Creating space for women in tech

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International Women’s Day is here, a time for all those who care about women’s equality to celebrate the achievements of women both contemporary and historical and to focus on gender equality in our society.

The tech sector still has a sizable gender divide, with only around one quarter of all tech roles held by women. Tech leaders need to enter into open dialogue over how to make tech careers more attractive to women and to empower women within their workforce.

In this episode, Rory speaks to Elizabeth Barr, head of the Cisco Networking Academy in the UK, Ireland, and Nordics, to explore what International Women’s Day means in 2025 and how young women are entering the tech workforce.

Highlights

“Women account for less than 20% of computer science degrees. We represent around 25% of the tech workforce, which is much lower in areas like cybersecurity, for example. So whilst, yes, we have seen improvements I think it’s really important to use International Women’s Day as a moment to raise awareness around the ongoing inequalities that women face, advocate for policies, and then critically drive action towards accelerating gender parity. I think it also goes without saying that this shouldn’t just be a pursuit that’s dedicated to one day of the year.”

“I think it’s not just about attracting a diverse tech talent pipeline, right? It’s also about retention. So how can you support women advancing in their careers? And I think again, that starts with culture, so employees from all backgrounds feel that they can thrive at all levels within the business.”

“We hear statistics around, ‘You need five years of experience to get an entry level role inside the security’ and things like this. So I think the wider the culture and hiring that we see doesn’t help. But one thing that is really important, and that we hear loud and clear from recruiters, is the importance of soft skills, or human skills. And this is often something that I think women in particular, do underplay whether you’re going for a technical role, non technical role early in career, leadership, middle management, having soft skills and human skills are so important for any role within tech.”