Empowering female voices: Reflections from Digital Her Day

Last month, the CTI team was invited to attend Digital Her Day, hosted by Manchester Digital, an event which celebrated and championed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in tech.

With International Women’s Day happening yesterday, we wanted to share a very quick roundup of what we heard at Her Day, and the messages we brought back to our DEI Committee.

Workplace diversity and women in tech

The agenda for the day was packed full of insightful talks and discussions on sustainable innovation, women’s empowerment in tech, and workplace diversity within the tech industry. 

• Jordan Sullivan, Head of Economic Policy at non-profit The Startup Coalition, discussed the stark funding disparities amongst entrepreneurs across geography, ethnicity, gender, and class.
• Staff from BAE systems talked about their company's hiring process, highlighting their supportive and inclusive recruitment process – including early screening to identify neurodiversity in order to proactively adjust.
• Enterprise Product Director at Lloyds Suzanne Ellison and Digital Engagement Director Tas Bhamji discussed their childhoods and how they shaped them as women driving change in their industry.
• Kanika Selvan from Beetroot Consulting shared her experiences of running a black-owned agency.

Throughout the agenda there were also many thoughtful discussions about what it means to be a woman forging a career in tech.

Key takeaways

Recurring themes included: 

• The importance of supporting younger members of the team and offering mentorship and training opportunities.
• Creating a safe ‘speak up’ culture to enable staff to feel comfortable to voice issues.
• Flexible working in practice and not just in theory.
• Equal access to opportunities.
• Being able to be your authentic self at work.

The day gave us lots to think about and actionable points to bring back to CTI’s DEI Committee.