International Women's Day 2020

To celebrate International Women’s day, 8th March 2020, Cogs are dedicating this month to women across the Digital industry. Shining a spotlight on inspiring individuals, highlighting achievements & discussing the effects of inequality.

The case for gender equality has never had more momentum than now. From the #MeToo movement of 2019 to global initiatives for inclusion in every industry and workplace – women are officially the focus of the conversation.

Within the digital and tech industries, the gender divide still remains a challenge for women. Despite definite leaps in the right direction, an unconscious bias is still glaringly visible. However this is also the era for transition and change – which means now is the time to act in the hope of bridging the gender gaps in our evolving industry.

Where are we at?

Over the past decade, there has been a vast improvement in the number of females heading into digital across the globe. There has been nearly 25% increase in female representation overall in the Software & IT industry which is promising.

A positive insight came recently from a study conducted by travel booking platform Trainline which revealed that 60% of people in the tech sector think the next year will see more women working in tech, while 19% of respondents believe there will be an increase in women choosing technical roles more specifically.

Positive Initiatives

There are already many initiatives across the globe that are working hard to support the movement of more women into the digital space,

In 2019 European Commission pledged to encourage and empower women to play a more active role in the digital age. 26 European Member States and Norway have signed a declaration to encourage women to play an active and prominent role in the digital and technology sectors.

Supporting and motivating women today to reskill (or upskill) and take their place in the digital ecosystem is the first step to reducing the gender bias in our industry.

How can things improve for women in the workplace?

We look to the women behind Cogs to share their insights on how we can improve things within the workplace:

“Acknowledging glass ceiling exist for woman in senior and leadership roles and provide opportunities for more female presence in leadership and c-suite roles.”
Kinnari Patel – Group Finance Manager, Cogs London

“There should be more commitment to business ideologies meaning that equality is inherent in all aspects of a company’s profile. Regardless of gender. All should be treated equal, which means pay, benefits and rights in the workplace.”
Beth Harries – Principal Consultant, Cogs London

““Freedom of career-change for pregnant women. I believe society still has a long way to go regarding the intersection of pregnancy and job-changing/promotions. Women should not have to think that once they become pregnant, they have to sit back and accept their current employment situation.”
Monica Cristea, Consultant, Cogs Berlin

“Job Equality and Fairness; Women should have equal opportunity to apply for any job in the market as men do by eliminating the gender requirement in the job qualification so that female candidates and male candidates can compete by their actual skills and capabilities.”
Selma Mo, Principal Consultant, Cogs China

Women in the digital workplace today have had to overcome a number of challenges and biases to be there they are today. At Cogs, we are lucky enough to be in touch with lots of exceptional female talents. To understand how they deal with gender balance and inequality over their careers, we will spend the rest of this month sharing the stories of some female digital leaders in the Cogs network to share their experience.

The digital women we have been lucky enough to speak to for our inspirational women’s series are:

Hanan Belarbi, Head of Data EMEA, RGA. London
Pia Betton, Design and Site Lead, Natnix, Germany
Miranda Glover, Director, Great State, London