Women in Tech Ireland Tech Week
So at 4:30pm on a Tuesday, I get asked to take part in a panel discussion for a Women in Tech Ireland, Tech Week event hosted by African Women in Tech at 6:30pm that evening hosted by DogPatch Labs.
“Don’t freak out” was the mail heading!
The panel discussion was exploring the key theme of women in tech leadership, with the objective of gaining insights and advice from women in tech roles. This is a theme that is close to my heart and with a mixture of excitement and nervousness, I jumped at the chance.
My Fellow Panelists

Nicaise Ishimwe from African Women in Tech did a great job as moderator. My fellow panelists were very impressive. Claire McHugh is CEO and co-founder of Axonista. Axonista provides interactive video solutions for various video and TV companies. Pendo O’Donohoe is a Senior Sales Manager with Google with responsibility for Israel, South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Stha Banks is a Digital Client Director at MediaVest. None of these women had set out initially in their careers to work in technology but they have followed career opportunities that have lead them to not only work in the sector but excel in it.
I was there representing Accenture’s Centre for Innovation as a women working in the technology industry. My path was more straight-forward into the world of technology. I was inspired by a neighbour of mine to study electronic and computer engineering in college. She was working in Ericsson at the time and had worked in Sweden. She was a positive role model for me. I think the lack of knowledge of technology careers in schools and in the home is a serious issue facing young girls who might want to pursue a career in technology.
I’ve always been interested in making and building things. I’m quite a logical thinker so it was obvious that engineering was what I should study. It has been a very male dominated world for me from the start. I was the only woman in my class in college for the first year and even roles I’ve held, I would frequently be the only woman on a team. When I left college, my roles have been in software development and telecoms. I’m now working as a Scrum Master in the Software Engineering pillar in Accenture’s Centre for Innovation. I was asked straight away “What is a Scrum Master?”.
“What is a Scrum Master?”
The teams in the Centre for Innovation are run under the Lean principles. The core idea behind Lean is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. We are using the Scrum Agile Framework to help us to achieve these principles and follow the cycle of Experimenting, Inspecting and Adapting. We have 2 week iterations called Sprints, at the end of which we have a potentially releasable product. Sprints contain and consist of Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, the Development Work, the Sprint Review and the Sprint Retrospective.
As the Scrum Master, I’m responsible for ensuring that Scrum is understood and that the Scrum Team adheres to the Scrum theory, practices and rules. I’m a servant-leader of the Scrum Team, helping remove impediments, providing coaching and facilitating Scrum events. I provide service to the Product Owner by finding techniques for effective Product Backlog Management, for example. One area I love participating in, is the service I can provide to the wider Centre for Innovation. This involves helping to lead and coach the organisation as they adopt Lean principles and different Agile Methodologies and to increase awareness of Lean Principles in the Centre.
Tips to have more influence in the organisation (as a woman) and step into leadership
The panel was asked during the discussion what has helped us get into our leadership roles in tech. I found that building relationships over the years has helped me. These friends and allies at work see my potential, my work ethic and skills everyday and help build my reputation and highlight my achievements. Other’s on the panel highlighted hard work, reading books, blogging, figuring out what you want and going for it.
What should be the role of African Diaspora women in tech to serve their home countries communities? To inspire other women in tech here? To inspire women in tech in Africa? To transfer knowledge and acquired skills?
A main theme running throughout the event was technology in Africa and how Africans can leverage technology to grow their economies and entrepreneurial spirit. Stha mentioned that strong role models and mentoring were key to promote technology and careers in technology. Claire mentioned that Africa could learn from Ireland as a small company. We have mainly an export economy. The Irish are very good story-tellers. It’s in our heritage. We’ve been very good at telling our story to the rest of the world. She thought that Africa too should find it’s story and tell it to the rest of the world. Google are doing their bit by running a digital skills training programme aimed at training 1 million people across the African continent.
Accentures Initiatives in Africa
Accenture are running similar programmes, such as the Skills to Succeed Academy. The programme has been launched in Ireland, South Africa and Australia over the last 2 months. It provides an online learning tool aimed at 16–24 year olds to improve their employability skills. It has 36 modules in total and includes gamification through the use of performance simulations, as well as more standard computer based training modules. Accenture have created an offline version of the Academy enabling remote areas without internet connectivity to access the tool. Accenture believe that this initiative has massive potential across the wider African continent. Accenture also have a partnership mentoring women in Rwanda with the Cherie Blair Foundation.
Questions from the floor

An important point for women was also mentioned by a member of the audience which was the support of companies for women and particularly women returning to work after maternity leave. This was particularly relevant for Stha. She has just returned to work after having a baby and she found that being able to work flexi-time and from home gives her the support she needs to continue her career.
A question asked was about mentoring. Each of us on the panel have had a mentor. Pendo has had many mentors and she has found them invaluable for her career progression. Each of the panel encouraged women to seek out mentors.
Also, an audience member mentioned salary negotiation. There is still a big pay gap between men and women. We all agreed on the panel that putting a number on what you think your worth and adding 5–10% to that number is a good place to start when negotiating salary. Also, be prepared to leave a company or find a better offer to aid with negotiations. Some of us have stayed in roles too long, hoping our hard work would be noted and rewarded. Claire as CEO pointed out that managers can sometimes think you are happy if you do not say otherwise.
Parting Words
My parting words of wisdom was if your in a room with others and you are screaming inside thinking that you could do that job so much better, then you probably can. Back yourself!!
