International Women’s Day — Graphy spotlight on Rachael Grocott

What is your role?

Senior Product Designer

How did you get into tech?

When I was applying to uni I looked at Graphic Design, but then saw a course called Multimedia Design that seemed to be Graphic Design, but for the web. I figured the web might end up a pretty big deal so punted for that…

What are the biggest biases you’ve seen as a woman in tech?

Well. In my first role, I was the only woman on the team (albeit a team of 10, but still!) As we were an agency working with startup founders, I also never really encountered another woman professionally during my time there.

I also worked with a lad once who believed that women’s brains were wired for more caring professions, and therefore women couldn’t be engineers. He was nice.

Have you overcome any of these issues? If so, how?

I guess my way of overcoming these issues was maybe a bit OTT. I set up a community for women in Tech called Triangirls and have been running monthly meetups for over 3 years now. I try to ensure our events highlight women in leadership positions, as it’s so important to see role models that look like you. But another thing I promote is allyship — the way out of this doesn’t belong on women’s shoulders alone.

What advice would you give others in a similar position?

I think understand that being an ‘only’ of anything in the workplace doesn’t have to be the norm, it just might take a bit longer to find a company that’s right for you, and you can totally be picky when it comes to job hunting.

Another thing is that whilst there may not be any role models within your workplace, there will be tonnes outside, and you should 100% try to seek them out. People are inherently nice, I find. So if you reach out to someone for a chat, or even to ask if they might be willing to mentor you, they’ll more often than not say yes.

How is Graphy tackling bias?

I head up the DE&I squad at Graphy, and I’m always super impressed at how supportive Graphy is with regard to any initiatives we suggest. As a team, we talk about bias a lot too and what it means, or how it can manifest, which I think helps us to really understand when we may be portraying biases ourselves.

What are you proud of at the moment?

I am really proud of the community I’ve created with Triangirls. We’re a team of 4 now; the biggest we’ve ever been, and I can’t quite believe we’re into our fourth year! I try not to think about it too much, but I do know that we’ve had a huge impact on so many women; be it from pay rises to promotions, self confidence to self love. It’s wonderful to see and I’m honoured to be a part of it.