software Power List in partnership with ComputerWeekly. She posts new writing on instagram here.

MEASURING INNOVATION AND HOW YOU CAN DO IT TOO

BY SUZANNE CHARLOTTE VOS Innovation is used synonymously to describe a wide array of activities. In order to get us on the same page, I see innovation as any new idea that once implemented delivers measurable value. This idea does not have to be novel - you don’t have to be a creative genius to be innovative - what matters is context: what is the norm for many startups can be completely new for a corporate. Implementation is the manifestation of the objectives of the idea, be it digital or physical. It is great to have many ideas on a ‘flip chart’, but value can only be created once it is implemented. To see if the idea has the intended impact, you need to be able to measure the delta from the status quo, because what gets measured gets improved.

Like most things, innovation too sits on a spectrum. On one end we have ‘disruptive innovation’ that may radically change teams, organizations or even whole industries. On the other end we have ‘sustaining innovation’ which focusses more on incremental improvements and optimization. No matter where you are on the spectrum, all innovation initiatives have one thing in common - they are exploring the unknown (albeit to different degrees). With this in mind, traditional ways of working have to take a back seat: you have to operate in search mode instead of execution mode. You are exploring what works, what is valuable, what is helpful and what is not. This is exactly what excites many (including myself) to be active in this space. However, this also makes it difficult to measure and translate progress and impact.

A common misconception shared by senior leaders and juniors alike is that “innovation is fluffy”.

To those with this mindset, a wall of post-it’s does not convey how well a team is doing or how fast a project is moving. To the less discerning eye it seems like nothing is happening until there is suddenly the proverbial unicorn in the room. Traditional metrics which were put in place to

track execution driven projects don’t do the innovation progress justice. It can take months or often even years before any impact can be seen according to traditional metrics such as revenue and ROI. Not being able to track progress and impact with appropriate metrics can result in a demotivated team and disconnection from the rest of an organization.

To help leaders better understand innovation driven projects and how to set relevant targets, I created a framework which is inspired by the concepts of Innovation Accounting and Objectives & Key Results. Based on this, a distinction is made between activity and impact metrics.

Activity metrics are leading indicators for evaluating effort. They can be used to measure the velocity at which a team is operating in search mode. If a team is moving faster, this means they are learning more and are therefore more likely to succeed in making the impact they want to make. Conversely, the impact metrics are lagging indicators for the outcome of the efforts and measure tangible results that emerged from these efforts.

Acknowledging the importance of process and structure is especially important when your team is still learning and adopting a new way of working. By taking this approach a team is rewarded for how the team is working towards impact. It gets cheered on during the challenging race it is in and not just at the finish line, rewarding passion and performance.

Let’s break it down into actionable steps for you and your team.

Identify the impact you want to make Get started with defining the objective you want to achieve. The key here is to envision the desired situation without introducing specific solutions. Operating in search mode means exploring the problem deeper first and, only when the problem has sufficiently been mapped out, test out different solutions to determine how to best meet your objective. An example of an objective could be “by Q4 we want to reduce time of process X by 50%”.

Examples of questions I ask at this stage are: What problem do you want to solve for who?

What will you set out to achieve?

What is the impact you want to make?

What does success look like?

How will you measure this success?

Define what activities get you to ‘impact’ An objective is not met overnight (if the objective is set right). Defining activities to get to impact help with identifying intermediate milestones. Crossing these off shows you are progressing and maintaining your momentum while in search mode. Every activity will help you learn what works and what does not. Finding out what is not adding value is also progress: there is no failure, only feedback. Edison for example found 10,000 ways in which not to make a light bulb.

Some questions I ask here include: What do you need to explore and how will you do this?

How many people do you need to reach out to in order to learn this?

How many times do you need to run this experiment?

When do you feel comfortable you are done exploring because you learned enough?

How much time do you need to do this?

Bringing it together Once you have identified the impact you want to make through defining a measurable objective and broken down the different activities, you can put them together. Impact is measured along the vertical axis and activities on the horizontal axis. If your objective is to reduce process time by 50% and executing 3 activities, the figure shows what the axes can look like. This framework gives you the freedom to define what good looks like and when your team has achieved excellence.

Shaping targets for innovation projects is an iterative process and can be a journey just like innovation itself. Well defined targets help your team stay focused on what matters. If innovation is important to you, then you should measure.

About Suzanne Charlotte Vos Coming from a truly entrepreneurial family, Suzanne joined her family’s business in the manufacturing industry to head operations and product improvement while still in school.

Her Master’s degree in Systems Engineering from Delft University of Technology centered around complex problem solving and theory came to life on the job. She learned here companies are made of more than technology and processes, they’re about people too.

During the acquisition of the company in 2014 Suzanne had a leading role, which inspired her to broaden her legal knowledge and obtain a law degree while simultaneously working at a law firm.

With this multidisciplinary skillset and desire to make true impact, Suzanne joined ING Bank. In 2016.

Since then she has been part of different client facing teams such as Structured Finance Utilities, Power & Renewables, Corporate Investments and Trade & Commodity Finance. During an overseas assignment in Trade and Commodity Finance, she was offered the opportunity to create a brand new business unit focused on establishing partnerships and building new technology driven companies that go beyond traditional banking products: ING Labs.

With the ING Labs setup and program maturing in Singapore, she took on an additional challenge mid-2019 and now driving the innovation transformation in APAC. Her goal is to make innovation business as usual in the Wholesale Banking organization.

TEN WAYS WE CAN SUPPORT WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE DURING A CRISIS There is growing concern that gender-based inequalities around the world will soon surge, reversing progress on gender equality and sustainable development goals.

Losing ground at this stage will have dire consequences for women, especially when we have come this far. It's imperative that women, girls, and other vulnerable groups are at the center of all efforts during and after this crisis.

Here's how organizations can help.

Build awareness of the crisis’s impact on women.

Earlier recessions have demonstrated that the disadvantaged are less resilient financially and socially; some groups even face intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination.

We need to implement interventions in a way that does not perpetuate harmful gender norms, discriminatory practices, and inequalities. To avoid that, it's critical we are aware of how detrimental the crisis will be for women and how that impact will differ between genders.

Ensure women are included in key decisions and influential positions.

Research proves that diversity leads to richer, more productive, and more sustainable decisions.

Yet, women comprise just 25% of global health leadership, and they're also underrepresented in COVID-19 global health decision-making and leadership bodies. This is symptomatic of our wider society, where women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles and boardrooms.

UN Women recommends a multi-stakeholder engagement, which ensures a gender-sensitive response to the Coronavirus guided by women politicians, key influencers, and decision makers.

Women's voices and interests need to be reflected in the decision-making processes. We also need to ensure women are represented on task forces and response teams.

Support working parents.

The disproportionate burden of home chores during lockdown has squeezed women, leaving them fatigued and anxious. That burden is especially encumbering for single parents who can’t turn to outside help during quarantine.

Women are also more likely to be single parents than men. A recent report by Trust Radius revealed that women in tech are more likely to be laid-off or furloughed than men, and nearly 1.5x as likely to feel a greater childcare burden due to COVID-19. 14% of women are considering quitting their jobs because of the family demands the Coronavirus crisis created. Deciding to leave the workforce can have long-term financial ramifications for women who are already lagging behind in terms of pay, pension, and health insurance. This is an opportunity for companies to adopt genderinclusive and family-friendly workplace policies and practices, including flexible work arrangements that can disrupt gender stereotypes, change traditional narratives, and encourage more balanced share of care and family responsibilities.

Flexible benefits include reduced hours, a compressed work week, or leave of absence with leeway in submission of assignments.

Given the dramatic, fast-paced changes happening globally, it's important to keep reassessing current priorities while reflecting sensitivity and empathy in all communications.

Offer and connect to relevant resources.

Isolation has also led to an alarming uptick in domestic violence. Thousands of women already lack access to resources, hotlines, and shelters. Companies can play a key role in directing employees to services they need, including domestic violence hotlines as well as health and wellbeing contacts and referrals.

Address unconscious bias.

It’s important to continue vigilantly monitoring policies for biases that are weighted against women and can significantly impact their career progression.

In any crisis, it's easy for such priorities to diminish; hence it's crucial that every decision is informed by a structured due diligence process with continued accountability for diversity decisions.

Invest in women-focused employee resource groups and networks.

Many organizations do not invest sufficient time and money to staff networks that can be crucial in a crisis. People feel more secure when they are part of affinity groups with members who share the same fears and challenges.

Involve men in the conversation.

Some organizations are using this opportunity to open up women’s leadership programs to include men, so men are more aware of the challenges their female counterparts face.

Male allies will play an integral role in sustaining equality efforts, so it's advisable to include them in the conversation and secure their support.

Men should also be encouraged to purposefully leverage their newfound domestic partnership at home.

Provide coaching, mentoring, and training programs.

