Another year, are we moving anywhere?

Here we are again, another year has passed since the last International Women’s Day, and what we should all be asking ourselves as we approach the big day is, what did we do in the other 364 days to help support and celebrate the women in our lives?

On a personal note, I am also 1 year into my role here at Version overseeing all our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging work; so I wanted to take some time to reflect on the previous year and also share some insight into the work we plan to do for the next 364 days (and beyond!)

2022 Reflection

The theme for IWD2023 is Embracing Equity, a perfectly fitting theme to talk about the work we have focused on this past year at Version 1. We know that the tech industry is historically (and presently) male-dominated. This isn’t just because of the lack of diverse recruiting mechanisms and/or bias that is present in our processes, but also because in our post-pandemic way of working, we are only starting to change the systems to support women once they are in the door of our organisations. And when I say our/we, I mean across society.

We need to do much more than simply recruit more women; we must learn from our female colleagues how we need to change to support them (not asking them to change to fit our organisational systems) and allow them to thrive both personally and professionally.

For us at Version 1, that looked like taking the time to invest in our Women in Tech Network — a global group comprising of almost 700 top-class women. In March 2022, we launched this group on a global scale with regional location leads to help drive the engagement and support on a more local level — a place where they can come together hang out, have fun and enjoy the company of other brilliant females. This group continues to grow and impress me on a daily basis — the drive to help other women, to educate our entire organisation on female-focused topics, and to support the change we are looking to instigate is incredible. But the work doesn’t stop internally, the connections this group of women have made with local community groups for Women in Tech are sensational — inspiring the future women in tech as we go!

In 2022, we hosted numerous sessions to help empower our women, but also ensured we backed that up with policy and procedure change e.g. we launched a Menopause Suite of Support alongside a Reproductive Health Policy which offers additional time off for those who need it, and we continue to decrease our Gender Pay Gap year on year.

A great foundation to continue to change the face of gender inequality in the tech sector.

2023 Focus

This year we aim to continue to do more of what we did last year, but let’s say with some added spice.

We are launching our partnership with Reed Women in Technology Mentoring Community to provide our women with a fantastic way to give and receive mentorship across the sector, but also allow our allies to provide mentorship to women in tech. We want to make sure that we aren’t just growing our own future leaders internally, but also inspiring and helping others grow across the sector.

But mentoring isn’t the only thing we need to focus on, ensuring that women’s health is front and centre across our organisation is a crucial focal point. We are working in tandem with our Health & Wellbeing Team and various providers to deliver sessions on Menopause, Fertility, Menstruation, and Endometriosis, to name but a few. These sessions are not just for our women, we encourage everyone to attend, as you never know when this sort of education and knowledge will come in useful! We are also going to be looking at our Maternity and Returner Process to adjust and provide more tailored support at this key point of life.

All of these initiatives are great, and I am delighted for our Women in Tech Network to be leading these vital discussions. But from a personal point of view, 2023 holds a year of systemic overhaul — using our data to pinpoint any areas we need to address within the system and ensure we put the wheels in motion to change those processes for greater inclusivity.

There’s a quote from an unknown source that says,

“When women support each other, incredible things happen. Let’s continue to lift each other up, break down barriers, and shatter glass ceilings. Together, we can achieve anything.”

Now imagine if we all bought into this action. I challenge you to do something this year that changes the system to support women in the workplace.

Let me get real

Let me be real for a second. Awareness days make my eyes roll. Not because it shines a light on “topics” but because its a scapegoat for organisations to focus on something for one day/one month, ask the same people to drive initiatives, and then park it for another year.

I am frustrated everyday that in my role I can’t do enough to change our systems both in our organisation but also in society; but I am just one person. We need collective action — we need organisational buy-in from every level, we need allies and sponsors, we need to give space for people’s voices to be heard and then action and responsibility to be taken and owned.

For systemic change, we need collective action — not just relying on a handful of people.

About the author:
Chloe Gillard is the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Manager here at Version 1.