International Women's Day is today Friday 8th March 2013 and all around the globe we'll be celebrating the achievements of women, the fight for justice and equality, and also the place of women in society, families, workplaces and local communities. On twitter you can spend all day looking for inspiration and learning following #womensday and I'm sure we are going to be thrilled by stories and examples from around the World.
A good chance then to reflect on women in our business and other businesses - how are things looking on that front. Well, recent work experiences have led to us working with some brilliant local businesses, including start-ups with women leaders and managers and there are plenty of women coming along to our workshops and events, signing up for mentoring and training opportunities. So its all looking good ....
But hang on a minute ....
Research says that women now make up 49% of the UK workforce.
And in IT and telecoms role women make up .... 17% of workers. What?! ... Why should that be?
Well, of course we all now that tech jobs historically have appealed to the lads more, and traditional perceptions of tech workers include geeky programmers, web gurus, tech support nerds. So perhaps there has been and still is a problem with the roles available and their appeal to women?
But, we also know that spending on tech and gadgets by women has increased on a large scale - 4 out of 10 purchases in technology are now made by women.
AND, (MR Business Executive) .... wait for it ....
"tech companies with more women on their management teams have a 34% higher return on investment"
Its obvious why the change and why we need to use today as part of a campaign to drive more-and-more young women towards tech careers. Diversity is important to any sector of industry, but particularly when it comes to technology. It is the way we now talk to each other - and women are good at talking to each other?! More tweets, emails, comments, follows, shares, likes and messages than ever before - and on International Women's Day probably well above 50% will come from women!