In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, including women in tech is essential for both fairness and innovation. Despite progress, women are still underrepresented in the technology sector. Addressing this imbalance is crucial for many reasons, benefiting both the industry and society as a whole.
Empowerment and representation
Representation matters. When young girls see women excelling in tech, it can inspire them to pursue similar paths, creating a positive cycle of empowerment. Role models and mentors play a critical role in shaping the aspirations and career choices of future generations. Women are under-represented in STEM careers, and this is particularly true of IT. While in the wider science community one in four people are women, IT has struggled with figures between 14-17% for a generation. To find out more on what BCS had to say on ‘Why we need more women in tech’ click here.
Creating inclusive technology
Encouraging more women to pursue tech careers is vital as the industry faces a significant talent shortage. This helps access a large pool of untapped talent, which is crucial for meeting the increasing demand for skilled professionals.
Women bring different experiences and perspectives, which are crucial in creating technology that is inclusive and accessible. Involving women in the design and development process ensures that products become more user-friendly and suit a diverse population. This prevents biases and improves usability for everyone.
Building a balanced workforce
A gender-balanced workforce fosters a more collaborative and innovative work environment. Diverse teams can communicate more effectively, bring different perspectives, and enhance creativity and problem-solving.
An inclusive workplace also tends to have higher levels of employee satisfaction and lower turnover rates, which is beneficial for both employees and employers.
Sparta’s Athena Academy
Sparta Global's Athena Academy offers women the chance to enter the technology industry and grow into future tech leaders, accessing award-winning training from an all-women team, and learning alongside a small all-women cohort.
Our Athena roles include 12 weeks of funded, paid, female-led training. Although training remotely, our women will be part of an inclusive and supportive learning environment that encourages trainees to share in their wins, losses, and lessons. Upon completion of training, we will assign our Athena Spartans to work on-site with our clients in their first full-time technology role.
To find out more about our Athena Academy click here.
The role of women in tech is crucial. It's not just about fairness; it's a strategic advantage. By actively supporting and encouraging women in tech, we can build a more diverse, dynamic, and equitable industry that benefits everyone.
When Ekaterina (Kat) McNeill began her Psychology studies at University, she wouldn’t have predicted a future working in Data and a successful career kickstart working in the public sector – but that’s exactly what Kat has achieved. In fact, her line manager told us how Kat got to grips with complex code with little to no documentation, worked out how to access data that was previously thought inaccessible, and modelled it through a workflow. Her skills have already made an impact on site and we can’t wait to see what Kat does next…
After initially forging a career in Mechanical Engineering, Bradley Woods found himself searching for an opportunity to change careers and pursue an interest in technology. With a firm determination to find training opportunities in DevOps, Bradley joined the Sparta Academy in early 2023 and quickly secured his first role working in the public sector. Nominated for Spartan of the Month for his “dedication and hard work” that have been “instrumental in the smooth execution of high-profile project”, we spoke to Bradley about his time in tech.
