Saturday is Worldwide Girls’s Day, a day dedicated to recognizing the essential function that girls play throughout all elements of society. It’s additionally an necessary day in expertise, the place girls make up about 25% of the workforce. To acknowledge the contributions that girls have made in tech and the continued must push for equality, we have now collected selective commentary from girls on this area.
Hammerspace SVP of World Advertising and marketing Molly Presley has held many roles through the years. In 2023, she joined the chief board of the Girls in Excessive Efficiency Computing (WHPC), the place she has had an opportunity to assist raise different girls within the trade.
“My tech profession trajectory has been drastically influenced by distinctive leaders who’ve pushed me to realize past my expectations,” Presley says. “Though I had a strong technical background upon getting into the trade, ascending to a senior govt function in tech advertising and marketing was not one thing I had anticipated. The important thing to my success has been the mentorship of others and my dedication to the job. This mentorship has refined my skill to pinpoint distinctive product attributes and successfully talk with a assorted viewers.
Molly Presley is the SVP of World Advertising and marketing for Hammerspace
“As a result of a major side of my journey has been mentoring girls in expertise and giving again to those that have mentored me, as my profession superior, I turned actively concerned with the ‘Girls in Excessive-Efficiency Computing’ group (WHPC),” Presley continues. “I at the moment function the Director of Communications and Outreach, the place I’ve the chance to advertise mentoring applications, curated sources, and job entry that assist girls in HPC, and technical computing obtain their skilled objectives.
“I strongly urge aspiring younger girls within the tech area to hunt steering from skilled professionals and interact in actions corresponding to becoming a member of skilled associations like WHPC,” she says. “These communities present important help, academic sources, networking alternatives, and motivation vital for reaching success of their chosen profession path.”
Ellison Anne Williams earned a Ph.D. in arithmetic earlier than working for the federal government. She finally based Enveil, which a developer of privateness preserving software program primarily based on the ideas of homomorphic encryption. As CEO of the corporate, Williams acknowledges the significance of girls to contribute meaningfully to companies.
Ellison Anne Williams is the CEO and Founding father of Enveil
“On this Worldwide Girls’s Day, I proceed to deal with substance and advancing innovation by important contributions,” Williams says. “I selected to maintain my consideration on delivering worth which I hope serves for instance of what it appears prefer to persistently pursue your dream.
“None of us can do it alone; we will and may encompass ourselves with individuals who help our pursuits and provide encouragement when wanted,” she continues “My recommendation to girls with entrepreneurial aspirations in tech or another area is to go for it. As a substitute of letting concern or another assumption deter, discover significant work and pursue it. Delivering worth by motion will rapidly quiet the uncertain–and prepared the trail for many who observe.”
Claire Nouet, the COO and co-founder of deep studying startup Pathway, has generally struggled to be taken significantly by others due to how she appears. Nouet appears ahead to the day when that form of bias is a rarity. Within the meantime, she has some recommendation for different girls on easy methods to speed up change.
Claire Nouet is co-founder and COO of Pathway
“Distinguished feminine function fashions are the best strategy to speed up gender equality in tech. Girls, particularly these within the early days of their careers, must see that different girls are accelerating within the area,” Nouet says. “Illustration within the tech and startup media has elevated considerably, largely pushed by journalists who’re making energetic efforts to showcase the work of girls within the ecosystem, however the tech trade can nonetheless be seen as a ‘boys membership.’ I feel that sooner or later the phrase ‘feminine founder’ shall be outdated. The day we don’t must specify the gender of a founder would be the day that we’re near gender equality in tech.”
Pathway co-founder and CEO Zuzanna Stamirowska, who has a PhD in advanced methods from the College of Pari and is an professional in gaming concept, has additionally skilled bias within the trade. She has some concepts on how it may be countered.
Pathway co-founder and CEO Zuzanna Stamirowska
“A wise and competent man is widely known by the trade, whereas girls with the identical attributes are seen as scary and questioned at each flip,” Stamirowska says. “I’ve seen this concern compensated for by bringing the girl’s appears into conversations, generally in a nasty sense, which might by no means be a subject level if a sensible man was being mentioned.”
“A feminine VC buddy, who has a Associate title, as soon as instructed me that she must work 10 instances tougher along with her funding committee to make a take care of a feminine founder undergo, even when small,” Stamirowska says. “I feel one of many methods to advertise equality within the tech trade can be to provide discretionary budgets to feminine VCs–to be invested in males or girls, however they need to have examine writing capabilities.”
Hinada Neiron is the pinnacle of selling and alliances and group initiator at Aconso
says her 20 years of expertise present right here that there’s an absence of feminine illustration in tech, and that profitable girls generally endure from imposter syndrome. That has led her to talk up on the problem of a necessity for change.
“I don’t imagine we’ve created a gender-equal working surroundings. Girls proceed to must work tougher and nonetheless don’t have equal standing,” Neiron says. “And the tales I’ve heard of derogatory gender-related language being thrown about in workplaces even by the youthful generations present this isn’t a historic or a single organisation’s downside. Will probably be persistent for future generations until we proceed to struggle for change.
“For me, a very gender-equal tech trade is one the place girls haven’t solely the identical skilled alternatives as males of their office, however the place their working surroundings is as inclusive of their wants,” Neiron says. “This requires not solely a better dedication from their employers, but in addition from the federal government at a coverage degree, for instance by closing the gender pay hole.”
Julia Astashika is senior director of progress at StarTree
The IWD 2025 marketing campaign theme is “Speed up Motion.” Julia Astashkina, the senior director of progress at StarTree, says that theme resonates deeply along with her, not simply as a frontrunner in tech however as a mom, too.
“My daughter is rising up in a world the place girls proceed to push boundaries in science, expertise, and management, but true equality stays simply out of attain. I need her to see a future the place alternatives aren’t delayed, biases don’t dictate outcomes, and progress occurs in actual time,” Astashkina says.
“We will’t afford to attend for change to occur regularly. Progress requires motion, not simply phrases or guarantees, however tangible steps that create alternatives for girls at each degree,” she continues. “This implies actively monitoring illustration, fostering mentorship, and making certain girls have well-defined, well-supported pathways to management. Change doesn’t occur within the background; it requires visibility, urgency, and dedication.”
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