Reports have highlighted how mental health will be impacted by this pandemic. It’s important for organizations to invest in internal or external coaches, mentors, and mental health experts who can help employees steer their way through uncertainty and anxiety. The latter can help employees confront their feelings, navigate through confusion, and overcome obstacles, limiting beliefs, and learned helplessness.

On top of the pressure and overwhelming nature of the current crisis, many women who are losing their jobs do not have the skills, nor the technology, to work from home or retrain for other employment. Following outbreaks, women experience more irreconcilable work breaks than men do. Hence, it’s important to prioritize leadership and resilience trainings and corporate development programs that can empower women to reach the highest ranks in leadership.

Encourage and host virtual social time.

Leaders need to facilitate connections and foster team cohesion.

Encourage teams to take time off to engage in self-care and relaxing activities during this stressful time. Begin meetings with open-ended questions; allow people to vent and share their thoughts and feelings. It’s critical to nurture and strengthen team morale. Group games provide downtime and support positive coping. Many companies share resource kits for surviving and thriving in these difficult times.

Support communities, NGOs, and government partnerships.

Organizations must support employers and trade unions representing female-dominated labor market sectors, as should women’s organizations and shelters.

Organizations can consider redirecting funding investments in women-owned businesses and focus on “gender lens investing” - investing in products and services that benefit and empower women socially and economically, including promoting education as a catalyst for female leadership.

Engaging women and girls at the community level through their networks and organizations is important to ensure a more inclusive response. Organizations may prefer to partner with governments and global health institutions to support recovery efforts and evaluate the impact of the outbreak by collecting meaningful data and exploring trends.

We have achieved significant progress in the fight toward equality, and we cannot afford to lose momentum. The public and private sector must make focused efforts to sustain this development and drive it forward.

About Hira Ali Hira Ali, Chief Executive Officer of Advancing Your Potential, Managing Director of International Women Empowerment Events Founding Director of Career Excel Co-Founder of The Grey Area is a multi-faceted career coach and trainer who has impacted hundreds of people from various industries and professions across the world. She is an Associate Certified Coach accredited by International Coach Federation and a professional member of the Association for Neuro Linguistic Programming.

Her widely acclaimed leadership and coaching articles have been published across a variety of leading outlets: The International Coach Federation, The Huff Post, Thrive Global, Women @ Forbes, Ellevate Network, Entrepreneur, Women Entrepreneur, Gulf News, The Female Lead and many more. Hira’s work has been featured in several interviews the recent one being by former BBC journalist Dan Parry -some of her blogs have been shared by Arianna Huffington herself. Her career development podcast, 8 Minutes of Learning With Hira Ali, has been featured in HuffPost as one of the top 100 rising podcasts with guests.

Hira is a registered coach and mentor at various international organisations including: American Corporate Partners, the National Health Services, Mentor2mentees, and The Cherie Blair Foundation. She is the recipient of the Top 100 Women – Lift Effects Star Award and was one of the top three finalists for the Baton Awards, Entrepreneur of the Year. She has recently won Highly Commended women in media award sponsored by Microsoft at the prestigious win trade awards. In her recently published book Her Way to the Top: The Glass Ceiling is Thicker Than It Looks, she highlights the internal and external road blocks impeding a woman’s climb to the top irrespective of her culture and geography. The book has earned outstanding reviews from global influencers like Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Cherie Blair, Valerie Young, Dr. Lois P Frankle, Chiara Condi, Dr. Yvonne Thompson, Carole Stone, Dr. Shola, Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala’s dad) and many more and received a letter of appreciation from the London Mayor himself. Her Way To The Top has made it to the local newspapers such as Ham and High and international ones such as Europe Breaking News.

Hira has been featured as a role model in the book Girls Who Do you Want To Be alongside global influencers like Arianna Huffington, Reshma Sujani, Claire Shipman, Sallie Krawcheck and many more. She is very passionate about empowering women and ethnic minorities and is a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion at work place.

*This article was published originally in Forbes

WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP Source: Silicon Valley Bank 2019

We must do better: Half of startups have no women on their leadership team.

We start reading this statement from the CEO Greg Becker, Silicon Valley Bank in the very beginning of his letter and he continues saying that " innovation happens when people of different perspectives and with fresh viewpoints come together."

The Silicon Valley report brought a light on one of the most discussed theme around debates: Leadership and Leadership in Start Ups and why women and minorities do not have been valued?

Having just 28% of start ups who have at least one female founder is definitely not enough specially when we know that companies with female founders perform 63% better than those of their male peers.

Silicon Valley Bank surveyed tech and healthcare founders primarily in the US, the UK, Canada and China during 2019.

Their annual survey shed a light in many aspects and we can have a clear picture about the startup outlook in those countries.

I would love to have more data relating the profitable table against the founder gender or knowing more of how many profitable companies have been led by female founders.

Half of startups have no women on their leadership teams.

56% of startups have at least one woman in an executive position, and only 40% have at least one woman on the board of directors, with China having the highest percentage of companies with at least one woman in an executive role.

Founder gender women’s roles

often

determines

Startups with at least one woman on the founding team are much more likely to have a female CEO (often founders serve as CEOs) or COO. If the startup has only male founders, a woman is much more likely to be head of HR or chief marketing officer.The numbers are stark: Just five percent of startups with only men on the founding team have afemale CEO, whereas 63 percent have women as HR chiefs.

Gender-based hiring goals in startups are rare Of startups with programs in place to support gender diversity, the most common programs are a flexible work environment,recruiting/interview techniques and leadershipdevelopment. Startups with promotion/ hiring goals typically apply them companywide — just seven percent have goals for C-level positions only

Do you want to know more about the Key Insights from the Silicon Valley Bank Startup Outlook Survey?

CLICK HERE

INTERVIEW

MELISSA AHMED Managing Director Techwuman Ltd

Tell us about you and your business/career I was born in the Maldives in 1994 and moved to the UK when I was 4 years old. I have a 1st Class BEng (Hons) degree in Aeronautical Engineering and an MSc in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering specialising in Security Design. Following the completion of my masters I founded Techwuman to allow me to inspire others to pursue a career in engineering.

Techwuman is an engineering consultancy, specialising in design engineering for the physical security of critical national infrastructure. Our company’s mission is to empower women in engineering to improve gender parity in the industry and to promote STEM to the next generation.

A day in your business!

I manage the company on a day to day basis, co-ordinating projects for our current clients and managing work across the Techwuman team. Along with our current projects, I am constantly looking at opportunities to talk about women in engineering and promote this to the next generation.

Techwuman promotes STEM by delivering STEM activity days to primary and secondary schools, inspiring the younger generation to take up careers in industries they may not have considered before. We provide students with the opportunity to think about their careers early on, and equip them with the knowledge to make the right subject choices to embark on their chosen career.

As part of my campaign to promote women in engineering I have been featured in magazines, written blogs, taken part in social media campaigns and delivered presentations to university students.

I love the variety of my work particularly the fact that no two days are the same. One day I can be working on a 3D design project, designing security products to pass strict testing standards, the next I could be standing in front of a class of primary school children, sharing my experiences and telling them all about my career with the hope of inspiring them to pursue a career in STEM.

MELISSA AHMED Technology is a male-dominated field. Tell us about your experience in the tech sector. Being in the minority is sadly something I have had to get used to. This was evident from my secondary school education onwards where I was one of two females in my Physics and Maths A level classes which were classes of around thirty students. During the first year of my degree course I was one of five females in a class of around sixty. I was the very first female to be employed in the technical department at the company where I completed a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP).

Do you think there is a diversity issue in the tech sector? Do you notice a lack of women in technology? Has it affected you in any way?

Yes, I feel that there is a diversity issue in the tech sector, particularly in engineering. According to the Women’s Engineering Society less than 13% of the UK engineering workforce is female.

This statistic is staggering and the lack of females in engineering is one of the main reasons why I founded Techwuman and actively seek out opportunities to participate in events which promote women to the STEM industries.

I have always been aware of the lack of women in technology throughout my education and into my career to date. Although this hasn’t affected my career personally, it has spurred me on to try and make a change within the industry.

Do you think it is getting easier for women to get into Tech?

My personal opinion is that it is getting easier for women to get into tech. There are many initiatives which actively promote females to take up a career in tech. I was involved as a mentor in such a programme which specifically targeted females who came from underrepresented communities and had diverse backgrounds. This programme retrained these females in a technology-based role and then provided opportunities for them to be considered for an internship/job. To assist with their retraining, each participant was paired with a successful female from the STEM industry who was responsible for mentoring them.

Programme such as these are fundamental to getting more women into technology, another factor which makes it easier for women to get into tech is that the gender gap is now being acknowledged and more female role models are coming forward to participate in events which promoted females into technology.

Some companies are also implementing measures to allow them to start achieving gender parity within their organisations. Although there is still a long way to go, this is a good start for tech industries.

Are there any particular women in tech who have inspired you?

