“A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change. So, let's all choose to challenge”.
The above quote is taken directly from the International Women’s Day website, relating to this year’s topic - #ChooseToChallenge. It shows the importance of challenging bias and celebrating women’s achievements in the hope that there will be equality for both men and women in and out of the workplace.?
Premier is proud to be able to work with clients and candidates in some fantastic industries including Technology, Engineering and Creative. But do these industries show gender equality across their businesses or is there still more to do?
Technology
The world of technology and ecommerce has long been dominated by men, with top level roles in tech, digital and ecommerce being filled mostly by males. Women do continue to be underrepresented in the tech industry, however there have been some increases in women in senior IT roles in companies recently (Tech Republic). Anna Curzon, Chief Product Officer at Xero has stated how a better balance between men and women means broader insight, more empathy and fresh ideas. Having that gender equality across Tech teams can only be a positive thing as it will certainly bring a sense of collaboration, helping to get the most out of everyone’s knowledge and skills.
Engineering
According to Farnaz Ronaghi, CTO and Founder of NovoEd, there are still issues in attracting women to STEM. Silicon Republic have also stated how the interest is still there with female students in pursuing a career in engineering, however, there needs to be encouragement – simply seeing more women in engineering roles could really inspire young females to continue in the field. There have been some steps in the right direction with groups such as ‘International Day of Women & Girls in Science’ continuing to champion gender equality in the industry. However, with women only currently making up 12% of engineers, there is still lots of work to be done for in order to represent both men and women equally.
Creative
Almost 1 in 8 UK companies are now creative companies showing just how fast the creative industry is growing. With millions of people in the industry, there are still changes that need to be made in order to ensure gender equality across the sector. According to Workbrands, representation of women in creative has increased throughout the years, however the creative economy only has 37.1% of jobs filled by women, compared to 46.9% in the UK as a whole. This demonstrates the need for businesses to do more in the sector in order to eradicate the gender bias that exists.
Although there have been some positive changes over the years in all industries, the inequality that still occurs just proves how important it is to continue to challenge any bias in the workplace and in everyday life too.
In line with trying our best to decrease the inequality that still occurs, Premier promotes awareness throughout the business by training staff both internally and externally, such as unconscious bias workshops from a third party. We have a policy to reflect diversity & inclusion and ensure this is practiced as well as having anonymised CV’s being presented to our hiring team, as well as offering this service to our clients.
Happy International Women’s Day!
