Six women tech leaders share insights on International Women's Day

‍Six women tech leaders share insights on International Women's Day

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Senior technology leaders from Accenture, RMIT Online, Lightspeed, Shippit, Zoho and Fiverr share their insights with Digital Nation on International Women’s Day.

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Angela Coble OAM, managing director, client group technology officer (CTO), inclusion and diversity executive sponsor, Accenture Australia

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The UN Women’s official theme for IWD24, represents a holistic approach to the inclusion of women in all facets of workplace and society. To accelerate progress, a continued focus on participation and representation in conversations, policies and programs, at all career and industry levels, is essential.

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Transparency and psychological safety are crucial to ensure that every voice is heard where it matters, contributing to an ecosystem where women can earn, learn, and lead, ultimately fostering thriving communities.

In the era of generative AI, the role of technology and innovation becomes pivotal in narrowing gender gaps in education, employment and entrepreneurship.

The call is to hardwire equality into every design, system and process, addressing both systemic and non-systemic factors that may hinder progress. By integrating equality into technology, we can actively contribute to course correction and create opportunities that support women in achieving their potential.

However, challenges persist for top female executives in the technology industry. Interestingly, my independent doctoral research indicates that the pathway and three clear stages we traverse to get to executive leadership are identical for both men and women in Australia.

Yet, our common negative career experiences and the challenges we face elongate the experience, creating a self-perpetuating deficit for women in technology leadership.

From a persistent negative narrative to incongruence, our experience is different and is further exacerbated once women ascend to executive roles. Despite a strong presence in the pipeline, the retention of women in executive roles remains incredibly poor.

Acknowledging and addressing these challenges is crucial to achieving true gender equality and empowering women to thrive in leadership positions within the technology sector.
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Anshu Arora, customer success and growth director at RMIT Online
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Talent knows no gender, yet disproportionately we find males dominating leadership roles across all industries. This is due to a variety of influencing factors - balancing professional and personal responsibilities, unconscious bias, prevailing negative stereotypes, inadequate salaries and recognition for their contributions.

Unfortunately, women still feel overlooked and underappreciated in the workforce. A recent survey conducted by RMIT Online revealed women are less likely to feel recognised for their contributions at work (65 percent vs. 70 percent for men), and less remunerated (58 percent vs. 63 percent for men).

While there is no silver bullet to bridging the gender divide, technology can play a key role in dismantling the traditional barriers for women to access educational and employment opportunities, levelling the playing field and democratising skills.

Arguably most beneficial is the flexibility that comes with utilising digital platforms and AI-driven tools. With flexible learning and working environments, women can acquire skills and knowledge regardless of geographical or socio-economic constraints.

Technologies, like generative AI, have the potential to make training more effective by identifying skills gaps in the team, making learning more collaborative, and helping to personalise content.

VR/AR can offer immersive learning experiences to allow more accessible hands on skills development especially in more male dominated fields such as STEM. This training and upskilling will support the development of women in technical roles by providing equitable opportunities to build upon their skills. 

At the same time, hiring externally is often effective in securing specific skills quickly, but businesses need to focus on inclusive hiring practices and recruiting based on the specific traits required to be successful in a role. This approach encourages employers to consider a different pool of talent whose values and core skills align to the job being advertised and can reinforce and systematise gender equitable practices to encourage more women in tech roles.

But with all this being said, it’s important that AI itself is deployed in an inclusive manner and businesses address the potential biases in the technology, to ultimately maximise the positive impact on gender equality.
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Andrea Quinn, head of retail at Lightspeed
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Rather than simply tackling the challenges facing top female executives of today, we should think longer-term, and focus on the challenges facing top female executives of the future.

I firmly believe there is a 'duty of care' for people in positions of influence to grow our talent pool in classrooms, not just boardrooms.

The lack of diversity in leadership positions is by no means isolated to the technology industry, and we must ask the question: ‘how do we solve this upstream?'. The focus tends to be on 'how do we ensure the interview pool for this current role is diverse enough?'.

Instead, we should be investing the time, money and love into ensuring that the talent pool is organically diverse in the first place - and for years to come. So let’s re-focus on the cause, not the symptom.

To do so, we must collectively invest at a grass roots level; to peak curiosities and crush the current gender norms that are still aligned with and against certain roles and industries.

Through the collective power of passion and community, we must - and can - kick open the door to encourage and empower diverse new talent. By doing so, we can create an environment where future female leaders grow with each other, building a culture when we support and champion one another, as we navigate our careers together. 