My mother has been in IT for as long as I can remember. Although the gender gap in IT is not as prominent as it is in engineering, I know that in the majority of her roles she was the only female on her team. Seeing her achieve success throughout her career encouraged and inspired me to look past my initial concerns at considering a career in engineering. It motivated me to follow my dreams and allowed me to take up engineering which was the best match for my skills and interests.

MELISSA AHMED What are some of the biggest challenges that women who want to venture in the world of technology face today?

Some females are put off by the thought of entering an industry in which they know they will be a minority. It takes a certain mindset to be able to move past this and then thrive and achieve success in the industry.

What do you think companies can do to encourage more women to choose careers in tech and rectify the imbalance?

Companies should actively look for opportunities to run, promote and participate in initiatives which showcase successful female role models and give them a platform to talk about their careers and share their experiences. Such events will also bring into the open some of the challenges they have faced during the course of their career and obstacles which need to be overcome. By sharing these experiences, companies within these industries can seek out solutions and implement measures to address such challenges to prevent them from recurring in the future.

They also need to promote the variety of jobs available in their industry and demonstrate the need for all genders to work together. There is evidence to suggest that different mindsets and ways of thinking can help to find the best solution to problems.

The importance of having a female perspective needs to be recognised and there should be more focus on recruiting females into roles within their organisation where there is a male dominance.

Companies can also sponsor STEM programmes to promote the variety of jobs available in STEM and demonstrate how rewarding a job in STEM can be to younger generations. This can help to banish the stigma of jobs, in engineering especially, being ones where you ‘get your hands dirty’.

What would be your message to women trying to get into technology?

Don’t be put off by current perceptions. Seek out female role models in your chosen line of work to see if they are willing to share their experiences. There are many successful females who would welcome the opportunity to mentor females wishing to follow in their footsteps.

Keep an eye out for mentoring schemes and other initiatives, particularly those which are aimed at promoting females into less conventional roles and those targeted at encouraging more females to take up careers in technology. These will give you the boost you need to kickstart your career.

Research the job roles which are available within your chosen industry to find out what roles are the best fit for your personality and skillset. Use your findings to learn as many different skills as you possibly can. Always try to expand and improve your knowledge base by following courses which build on your existing strengths and enhance your learning. Even if the course you follow isn’t associated with the field of work you wish to go into, there are many skills in technology and engineering which are transferable and will give you the edge over other candidates.

MELISSA AHMED What do you think we should be doing more to encourage more girls to consider a career in tech?

The best way to promote STEM is for professionals currently in the STEM industry to seek opportunities to become STEM role models so that they can talk about their experiences.

Events such as these will enable the next generation to hear about different job roles and what they entail. This will go a long way to help change current perceptions and mindsets and will also demonstrate that you don’t have to look or behave a certain way to become an engineer.

70% of the TechWuman STEM ambassadors who have taken part in our STEM activity days have been female. This is crucial to show young children and in particular young girls that the jobs in STEM industries are not just for men, and there is a variety of roles suitable for both men and women.

Like-minded females who are currently in engineering need to come together and devote time to showcase their jobs and share their stories to empower more females to consider taking a career in engineering.

WANNA BE A GUEST?

BECOME AN ENGINEER AND IMPROVE THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN. FAVOURITE QUOTE MELISSA AHMED

MITRA ROKNABADI VP, Global Head of Marketing @openfin

Tell us about you and your business/career While working in tech had always been a goal of mine, my path to OpenFin wasn’t conventional.

I worked in retail for several years, leading sales and management for Chanel's Beauty business, and at one point even launched my own beauty ecommerce startup. While trying to find my bearings in tech, my startup joined First Growth Ventures, an accelerator which OpenFin was also a part of. I reconnected with Mazy Dar and his colleague Chuck Doerr there, who at the time had just co-founded OpenFin. While I was no expert in finance or technology, I was totally bought into what they were pitching, and wanted to be part of that journey. I knew I was capable of spearheading their marketing campaign and building the brand at a time when the firm was starting to really achieve liftoff.

A day in your business!

It really depends on the day. As global head of marketing, I also lead our certified developer program, which keeps me on my toes. However, a lot of my time is spent on making our message more compelling for current and potential clients. I keep in close contact with the firms within our ecosystem and am constantly looking for more opportunities to further expand our network. In 2016 I launched our flagship conference series, FinJS, which since the pandemic had to shift online, we are now spending a lot of our time producing all of our content for online consumption, which has been a great way to stay connected.

Do you think there is a diversity issue in the tech sector? Do you notice a lack of women in technology? Has it affected you in any way?

While we at OpenFin strive to maintain a team with a broad range of perspectives and life experiences, there is undeniably a diversity issue in the tech sector. The industry is making important strides, but the gender imbalance is stark enough that it’s hard not to notice it in many cases. There are times when it can get to you – it can be intimidating to be the only woman in the room, for example. Fortunately, the firms we work with share our commitment to diversity, so these instances are few and far between, and I don’t feel that my career has been affected in any significant way.

MITRA ROKNABADI Technology is a male-dominated field. Tell us about your experience in the tech sector.

My experience in the tech sector has been a very positive one. I came into it as a bit of an outsider, but it didn’t take long for me to forget about my past role and become completely engrossed. There is so much innovation occurring today, especially at a firm like OpenFin, and the chance to be around so many intelligent, passionate people who are working to fundamentally change how major institutions build and deliver their products makes it a thrill to go to work each day. That said, I can’t say that making my way in a male-dominated field has been easy at every turn. There have been those moments, and while I personally have had a good experience, I’ve heard many accounts from women who haven’t been so lucky. Working within a given industry, you get to see its great sides as well as the areas where it’s overdue for a change, and tech is no exception.

Do you think it is getting easier for women to get into Tech?

Women who want to get into tech today have an easier road than those who wanted to 20 or 30 years ago. The discourse around diversity issues has evolved so much in that time, and attitudes and practices in the workplace have progressed as well. For example, people are now more attuned to the ways in which women may be negatively affected by unconscious bias or longstanding practices that were implemented with a male-dominated space in mind.

An increasing number of people are of the view that we must go beyond attempting to take gender out of the equation by purporting to treat everyone the same and instead make a conscious effort to make the workplace a welcoming place for women, constantly checking ourselves to ensure we are not defaulting to practices that serve one group over the other. By the same token, there are now a number of dedicated programs and initiatives designed to help women break into and succeed in the tech sector, providing connections and support. The fight for equality is by no means finished, but there has also been tremendous progress and it’s important to recognize that.

What are some of the biggest challenges that women who want to venture in the world of technology face today?

The biggest challenges have to do with just how long the tech space has been dominated by men and everything that goes along with that. These days, there is widespread agreement that there should be more women in tech (especially in hubs like San Francisco and New York), but cutting through the lip service and convincing people to be more cognizant of how certain policies, practices and attitudes can inadvertently put women at a disadvantage is the tricky part.

For example, a company that considers itself cool and forward-thinking may produce literature that emphasizes its open office plan and weekly ping pong tournaments – while also featuring only men in the images. An all-male hiring team may pore over the candidates’ hard qualifications without giving a passing thought to how their experiences may have been different based on their identity. Similarly, a firm might have outdated or insufficient family leave policies, because the composition of their staff and the prevalence of gender roles mean it was never an issue. All of these instances show how women in tech face structural challenges – not just in the hearts and minds of their coworkers, but in the DNA of the industry.

MITRA ROKNABADI Are there any particular women in tech who have inspired you?

There are so many women in this industry who blazed the trail and inspire me every day – too many to list, in fact. I’ll shout out two with whom I’ve worked closely and who have set an example for women in tech by achieving transformative results and serving as digital transformation leaders. The first is Ying Cao, Director, Digital Strategy, Head of Digital Products at Barclays. Ying and her team used OpenFin to revamp their BARX platform, streamlining the deployment process and making it easier than ever for clients to access the functionalities they need. The second is Kim Prado, Managing Director, Global Head of Client, Banking and Digital Channels Technology at RBC Capital Markets. Prado led the effort to revolutionize RBC’s internal workflows, driving maximum interoperability and ultimately allowing staff to get a client-centric view of a single entity across multiple lines of business on its internal Salesbook platform. Both of these women are tireless workers, respected thought leaders and valued partners, and they are a huge inspiration for me and countless other women in tech.

What do you think companies can do to encourage more women to choose careers in tech and rectify the imbalance?

There are a few things. First of all, if you want to encourage more women in tech, you should make it a point to hire women who are already in the space. Young women who are working out their career interests don’t want to enter a world where they can’t see themselves succeeding, and that’s exactly the message that a firm with an all-male staff sends. Companies should also take a hard look in the mirror and thoroughly review internal policies and common practices to ensure that they are accommodating of all. By making a habit of inclusivity, firms can reduce internal barriers to success and do their part to make the tech space more welcoming to women. Once a company has its house in order, it can spend more time on outreach efforts. Staging events, supporting community programs, recruiting diligently and making employees available to serve as resources are all steps that can be taken to increase diversity in the workplace. For example, at OpenFin, our FinJS conference series brings together leaders in JavaScript and digital transformation, and one of our specific goals when launching these events was to give women and POC a platform to share their perspectives on industry issues. Through this, we hope to set an example for how diversity, networking and exchanging ideas can be powerful forces for greater equality as well as business success.

