Why we became ‘Women in Tech Not Just Code’
When it clicks, it clicks and you wonder why you’d never realised it before. At the post wrap gathering over a glass of something chilled, it all made sense.
Earlier that day two of the Telegraph’s female directors in technology spoke at the Women of Silicon Roundabout 2018 event. The room where the talk was being held was rammed to the rafters. Amongst the audience were several other females from the Telegraph’s technology team.
The talk entitled “How to Grow a Skin of Iron and be Totally Confident” brought cheers, laughter, nods of appreciation and an amazing sense of togetherness. The Telegraphers were beaming from ear to ear. They felt it too. But they felt something more than that.
After the talk, a Pied-Piper like queue of women walked from the room down the stairs to the Telegraph stand, eager to learn more. The stand was overwhelmed and all the Telegraphers were engaged in deep conversations.
Of the women from the Telegraph team, less than 40% were software engineers. The rest were Product Managers, Business Analysts, Scrum Masters and Tech Support Engineers.
So, on a hot summer’s evening, celebrating a successful day, here’s what they realised:
We are women
Who work in a technology team
Until now we didn’t feel like we belonged to a group
They didn’t appreciate that they were women working in technology, because they weren’t developers. And boom!! It happened.
All too often we focus on one aspect of technology. Coding. Yes, we need more coders, but there is so much more to technology than that. All of these amazing women do an incredible job in the department but were missing a tribe. It wasn’t enough to be just a Woman in Technology — which can sometimes feel a bit like a label. What does that actually mean anyway?
So our tribe was born and we want to share it. We are….