Today, for many reasons, our talent pool even at the beginning of a career journey is lean. As you grow, you look around and find fewer and fewer females to support, grow, model yourself on, and learn from. That’s a challenge we must overcome at a much younger age.
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Inga Latham, chief product officer at Shippit
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The challenges women face in the industry can be largely categorised into two - personal expectations and the expectations of others. Personal expectations often impose self-limiting beliefs, leading to self-doubt and second-guessing.

This is by no means exclusive to women, but we do see more women who behave in this way: questioning their qualifications and worthiness for executive roles, grappling with insecurities about their performance and acceptance. Even I annoy myself by doing this. Balancing professional demands with familial responsibilities amplifies this pressure, fostering an unrealistic expectation of excelling in every sphere of life - and then feeling like we’ve failed when we fall short.

The expectations of others is a very broad, existential topic. But where it can create challenges for female executives is around the stereotypes associated with women. This impacts how our “behaviours” are perceived. It also impacts the roles and companies we are considered for - and even sometimes ones we consider ourselves for. 

Take a moment to picture a female executive. Typically, it’s riddled with biases and misconceptions about what women in leadership positions should look and act like: tall, thin, blonde, wearing a suit, hardened gaze.

These stereotypes are the common expectations from others of women in executive positions. If your mental picture correlates to some of these questions, you can see the challenges stereotypes create.

The good news is, it is changing. Younger women and girls have fewer self-limiting beliefs, and those around them have a broader view of what they might be and how they might show up both in looks and behaviours.

But our society does not make it easy. And only through continually challenging these societal expectations and stereotypes, can women truly break free and thrive as authentic leaders.
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Lyra Mackay, evangelist at Zoho
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Technology has had a huge impact when it comes to increasing opportunities for women. It has made it far easier and more accessible for women to work from home, especially as caregivers - roles that are disproportionately left for women to fill. For so long there was a deep-rooted and inhibiting notion that women had to choose between a family and a career.

The impact of that notion on my generation is less severe than on previous generations, and my hope is that it will be easier for my predecessors than it is for me. Now, we can do both.

Technology has a huge role to play in that. For example, the improved access to - and quality of - online education and training has made a big difference. For so long, the inability to attend a class in person physically meant you missed out on that opportunity to learn and grow. As gender roles change and intertwine, both parents are working.

Someone must still be the caregiver, and technology has allowed this shift to happen, so that one person can work from home, whether it be the mother or the father.

Technology has also allowed more female entrepreneurs to run their side hustle or small businesses online, at a place and time that is convenient for them. Work is no longer a place we go, but something we do.

Technology has created that change. And in doing so, it has also removed so much of the structure and design that prioritised men in the workforce, at the expense of women.
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Gali Arnon, chief business officer at Fiverr
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A glaring challenge globally is the lack of women in C-suite roles and boardrooms, which creates a scarcity of female role models and mentors for aspiring leaders.

Without adequate representation, it's challenging for women to envision themselves in top leadership positions and navigate the complex dynamics of corporate leadership. I am lucky enough to work in a company where that is not the case, where we have a lot of women in senior leadership roles, but we are not the norm.

Work-life balance is much tougher for women as the expectation to excel in both professional and personal spheres often leads to feelings of guilt and inadequacy.

The pressure to fulfil societal expectations of success while maintaining meaningful connections with their loved ones can be taxing.

Furthermore, systemic barriers such as gender pay gap and limited access to opportunities for career advancement continue to hinder the progress of female executives.

Despite possessing the requisite skills and qualifications, women frequently encounter obstacles that prevent them from ascending to the highest level of corporate leadership.

The persistent gender bias found in corporate environments is going to take a long time to change. Stereotypes and preconceived notions about women's leadership capabilities often undermine their authority and credibility.

To further facilitate positive change, companies need to be open to embracing different work models. Flexible work arrangements like remote work, flexible hours, job-sharing, and sabbaticals have been incredibly helpful to women looking to better balance their professional and personal responsibilities.

Such models not only accommodate diverse lifestyles but also enhance productivity, job satisfaction and contribute to a more inclusive and dynamic workplace culture.

By looking at this as an ever-evolving process and listening to our employees about what works best for them, we can ensure that everyone is equipped to thrive in their roles.

Article originally published on digitalnationaus.com.au.

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