What would be your message to women trying to get into technology?

I’d say I have two messages. The first is to be persistent. Breaking into the tech space is difficult for anyone, and even more so if you don’t match the profile of the typical developer.

Frustrating as they may be, you can’t let delays or roadblocks get in the way of your aspirations.

I spent months attending meetups all over the city in search of the perfect opportunity, and while there were some exhausting days and late nights, I ultimately found a job that allowed me to get my foot in the door of the tech world and set me up for success at OpenFin. It may sound cliché, but finding that one person who’s willing to give you a shot can change the course of your career, so don’t give up until you’re on a path to something that excites you. The second message I have for women trying to get into tech is to know your worth. In a maledominated space, women inevitably hold less power, and you should never let anyone try to take advantage of your inexperience or make you feel like anyone is doing you a favor by including you. Be open to all opportunities, but don’t devalue your work or sell out your values for the sake of fitting in.

MITRA ROKNABADI What do you think we should be doing more to encourage more girls to consider a career in tech?

The good news is I think a lot of the things we can do to spark interest in tech among girls are already happening on some level. When I was growing up, technology wasn’t emphasized as much in academic settings, although my parents did make it a point to find a school that emphasized on science and technology. However, many people my age came to know the space through more of a hobbyist or pop cultural lens. Because of this, everything having to do with technology and computers was geared towards men, and to this day many technology subcultures have a distinct male focus. In the years since, we’ve come to see how this bias has led to an incredibly important and fast-growing field being dominated by one gender.

Introducing kids to technology at an early age and in a classroom setting makes it easier to drive home the ideas that this topic is for everyone and is hugely important in all of our lives.

Framing it as a subject just as crucial as any other and getting kids excited about building things and controlling their virtual environment are all great ways to help girls envision a future in the tech space. As they advance through school, these efforts must continue in the form off dedicated class offerings and enrichment programs, outreach from the industry and clubs and organizations centered around promoting women in tech. There’s no good reason for women to be underrepresented, and we need to make sure they know not only that can they do whatever they set their minds to, but that their support networks and the industry at large will have their back.

BE A COLLABORATOR

THE MOST COURAGEOUS ACT IS STILL TO THINK FOR YOURSELF. ALOUD. FAVOURITE QUOTE COCO CHANEL MITRA ROKNABADI

NOBUKHOSI DLAMINI Founder and Managing Director of Bahati Tech

Tell us about you and your business.

I am a Tech Founder with a three year old company focusing on Data Protection and Cybersecurity.

I also run a non-profit (GIFT Foundation) which aims to make careers in FinTech more accessible to girls from poor backgrounds. We teach financial literacy and coding to underprivileged teenagers.

I have won many awards and received two fellowships in the US. I’ve also spoken at the UKAfrica Investment Summit (January 2020) on behalf of African Tech entrepreneurs, women in particular.

Did you always know that working in technology was what you wanted to do and how did you decide to go into tech?

No growing up I was not aware that careers in technology were an option. I come from a rural background so I didn’t have access to any computer until I reached university. However, due to my good performance in mathematics and science in high school I was advised to pursue a degree in computer science and applied mathematics. I was then exposed to the world of technology and I haven’t looked back since.

Do you notice a lack of women in technology? If so, why do you think that’s the case?

Yes there is a lack of women in technology for many reasons. Young boys are encouraged to pursue more technical subjects than girls unfortunately. And when girls reach university there are more male lecturers than female lecturers or even tutors. So those courses end up being “boys club” and women are often overlooked or not seen. That culture perpetuates to the work environment and many tech companies have a very strong “bro culture” which women might not find comfortable. So every step of the way, women are in the minority and have to assimilate to an uncomfortable environment to try and fit in. And there are very few women at the top so that is very discouraging.

NOBUKHOSI DLAMINI Have you ever been in a situation where you have felt discouraged to pursue your dreams as a woman? How did you handle it?

Yes I have especially when I see how much more work and effort a woman has to make to prove their capabilities compared to guys.

But I’ve always been confident in my abilities and identity, so that helped me to not internalize the issues and understood that it’s the culture and environment that is dysfunctional. Many women sometimes internalize these cultural issues and allow self doubt to creep in when they feel sidelined or overlooked.

What advice would you give to a woman considering a career in your industry or what you wish to know before starting your career/business?

I would remind them that everything you see around you was created by people not much more intelligent or talented than yourself.

But they had faith to believe that it’s possible, and the tenacity to pursue it against all odds.

So go for it and don’t give up.

I like Ebony Beckwith, Bozoma Saint John amongst others.

How do you find inspiration in your life?

What do you think companies can do to encourage more women to choose careers in tech and rectify the imbalance?

They can change the culture to be more inclusive. They can have people who not only mentor women but sponsor them towards leadership roles. They can educate everyone about conscious and unconscious bias. They can educate their employees and managers about the value that diversity brings to the organizations bottom line.

In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle for women to succeed in the workplace/business?

Workplace culture that excludes and sidelines women.

Conscious and unconscious bias that leads men to be assumed competent until proven otherwise, and women assumed incompetent until they have to climb mountains to prove otherwise.

To what do you attribute your success?

I have faith in myself and my abilities. I also came after many women who sacrificed themselves to pave the way for the next generation. So it’s not just my own abilities but I follow in the footsteps of women who were (and are) giants.

I think that there’s a lot of work to be done in the industry and the industry has the potential to drastically improve lives for all people including third world countries. That encourages me in the work I’m doing.

POWERED BY

TRY AND FAIL, BUT NEVER FAIL TO TRY. FAVOURITE QUOTE NOBUKHOSI DLAMINI

VANESSA VALLELY OBE CEO, WeAreTheCity WeAreTechWomen

Vanessa, please share with us your career journey until today.

My experience is borne from a 25 year corporate career, predominantly in technology and banking operations. I have previously held roles such as Head of Business Management, Head of Governance, as well as Chief Operating Officer for the tech area of a leading bank.

During my corporate career, I have worked and reported directly to CEO’s, CIO’s or senior board members. I am a leading figure in gender equality and a champion for women across all industries. I spend a lot of my time providing guidance and consultancy to both government and corporate organisations who are seeking to attract, develop and retain their female talent. I was awarded my OBE in June 2018 for services to women and the economy.

In 2008, at the height of my career in the financial services, I launched the award-winning WeAreTheCity.com, as a vehicle to help women progress in their careers. WeAreTheCity.com now has over 125,000 members and provides resources, conferences, awards, jobs and much more to women across the UK. I am also the founder of UK wide diversity forum, Gender Networks. Gender Networks (formerly The Network of Networks) brings together diversity leaders from 85 cross-sector firms to share best practice on a quarterly basis. In 2015, I launched WeAreTechWomen.com, alongside our WeAreTechWomen conference and TechWomen100 Awards, to raise the profile of women in tech.

In 2013 I wrote my first book, “Heels of Steel: Surviving and Thriving in the Corporate World” which tracks my career and shares 13 chapters of tips to succeed in the workplace. I am currently writing my second book which will be released late 2021.

VANESSA VALLELY OBE A day in your business life!

I wear multiple hats. Founder of WeAreTheCity/WeAreTechWomen, global speaker, advisory board member, judge, gender consultant and mentor. This means that every working day is different.

Most days start at 6.00am where I visit all of our various social media channels to check on content, to share and to promote what we are doing that day or week. 7-8 is the hour in the day that I use to walk my dogs/garden or workout. This is a very important hour in my day as I get to think before the day begins. The rest of the day includes strategically planning what we, as an organisation, are doing to help women accelerate their careers/upskill/grow their networks through various initiatives at WeAreTheCity or WeAreTechWomen. I am lucky enough to have an exceptional team who basically run the show, so my key role is more forward looking in terms of what we need to be doing in the future. I spend a lot of time with our clients and stakeholders, helping them with the various gender initiatives as well as contributing to other initiatives to progress women in the workplace. I check in with my team daily to see if there are any other decisions to make or anything I can do to help us deliver whatever it is we are working on. The rest of the day from a WeAreTheCity perspective is probably like anyone else's - lots of calls and most recently zoom calls. When I am not working on WeAreTheCity/WeAreTechWomen initiatives, I tend to be providing keynotes for corporates. Prior to COVID-19, I would speak for at least five organisations per month, delivering a number of keynote sessions that promote what individuals can do to accelerate their own careers. Since the pandemic, this has shifted to online keynotes, contributing to podcasts, panels and virtual interviews. I love this aspect of my role as it has enabled me to speak all over the world for over 600 companies.

