International Women’s Day 2023: Striking for Balance
On International Women’s Day, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel discussion to empower and celebrate women in tech. The event — an invite-only opportunity with the purpose of creating a safe space to share stories and challenges — brought together female founders and operators to build, collaborate, and collectively bring positive change.
According to the World Economic Forum, by 2050, 75% of jobs will be related to STEM areas. Yet today, women hold just 22% of positions in AI, to name just one. The situation is even worse in the aerospace industry. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), only 6% of airlines globally are led by female CEOs. Meanwhile, research indicates women make up only 5.1% of airline pilots, 26% of air traffic controllers; 18% of flight dispatchers; and less than 9% of aerospace engineers worldwide.
Improving gender diversity throughout the industry is needed because bringing women into technical fields results in more creative solutions and has greater potential for innovations that meet the wider public’s needs. This is also good for business — a McKinsey report revealed that “when women are well represented at the top, companies are 50% more likely to outperform their peers”.
Our panel had a stellar line-up of women who are fighting the gender gap in our industry. I was joined by Dr Olivia Stodieck — Founder & CEO of Dapta Ltd, Kanchana Gamage — Founder of Aviatrix Project, Elif Pekçetin — Founder of Felix International, Vinthujah Bala — Founder of Startup Playground and Lemari.
We had such an insightful conversation and the stories shared really made us think and learn from each other. We discussed ways of empowering women in an organisation, the importance of supporting women in STEM, promoting them internally within organisations, and providing them with equal opportunities; as well as the benefits that come with it, such as having more diverse ideas available within an organization.
As Kanchana Gamage, Founder of Aviatrix Project, said: “ It’s through collaboration and sharing our stories that we will make the necessary changes to advance gender diversity.” She added: “Conversations need to happen around bias, flexible working, and financial support. Role models are key.”
We also talked about the barriers to female empowerment and discussed the prevalence of unequal pay and lack of opportunities and resources for women. Discrimination is still more prevalent among higher ranks — you often see fewer women the higher rank you go.
“The thought around us as women it’s not that we can’t do something because we are women. Being a woman doesn’t mean it’s a limitation in our capabilities, it’s everything else surrounding it — the limiting internal beliefs, external barriers, and the system. The biggest challenge is the system itself we’re operating in. For example, the 9 to 5, 8-hour work week was invented in the 1800s and became mainstream around the 1920s. The world was a very different place, especially for women in the workplace back then. For us to thrive we have to redefine a system that includes us all,” said Vinthujah Bala, Founder at Startup Playground & Product Manager at Payaut.
We then closed off the discussion by talking about the strategies that can work well to promote inclusion in the workplace, such as building an inclusive culture, listening to women, and providing the right resources for their success.
It’s important to have female leaders in power that serve as role models for other women and mentors. We will continue to do our part to fight the imbalance in our industry. Will you do yours?
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