Today is International Women’s Day (IWD), a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It’s also a day to discuss equality and sadly, more often than not, lack of equality between men and women, boys and girls in many areas of life.

The importance of being seen

I’m an architect which means I plan and design systems both technical and human for Co-op Digital. Throughout my career I’ve often been the only woman in the room. That won’t be a huge surprise because it’s hardly new news that the world of tech, digital and design has always been male-dominated.

And that’s a problem for the next generation of women because as the saying goes: if you can’t see it, you can’t be it. In other words, girls aren’t likely to aspire to take on roles and be part of a community that they’re under-represented in.

Time for change

At Co-op Digital we’re committed to trying to break out of the catch 22 situation and reduce the imbalance of men to women in tech. We actively support Ladies of Code, She Says Mcr, Manchester Geek Girls and Ladies that UX. We also made a pledge to support gender diversity at conferences so that no one from Co-op Digital will speak at events or be part of panel discussions of 2 or more people unless there’s at least one woman speaking or part of the panel (not including the chair).  

Celebrating with a screening

To celebrate IWD me and my colleague Gemma, a principal engineer, arranged a screening of Hidden Figures in Manchester for families with children aged 6 and above. Our aim was to inspire young people, particularly girls, to consider a STEM-based (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) career.

The film’s about 3 female, African-American mathematicians who had a massive impact within NASA in the early days of the space program. They succeeded in engineering, mathematics and software development despite facing gender and racial bias. The film’s based on a true story so it seemed like an appropriate and important thing to show to mark IWD.

Thanks to sponsors from Co-op Digital, TechNorth, Autotrader whose support made it possible to make it a free event.

We’ve made a good start…

The screening was fully booked and we also inspired and supported 3 sister events screening Hidden Figures or Codegirl in Sheffield, Nottingham and Liverpool. As the crowds left the cinema, I overheard 2 brilliantly positive things from young, female attendees. “Can I go to Madlab, Mum? I want to make something!” asked an 8 year old, and a slightly older girl asked, “Nana, do you think I could be an astronaut?”

…but there’s still a long way to go

Sure, over recent years women and minorities are marginally better represented in this sector and that’s in part due to the committed people at organisations like Manchester Digital who created a ‘diversity toolkit’ to address issues around equality last year.

But women are still grossly outnumbered. 

If you’re a parent, consider taking your children to one of the many free creative and code clubs in the north west. Or if you’re are curious about a career in the sector yourself, come along to one of the meet-up groups in our thriving northern tech community.

We need to continue to be bold for change and fight the good fight every day, not just today.

Danielle Haugedal-Wilson
Digital Business Architect
Co-op Digital champions diversity full stop. We mention gender diversity specifically in this post because it’s International Women’s Day.