Technology still is a male-dominated field. Tell us about your experience in the tech sector.

I have been in tech since I was 16. The first company I worked for sold computers and DOS based software into the City, when pen and paper were still the tools of every trade. I started in software training, which led me into programming, a bit of desktop support, and then on to running my own training company at 21. I so wasn't ready to run my own business at this point and I totally recognise this now. I had zero idea about how to scale a business, who the tax man was, why we had to pay VAT and how I could make money rather than exhausting myself as the only employee. I went back to corporate where I was a lead trainer who travelled around the world for clients teaching individuals how to use over 22 different software packages. I met my husband at work and we got married. I had two very short maternity leaves and headed back to the world of tech. It was at the point I decided to move sideways to a more junior role, working in a project management office. I knew that the ladder was bigger in that role as I couldn't really go any further on the training or support side. Sometimes career paths are not necessarily linear. I knew that I was starting at the bottom, but there were so many more opportunities that would open by being in that role as opposed to training. I worked my way up as an analyst, to a PMO manager to a global head of PMO by jumping a number of jobs over the coming years. I then progressed into a Project Manager, Programme Manager before eventually moving into Business Management and up to Chief Operating Officer for one of the tech divisions at a major bank. Alongside all of these roles, I was also running WeAreTheCity off the side of my desk. I left the corporate world in 2013 to focus on WeAreTheCity and to become a digital entrepreneur. In 2015 I added to the family by building a dedicated website for women working in tech (WeAreTechWomen.com). What came next was our WeAreTechWomen annual conference and our TechWomen100 Awards. I built the platform as I had seen first hand the hurdles I had to overcome and wanted to do something to ensure the path was smoother for those who were following behind me. You can find out more here - https://wearetechwomen.com/

VANESSA VALLELY OBE Do you think there is a diversity issue in the tech sector? Do you notice a lack of women in technology? and if yes, has it affected you in any way?

Yes, but there are many reasons why and each needs its own address. For me personally, it was this lack of diversity that drove me to set up WeAreTheCity and WeAreTechWomen in the first place.

Women make up just 17% of the tech industry. That is an appalling stat, and worse still, it hasn't moved for 5 years. There are so many causes for concern, why female tech founders are under funded, why there is a lack of female CEO's in tech, the diversity of women in tech, why the women in the middle are not progressing at the same rate as their male counterparts, not to mention how we encourage more girls to pursue STEM careers. In terms of growing that pipeline, even if young women are studying STEM subjects, more often they are not choosing STEM roles as a career. For the ones that chose to go into the sector, it can be a lonely place, especially in the more technical areas. We also have the issue of women not progressing into key decision-making roles within their organisations. This leads to a lack of role models at the top for women to aspire to or creates the perception that we are unable to get to the top! We also lose women in tech, who go on maternity leave and don't return to the industry. There has been a swell of returner programmes and retraining programmes over the past few years, but more needs to be done to encourage those women to return, on their terms and with flexible working schedules if needed.

Do you think it is getting easier for women to get into Tech?

100% yes. There are so many amazing initiatives that are available for women to enter technology and retrain. Over the past five years, I have seen a significant increase in organisations (often notfor-profit), really driving this agenda. Whether you want to learn to code, retrain in DevOps, Digital or any number of other tech areas, there seems to be someone, somewhere offering a free or reduced cost placement. Organisations are doing their bit to fund some of these initiatives, but more could be done. We feature a number of these on WeAreTechWomen.Com. There has also been a rise of visible role models through awards and women in tech lists, which showcase the achievements of females in the industry. This is so inspiring for the younger generations and for those considering a career in tech. You cannot be what you cannot see! We also have our own awards at WeAreTechWomen that aim to shine a spotlight on women from all industries below director level. The TechWomen100 Awards open on 3 August 2020 https://wearetechwomen.com/tw100-women-in-tech-awards/ Are there any particular women in tech who have inspired you?

So many! Computer Weekly have just released their influential women in tech long list, it's basically all of those women. From Professor Sue Black OBE, Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, Dame Wendy Hall, Dame Stephanie Shirley, Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE and so many other role models.

I remember when I first started looking up to these amazing ladies, in awe of what they have achieved and the barriers they have broken down for all those who follow.

Nowadays, I get the pleasure of working with them and I cannot tell you how much they have all helped me - both personally and professionally. The beauty of these women in tech, and so many more is how we all work together. A collaborative army of women who are paving the way for the next generations of female tech leaders. I am honoured to be part of it.

VANESSA VALLELY OBE What are some of the biggest challenges that women who want to venture in the world of technology face today?

Please don't see the challenge! See the opportunity. There has never been a more exciting time to join the industry. There are so many networks, support groups and initiatives that can help you. You may not see enough women at the top at the moment, but believe me, it is coming. As I have mentioned, the collective efforts of so many will ensure that the 17% number rises, and we need individuals to help us on that journey by choosing tech as a career. I, along with a number of others, foresee a huge rise in digital transformations, spurred on by the recent pandemic. We already have a skills gap in the UK in terms of tech and individuals joining the industry, so recruitment of these skills and ensuring individuals are trained to cope with that demand is more important than ever. So, if you are a budding tech entrepreneur or someone who is considering a role in tech, now is the time! Your country and our industry needs you.

What do you think companies can do to encourage more women to choose careers in tech and rectify the imbalance?

So many things. Balanced slates in terms of recruitment - not just women, but diverse women.

They need to hold their recruiters to account and be more innovative with their talent attraction strategies. Showcase stories through editorial and social media of women already working in tech within their industries. Fund programmes that focus on upskilling women in tech (there are so many out there that are underfunded). Forge relationships with schools, colleges and organisations that support individuals from more challenged backgrounds to get into tech. The issue isn't just about attraction, but retention! Firms must ensure they retain their female tech talent. The focus for me is not just about training or even mentoring, it is about sponsorship of these individuals. This sponsorship means ensuring under-represented groups are under the wings of senior individuals who can guide them, expand their internal networks and doors of opportunities for them when they are not in the room!

What would be your message to women trying to get into technology?

Just go for it! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Please do not think that you have to be deeply technical to move in to tech as a career as there are so many different aspects of technology where you can have a really fulfilling and exciting career.

What do you think we should be doing more to encourage more girls to consider a career in tech?

The curriculum in schools needs an overhaul. It doesn't necessarily reflect the real world of tech and the opportunities within the sector. There are many organisations trying to plug this gap, but often it is hard for schools to provide the resources (due to cuts) to take full advantage of these programmes. I also believe every technologist could do their bit by showing up as role models for the industry. Return to schools to tell their stories and dispel the myths around working in tech. There are lots of organisations that will provide you with this opportunity, you just have to reach out and volunteer your time.

SHE SAID SHE COULD AND SHE DID! FAVORITE QUOTE VANESSA VALLELEY

VEENA RAMASWAMY Data Analyst at Brown Girl Magazine Founding Member and Community Director at WomenTech Network Founder of Beyoutifully Empower

Tell us about you and your business.

A day in your business life!

I am an extremely driven, passionate, and dynamic woman who did my undergrad in Economics at Rutgers and Masters in IT and Data analytics at Boston University. I became really curious about the new emerging field of Data Analytics which fueled my passion and decided to pursue my career in technology and Data Science. I’m currently working as a Data Analyst at a South Asian startup called Brown Girl Magazine and aspire to become a Data Scientist at large tech company in the future. Apart from career, I’ve been working on a few side hustles in my free time. I’m a huge supporter of women empowerment and believes that women should showcase their talents at all times and strive to be successful in their career and in other areas in life by standing up for themselves, voicing their knowledge, and introducing new innovative ideas to the table. I focus on leadership development and have been working as a Founding Member, and Community Director for WomenTech Network.

I’m the founder of Beyoutifully Empower which is an online platform where I would like to inspire women to live their best life with purpose and fulfillment. My mission is to empower strong women to become the best version of themselves through the power of personal development so that they can reach their greatest potential. My goal is to have them feeling fierce, irresistible, and unstoppable. I just launched my business website in April and I aspire to provide insightful tips/advice, bountiful resources, and engaging courses/coaching to guide women in manifesting their dreams with a focus on personal, career, and leadership development. I will be publishing my debut book, Beyoutifully Empower in Fall 2020.

Veena Ramaswamy Technology is a male-dominated field. Tell us about your experience in the tech sector.

I work as a Data Analyst at a South Asian startup called Brown Girl Magazine which unites thousands of women and men globally and empowers them to break the glass ceiling and spread awareness through the power of storytelling. As a data analyst, I collaborate with crossfunctional teams to manipulate and analyze digital data, generate actionable insights, and improve business optimization through Web Analytics and Strategic Marketing. I also identify industry patterns and trends, measured core KPI’s, and provided analytical solutions to improve decision making and web optimization. I coordinate with the CEO, social media team, and the writing team to ensure that our targets are being met and reaching the right audience. I take the lead by creating monthly social media reports to gain a better understanding of account metrics, build conclusions, & effectively communicate quantitative analysis/results in a clear, precise, and actionable manner.

