Informatics Ventures and Women’s Enterprise Scotland: Making IT Work for Women
The School of Informatics will host the first annual event focussing on diversity in IT and specifically increasing the number of women in STEM and tech.
It will take place on Tuesday 24th October and the registration is now open.
Informatics Ventures and Women’s Enterprise Scotland have teamed up to join the conversation about challenges that females in STEM subjects and the tech industry are facing throughout their careers.
Topics discussed will include the importance of having courage and coping with change and key issues of diversity and gender pay gap in the tech industry. Attendees will participate in workshops on negotiating, communicating, and creating personal impact.
According to the SVB Startup Outlook Report 2017 published by Silicon Valley Bank, 27% of female founded companies said the current environment was “extremely challenging” while only 15% of businesses established by men said the same, 68% of startups surveyed had no women on their board of directors, 53% of respondents had no women in their C-level management bodies.
At earlier stages of women’s career paths the imbalance is even more visible: Women in Technology estimate that only 7% of students taking computer science A-level courses are female and just 50% of this number will go into a job in the same field.
Yet the tech industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world and a valuable source of jobs for women. Advancing female participation has become increasingly important so that tech companies are not deprived of a key driving force for innovation and ideas.
Speakers at the event include:
- Clare English - Host
- Jean Kerr - CISCO
- Sharon Moore - IBM
- Caroline Vance & Alison Barton - ENGAGE
- Maryanne Johnston - Maryanne Johnston Ltd
- Lee Craigie - The Adventure Syndicate
- Diana Easley - Montador Consulting
- Mark Logan - former COO Skyscanner
The event is open to participants from business and industry as well as staff and students in STEM areas.
The event is supported by IBM and the School of Informatics.