An Event by Women for Women

European Women in Technology

European Women in Technology

European Women in Technology

A bit repetitive, yes, but some things need to be read several times to internalize them. 

How many women working in the tech sector do you know?

How many of them are in management positions?

How many fingers on one hand did you lift?

To answer and propose solutions to these questions there are incredible initiatives such as the European Women in Technology, an event organized by women and for women, and all of them have something else in common: they develop their carrers in the technology sector.

Two days of curated content designed to offer real solutions, inspiration and practical advice at all levels. A place to find the right talk for your professional experience.

In its last edition, a wide range of industries were represented in an exhibition with more than 100 companies and attended by more than 1,000 women technology professionals with the same challenges and goals.

And there, in that epicenter of female leadership were our colleagues, Teresa Sánchez and Andrea Carreño. 

Direct witnesses of how EWiT24 supports DE&I y L&D strategies and frameworks in companies, of workshops given by experts and talks that took place in different stages, with more than 70 speakers talking about skill shift, digital strategy, workforce, infotech, software and AI, a lot of AI. 

Both Andre and Teresa highlight two papers in particular

On the one hand, the one given by Svava Hildur Bjarnadóttir, tech lead at Picnic Technologies, one of the largest online supermarkets in the Netherlands.

Svava spoke about the glass ceiling, that barrier we do not see but that is there and that prevents women from occupying managerial positions in companies. 

According to her, rather than a ceiling, there is a labyrinth, a more intricate path whose crossroads represent barriers to be broken down:

Barriers

Unclear or erroneus expectations

Male dominance

Opaque promotion processes

Lack of support and coaching

No role models

Demolishers

Clarify expectations

Offer flexible work and support for parenthood

Introduce transparent promotion processes

Provide mentoring and training

Invite inspiring role models to give talks

On the other, the talk from Nicola Downing, CEO at Ricoh Europe 

As an expert in Business Transformation, has devoted her career from company to company helping them to undergo the digital transformation, prioritizing the team above all.

For Nicola, the human part of an employee is more important than his or her skills or professional experience. After all, we will spend many hours with these people. 

Teresa and Andrea came back very excited, from the experience, and especially to have been able to prove that there are women who occupy positions at the same level as men in large companies. There are women leaders in technology.

Both share these insights on their first time at the European Women in Business:

  • The event was not focused on debating if there is a problem on equality or not, it was really focused on solutions and moving forward and how are we gonna improve the future.
  • The importance of diversity and broad representation: technology is and will continue to be one of the most important sectors in our society. And it is because of this omnipresence that it must be managed by all social groups so that all points of view are represented.
  • In Europe,  only 5% of executive positions are occupied by women.
  • We have few, but strong, female role models.
  • There are many things we can do both at a personal and company level to improve: small actions taken every day can make a big change in the future.

And a sentence from EWiT24 to sum up this edition:

Don’t let frustration of unfair situations lose your focus on the most important thing: Keep GROWING