I’ve also been focusing on leadership development and have been volunteering as a Global Ambassador at WomenTech Network. I’ve gained recognition as a #1 Global Ambassador among thousands of inspiring women by making a difference in uniting 100K women in science and tech. I’m also a founding member and Community Director in which I encourage team leaders and members of superior talent to promote the network and help the community grow via social media marketing. I collaborate with several women in tech community leaders from around the world to team up, promote their initiative and to join as a partner. I got the opportunity to be one of the community keynote speakers for the WomenTech Global Tech Conference 2020 among 200 speakers and 3K women in tech in which I spoke about 'The role of personal development in career growth'.

I’m grateful that I’ve gotten a great support system which has helped me expand my network, portray my leadership skills and my passion for women empowerment. I’m honored to have received immense global level recognition as Country Leader and Influencer for my effort and hard work in empowering the next generation of girls to pursue a tech career and be successful in a male-dominated industry.

Do you think it is getting easier for women to get into Tech?

Yes, I believe that it is getting easier for women to break into the tech industry. I’ve been noticing an increase in women in CEO and top level management positions in the tech sector compared to previous years. There are several amazing networks for women in tech which have done an incredible job in encouraging women to pursue careers in STEM, especially technology.

They’ve built a strong community of inspiring tech women worldwide to make a difference and help emerging talent from diverse backgrounds to connect and learn from one another. They try their best to create a community full of passionate and kind leaders who cheer each other and lift one another up instead of tearing them down. As a result, it has fostered innovation, creativity, and a sense of connectedness.

Female tech leaders globally have shared their valuable advice at conferences and webinars to help the next generation of women. I’m extremely proud to be part of these networks and to see that many women are striving to be role models and encouraging passionate young professionals to make a positive impact in the world.

Veena Ramaswamy What are some of the biggest challenges that women who want to venture in the world of technology face today?

Some of the biggest challenges that women face are that they are accustomed to gender stereotypes that society has created. It’s believed that women are assigned to roles in the household and are seen as the more submissive and emotional type.

People have underestimated the power of a woman to become an effective leader and to level up in the workplace. Women also experience imposter syndrome in the corporate world where their opinions and ideas are ignored and judged. They are always doubtful of their potential in the workplace which makes them feel like “they are young” and “they aren’t good enough”.

Because of this, they tend to hesitate to voice their opinions which hinders them from reaching their full potential. Women have to realize their competence and talent and their amalgamation of feminine and masculine qualities can make them a great leader in the workplace too. They should embrace self-love and self-acceptance and stand up for what they believe in. Women in tech should never have to feel inadequate and should always be given equal opportunities.

Women need to challenge the status quo by educating and showing society that they are capable of reaching great heights and success in tech as well as in life.

What do you think we should be doing more to encourage more girls to consider a career in tech?

Women should empower each other to succeed and grow personally and professionally. We should educate the next generation of girls and young women about the intricacies and the power of technology in this generation by providing coding camps, hands on labs, and resources in elementary schools K-12. It’s important for women to spread awareness of women inequality in the corporate world and encourage young girls to tap into their strengths and abilities so that they can reach their full potential. We should empower girls to let their voice be heard and to stand up for what they believe in by portraying empathy, listening to what they have to say, respecting their opinions, and giving them the help that they need to become successful.

We should accept them for who they are and eliminate any gender bias, discrimination, or stereotyping at all costs. Girls should have the right to bring their true self and ideas into the corporate world without having to feel that they are not good enough .We should break the gender stereotypes and give them the moral support that they are capable of becoming a future excellent female leader. We should support them to have the same equal rights as men and always instill confidence in them to manifest their dreams.

Girls are strong, talented, worthy of love and respect, and beautiful in every way and they have what it takes to become a CEO no matter what anyone says! They are also the dreamers, the doers, achievers, and the winners in every aspect of their lives, whether it be in relationships or in career success. Their identity, creativity, perspectives, etc. are all valuable to each and every company and in the world and it’s our job to make them feel heard, seen, and loved. We have to pave the right path for the next generation to break that glass ceiling and to create change in tech sector.

Veena Ramaswamy Are there any particular women in tech who have inspired you?

Indra Nooyi has always been a huge inspiration for me. She was the CEO of Pepsi Co, a Fortune 500 company and has become one of the most valued women leaders in the tech industry, receiving the title America’s Best Leaders. She has portrayed outstanding leadership qualities and stood out from the others due to her ambitious, passionate, and open-minded personality. She is the epitome of women empowerment due to sheer dedication, confidence, and hard work. She stands out from the crowd and is an inspiration to all young women and upcoming generations.

I’m proud as she represents the Female South Asian community and is ranked world’s most 100 powerful influential women. I aspire to learn from her journey and follow in her footsteps :) I watched a lot of her interviews and this quote of hers stood out: “Just because you are CEO, don’t think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization. I’ve never forgotten that.”

- Indra Nooyi What would be your message to women trying to get into technology?

Strive to keep learning something new every day. Acknowledge your competence and versatility and build resilience as you work towards achieving your career aspirations. I used the growth mindset by assessing what my core strengths were and took the time to develop several IT skills so that I could become successful in the tech industry. I always had that intellectual curiosity in attaining knowledge in concepts that I wasn't comfortable with or had no idea what it was all about. Be open-minded by being receptive to new ideas, concepts, and experiences. Learning is never-ending and you can always gain knowledge as much as possible at any age or at any point in your life. Be on top of your game by keeping yourself updated about the latest technologies and concepts as tech is constantly growing and evolving. Be curious on how tech is linked to science and business they are all interconnected in so many ways. Take the time to analyze the whys, how’s, when, etc. Gaining more knowledge in various different subjects and fields can make you more open-minded which can allow you to bring innovative ideas to the table.

Leverage your skills (interpersonal, technical, etc.) because the more skills you possess, the more attractive you are to employers as well as in personal matters. Keep reading books, browse through online catalogs, LinkedIn articles, etc. so that you can be up to date about the current events in life as well as in the corporate world. Tech is exciting to work in because it can foster so much creativity, innovation, and curiosity. It’s one of the best fields for people who are hungry to think outside of the box using all of the emerging latest tools and technologies. You’re constantly learning and the more you dig for answers, you are able to spark inspiration and keep bringing new ideas to the table.

Also, always go the extra mile to help someone/community/organization in any way. If you have something that you an add value, please take the time to contribute by sharing your personal experiences, tips, and advice. Empower others who are interested in also making a difference and motivate people to reach their goals. Don’t feel that your ideas are small and invaluable.

Every speck of knowledge and story are extremely valuable to the world so don’t hesitate to let your voice be heard! Embrace the act of giving and taking. You can make a positive impact and inspire people through your actions by helping those in need and focusing on leadership development. You can also simultaneously learn from one another and support each other’s endeavors through the power of networking, volunteering, and mentorship programs. We are looking for more women as well as men who can be leaders and role models for young professionals so that they look up to you and follow in your footsteps to make a difference in the workplace.

IF YOUR ACTIONS INSPIRE OTHERS TO DREAM MORE, LEARN MORE, DO MORE, AND BECOME MORE, YOU ARE A LEADER.

FAVORITE QUOTE QUINCY ADAMS VEENA RAMASWAMY

ARTICLES

Laurie Wang

THE NEXT GENERATION OF FEMALE TECH LEADERS. There are some amazing women working in the world of tech, but they unfortunately still remain a minority. Currently, women account for just 16.8% of workers in the sector. A report from the Inclusive Tech Alliance (ITA) discovered that close to one million women must be recruited to work within the UK tech sector in order to reach gender parity. The government also estimates that around 1.2m new technical and digitally-skilled workers will need to be hired by 2022 to support growth in the sector.

The take up of IT business analysts, architects and system designers roles by women currently stands at 14.1%, and programmers and software developers at just 12.5% (ONS). Just one in ten IT leaders are women, and research indicates that the UK economy would benefit from an extra ÂŁ2.6 billion each year if we increase the number of women working in tech to fill the prevalent IT skills shortage.

We spoke to experienced IT Director, Peter, to find out what skills helped him climb the IT career ladder: Click in the video to watch.

The gender pay gap for women in tech.

Perhaps one of the world’s most well-known historic tech figures, Ada Lovelace is remembered because she is considered one of the first women of IT. Born in 1815, Ada became one of the world’s first ever computer programmers when she wrote an algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. She paved the way for the millions of women around the world working in tech, but over 200 years after her birth she would no doubt be disappointed with the looming skills gap in the industry.

According to womenintech.co.uk, around 78% of large organisations admitted to having a gender pay gap in tech, with males earning more than females. The report which surveyed over 1,000 women working in the tech sector also revealed 14% of businesses have a median pay gap for women and 8% have no pay gap at all. Findings also suggest that women earn up to 28% less than their male colleagues in the same tech roles.There are factors that could affect the gender pay gap in tech, such as working in different hierarchy positions, different skills and experience.

Other reasons preventing women from entering the technology industry include fewer opportunities for promotion, unconscious biases in recruitment processes, male domination and jobs adverts being targeted towards men. Another one of the main reasons highlighted by extensive research into the gender gap is the lack of girls taking Stem – science, technology, engineering and maths – subjects to an advanced level, weakening the pipeline of young women into tech-related industries.

Where does the issue STEM from?

According to PWC, females are less likely to study STEM subjects at school. This also continues through to university and into their careers. The PWC report revealed that 64% of women study a STEM subject at school or pre university. This figure doesn’t seem low at first glance, which is compared to 83% of men. Moving onto university, this is where we see a larger decline - 30% of females are in STEM subjects, compared to 52% of men. The numbers plummet even further when looking at tech as a career choice - just 3% of females are entering tech, compared to 15% of males.

According to the National Audit Office, since the early 2000s the government expressed growing concern about how to achieve high productivity and economic growth in an era of fast-paced technological change, leading to the theory that one of the UK's key economic problems is down to a shortage of STEM skills. The importance of attracting more people into STEM and widening the appeal has been reinforced by the fact that the UK STEM skills shortage costs the sector an incredible £1.5 billion a year in recruitment, temp staffing, salaries and additional training courses, illustrating a huge gap to fill.

Tech education.

In higher education, female students are looking for open learning environments, and colleges/universities can have a profound impact, with initiatives aimed at engaging and retaining more women in computer science programmes. While companies themselves need to do their part in supporting young professionals at the start of their careers with work experience schemes, internships, and mentorship.

There are a number ongoing UK initiatives leading the way in helping women to develop their careers in technology such as Girls in Tech, Ada’s List, and Code First: Girls.

The industry also needs to broaden the picture of what a tech career looks like in the minds of students and young professionals. There are diverse career paths and plenty of opportunities in roles beyond the “coder” stereotype that are currently in high demand by start-ups and established tech businesses. The stories of underrepresented tech jobs are captured in the recent portrait project Techies out of Silicon Valley, which aims to inspire positive change through storytelling.

Diversity matters.

It’s not just a matter of gender inequality, attracting women into the technology sector matters for the economy. Gender-diverse companies perform 14% better when compared to nondiverse companies, and ethnically diverse companies perform 35% better, highlighting a call for change. In numerous studies, research has shown that employees in pro-diversity regions, like the U.S. and Western Europe, prefer diverse work environments. In a survey of 1,000 respondents by Glassdoor found that 67% of job seekers overall look at workforce diversity when evaluating an offer.

Achieving gender equality.

The technology sector is a long way from achieving gender equality, and there’s also an argument that the government could be doing more to promote diversity in the technology industry. It is also crucial that the tech industry has the support of government and policymakers at a national and global level, and that efforts are made to collaborate in supporting and encouraging more women into tech and AI roles and careers.

However, tackling stereotypes is not only a cultural issue, it starts at home and in early education. Females aren’t considering technology careers as they aren’t given enough information on what working in the sector involves at an early age, and because careers in tech are less openly discussed or promoted to a female audience, with stereotypes being responsible for the bias.

It would be a waste of potential and a loss for the tech industry if existing stereotypes would keep much-needed talent out of a growing industry. The sector needs to grow on inclusivity and diversity. The more diverse our tech companies, the broader their perspectives, the better their insights, which results in better products and services for us all and in thriving businesses

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

10 FEMALE TECH VLOGGERS ON YOUTUBE Since it launched in 2005, YouTube has seen some phenomenal growth with around 2bn logged in users each month. YouTube is accessible in over 80 languages and in over 91 countries, and according to recent statistics this means around 95% of the population have access to YouTube without language being a barrier. That same research has also revealed a glimpse into the future of viewing habits, with 6 out of 10 people preferring online video platforms to traditional TV, predicting YouTube is set to grow further still.

The vloggers publishing content on YouTube are becoming highly influential in many aspects of our lives from parenting, beauty, exercise and wellness, to business and technology. There’s probably a video on YouTube for practically anything you need advice or help with. For women in tech, this platform is a useful tool for everything from learning to code to career and job search advice. The community YouTube has created makes it easier to access advice from real people in the industry within seconds. We have compiled the top 10 female tech vloggers on YouTube currently inspiring women in tech all over the globe: iJustine has been on YouTube since 2006.

Her channel has over 1.6 billion views and 6.2 million subscribers.

Her video content varies from reviews of new tech products to cyber hacks and tips. More recently iJustine has launched a programme teaching her subscribers about tech vlogging called ‘Vlog University with iJustine’. As one of the most successful YouTuber’s of all time, she is a very visible role model for women in tech and her work continues to encourage women to be vocal about their passion for tech through social media.

Carrie Anne Philbin is a teacher of computer science and author of the book Raspberry PI for Teenagers. Her YouTube channel Geek Gurl Diaries currently has 25.3k subscribers, and has had over 1.3 million views since it was launched in 2012. Carrie Anne creates video content about topics such as programming, electronics, and computer science and is committed to curating an enthusiasm in young women for tech by making it highly accessible for them to learn about and get involved with.

Coding Blonde: Masha is a content creator, entrepreneur, educator and the woman behind the successful YouTube channel Coding Blonde. Her channel has 22.8k subscribers and a portfolio of over 100 videos on topics ranging from the history of women working in software to interviews with women in tech. An ex Google employee, Masha uses her channel to share her stories, skills, and advice for women with a passion for code. Her channel is a budding community of women in tech, and she actively encourages subscribers to share knowledge and ideas in the comments section of her weekly videos.

Tech Me Out is an extremely successful channel, with over 18.8 million views and 206k subscribers. The channel is diverse in its content and features everything tech related from product reviews, app recommendations for iOS and Android, vlogs, and tech tutorials. Tech Me Out began as a channel from the perspective of tech consumers for consumers and has remained consistent throughout, making it a highly relatable channel for viewers.

Ruseberry has built up a subscriber base of 11k in just 4 years. Her videos are informal and chatty in tone and on topics such as web development, coding and interview advice, as well as how to make a living as a freelance web developer. The channel may be especially appealing to women at the early stages of their technology careers, women who are returning to tech, or changing careers and searching for advice that’s come from experience.

Estefannie Explains it All is a computer science tech vlogger who creates engaging programming tutorials for her growing base of 26.9k subscribers. Using her degree, expertise and knowledge she makes computer science accessible and entertaining. Estefannie also produces content analysing algorithms and breaking down complex ideas to make them more user friendly. Her most popular video ‘make your own Instagram filter in 10 minutes’ has over 300 comments and demonstrates the ability she has to bring her viewers together and create a sense of community amongst them.

NothingButTech: If you want to know how to get the best out of your tech gadgets, NothingButTech is the channel for you!

Jacklyn’s growing platform is a fusion of consumer focused reviews on the latest products to hit the market, tutorials on how to use technology to improve daily life, and vlogs of her daily life and work. Outside of YouTube Jacklyn is a public speaker who gives talks on social media and how to grow a vlogging channel.

Aged just 17 she has grown a platform that has over 100k subscribers and is working with big brands such as Samsung and Apple. Jacklyn has emerged into the tech industry as a role model for up and coming tech vloggers.

TiffInTech is run by Model turned Fullstack Developer Tiff. The content she creates covers a broad range of topics from getting into tech, coding tips, how to ace technical interviews and dealing with imposter syndrome to life advice such as avoiding burnout, working from home and celebrating failures. The style of her videos conversational, almost as if you were sat chatting to a friend, she connects with her viewers by talking to them in the comments as well as asking for their questions and making Q&A response videos.

Girl Knows Tech : On Girl Knows Tech you’ll find daily ‘study with me’ vlogs and videos documenting life as a woman in tech studying software engineering. The vlog format enables subscribers to gain genuine insight on everything involved in studying a tech related subject. Marie uses the platform to not only demonstrate to other women what the lifestyle involves dayto-day, but to answer their questions and use her experiences to share tips which will make other people’s experiences easier. The popular live study sessions on her channel are often over 7 hours of raw un-edited footage on exactly how much work goes into gaining qualifications to work in software engineering.

BlondieBytes is an example of how YouTube has made programming and coding accessible for anyone who searches for it! Kathryn Hodge uploads weekly tutorials teaching viewers how to code, and some of her most popular videos such as ‘learn to code in 6 months’ and ‘Javascript in 7 minutes’ have reached hundreds of thousands of people. Kathryn is an inspirational female tech vlogger empowering women to learn to code, and to have fun with it in the process!

Womenintech.co.uk is a site dedicated to women already in or looking to start a career in the tech sector, featuring the latest job opportunities, events, mentorships, guides and over 150 inspirational case studies.Women in Tech’s aim is to highlight the benefits of working in tech for women and encourage more women to join the sector.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN AN ORGANIZATION

BY SUSANNE BIRGERSDOTTER

Fostering accountability in the workplace is an essential part of running a business. Workplace accountability is the practice of entrusting aspects of the business to its team members. It is taking responsibility and ownership of the task or department assigned. While teamwork and collaboration encourage creativity and loyalty to the organization, accountability increases productivity, initiative, and engagement.

The Importance of Accountability in an Organization Accountability has a direct effect on employees’ quality of work, timeliness, and completeness.

When everyone knows their tasks and their impact on the goals of the company, everyone will work hard to complete their share of the burden. Without the enforcement of accountability, only a handful of hardworking employees will take the burden of the tasks. This will create tension and animosity within the organization where the slackers are unproductive and the workers will be forced to take on the tasks of the slackers, which will lead to the workers resenting the slackers.In an organization where accountability is implemented: Task owners acknowledge the responsibility and its impact on the company goals. They take initiative in its completion. Using the company’s resources, they make plans and communicate to the relevant team members the plans, any help needed, and other members who will be involved in the work.

If there is a possibility of not completing the task and its crucial results delivered on time, task owners will inform the affected persons or department and will try to get it completed to the best possible degree.

Team members assisting the project will ensure the quality of their contributed work.

In case of problems arising from the completed work, task owners are expected to take accountability and rectify the issue.

Task owners are expected to provide regular updates of their work or project to individuals affected by it.

How to Foster Accountability in your Business While we all want to develop friendly and amicable relationships within the organization, we must also make sure that everyone is on board when it comes to working accountability. Here are steps to enforce accountability without straining harmonious and friendly working relationships within the organization: Set clear goals – You and the task owners must be on the same page about the goals of the project you are assigning to them. Specify the important details – deadlines, deliverables, targets, tools, resources, and other aspects of the task.

Trust and support your employees – Once you’ve delegated the project or task, provided the tools and resources necessary for its completion, let the employees know of their goals, it is time for you to step back. Let the assigned do his or her work. Micromanagement isn’t helping anyone. The appropriate time for you to get involved is when the task owner asks for your help.

Keep an open line of communications – An open line of communications will encourage clarifications, frequent progress reports, and sharing of ideas in the duration of the project.

Communication should be two-way, where you encourage employees to initiate communications.

Everyone is accountable – Everyone should be accountable for their tasks and roles in the organization. While employees can be held accountable for their tasks and projects, leaders and managers of the team are also accountable for its completion and the team’s accomplishments. No one is excused and everyone is expected to perform and do their share of the work.

Positive reinforcements – Focus on rewards rather than punishments. Positive reinforcements in the form of rewards and/or recognition are more effective and encouraging than the negative form of discipline like withholding or taking away incentives.

I learned the hard way that entrepreneurship is not only about creativity, hard work, and passion. It is also making sure all aspects of the business are running efficiently and productively, and that includes the people inside the organization.

I was so focused on developing the product and getting enough funding that I wasn’t paying enough attention to the people inside the company. Many startup entrepreneurs with great ideas, ample funding, and business sense fail when it comes to people management. You can avoid the same mistakes by instilling a culture of accountability within your organization.

About Susanne Birgersdotter Susanne is a Swedish self made entrepreneur and investor, has gone from designing her first app from her kitchen table to becoming one of the most influential entrepreneurs and brand builder within 7 years. Susanne’s strong instincts and intuition has helped her grow her companies including designing a #1 ranked app and founding IGOTCHA, SthlmAppLab, SBDM & Birgersdotter Innovate. Susannes biggest passion in life when she's not building business is Female Entrepreneurship, Health, Fashion - Tech and food.

SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING: 3 MUST HAVES FOR A SUCCESSFUL APP If you run a business on the high street, or have an online presence and work directly with consumers, chances are you have considered an app to enhance your brand or to support your sales and marketing.

If this sounds like you, this article hopefully provides you with a different perspective and may even save you time, hassle and a bit of money with your agency or app developer!

Let’s face it, the overwhelming majority of businesses are not externally funded tech unicorns, and therefore can’t afford to fail when it comes to marketing or technology investments.

As a Marketing Consultancy providing App, Web and SEO solutions for small medium sized businesses in the UK, my technology partner and I have worked with many small businesses and their marketing teams on these digital transformation projects.

From experience, I’ve come up with three Must-Haves for a business to generate results within 36 months of their app investment. If your business does have these three ingredients and you relish the idea of an app, let’s talk!

I call them the three Cs of small business app marketing Content, Community, and Commitment Content Let’s be clear: a mobile app is not a website and shouldn’t be treated as such, nor are apps meant to replace a well-designed, fast loading, mobile friendly website.

You would be regularly producing fresh, up to date content such as events, news, videos, blogs, special offers or simply want a way to reach out to your customers in a timely, reliable and laser targeted fashion, whilst your customers are on the go.

If you do run social media, email or in-store campaigns, having an app is an asset especially when it comes to collecting customer data, facilitating bookings, payments and selling merchandise.

Community Ideally, you would have an audience of customers or followers to start with if you’d like to see results in 3-6 months.

Extensive research from Salesforce (a customer relationship management platform) has shown Generation-Z, Millennials, and to a lesser extent Generation-X, tend to access a business via multiple touchpoints or marketing channels more, compared with Baby Boomers.

The top five popular channels used when communicating with businesses are: Email, In Person, Phone, Online Chat /Live Support and Mobile App. In other words, if your audience demographic is mainly Millennials, they will expect your business to be accessible via a few of these channels, or you’ll risk losing new business to your competitors.

Commitment With the first two Cs out of the way, let’s assume you’ve now built a beautifully designed app for your customers, your followers or your own organisation. You will need to set aside time, get commitment and possibly a marketing budget to making your digital transformation project work for your audience.

This is the most crucial element in ensuring your app will generate the results that you want Key questions to ask are: - What are your sales or marketing goals for the app?

- How do you get buy-in from your team and your customers who will use the app?

- Is the app on your marketing / communications plan? If it’s not, it won’t happen - Who will be involved in the launch and execution of your app marketing?

That’s it – if you’ve been reading this article, I hope this gives you some food for thought on the subject.

Like to know more on the subject or read one of our case studies?

Please reach out to Joyce at Marketing Tech via my website: https://www.marketingtech.london/book-a-chat or on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/joycemarketingtech

About Joyce Ong Joyce runs Marketing Tech, a Marketing Consultancy for small and medium sized businesses, and together with a technology partner, deliver solutions such as mobile apps, websites/landing pages and Search Engine Optimisation services. Marketing Tech is more than an app developer, web developer, or SEO provider – we work with the business providing 360 degree Marketing Advice to ensure you and your team will generate results from your marketing investment.

Joyce has more than twenty-five years of Corporate and SME marketing experience in Singapore, Zurich and London, a passion for marketing technology and uses her experience and skills to champion SMEs and facilitate digital transformation within organisations. Originally from Singapore and based in London, Joyce worked in a number of Marketing and Project Management roles for Credit Suisse in Singapore and Zurich, and later American Express in London before starting her own business

WEARETECHWOMEN FIRST EVER GLOBAL VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

I have the pleasure to attend the online conference We Are Tech Women last June and with over 72 different sessions and 108 amazing speakers, it is difficult to prioritize which sessions are going to be my favourite.

The conference offered six stages - one was designed for young technologists and had interactive sessions. In the first stage, we could see experts in Cyber Security, AI, VR and AR and Cloud, on stage two you found experts in Agile and Devs, Fintech and Payment, Data Science, at stage three Starts Ups and Scale Ups, Setting up a business, Transformation. Seniors Leaders and Tech Talent as well Neurodiversity was part of the Stage four while at the stage five (on demand), we could see talks about Gaming and gender, Crowfunding, Mentorship and Sustainability.

At the Opening stage, we have Edwina Dunn OBE, founder of The Female Lead, Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, Presidnet of TechUK, Dame Stephanie Shirley CH, IT Entrepreneur & Philanthropist, and Martha Lane Foz CBE, Entrepreneur & Co-Founder, lastminute.com & Founder, Dot Everything.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Some Keynotes that really catch my attention with their talks was: Baroness Joanna Shields OBE , CEO BenevolentAI Seyi Akiwowo, Founder and Executive Director Glitch Anne Ravavona, Foudner and CEO Global Invest Her Inam Martinez, AI and Digital Scientist Suw Charman-Anderson, Founder Ada Lovelace Day and Finding Ada network Sheridan Ash, Tech and Investments Director PwC Sharmadean Reid, Founder WAH nails and beautystack Dr Catriona Wallace, Founder and Director Flaming AI Dr Pippa Malmgren, Co Founder H Robotics Candyce Costa