Attention readers! I Need your help…

Dear readers & fellow bloggers,

Some of you by now may know that I work in technology if you’ve read some of my previous posts. If you haven’t, feel free to check these out:

http://myscarletthread.com/2014/08/13/pulling-my-hair-out/

http://myscarletthread.com/2014/09/18/the-ten-dos-and-donts-of-a-professional-working-life/

To recap – I’m a “minority” female working in a very male dominated environment in a global financial firm, with an average of about 1 woman to every 10 men in my department! As you can imagine, it provides for a glaringly stark gender imbalance, which has plagued some major organisations in a world where gender equality is the order of the day. This has further recently been brought to the forefront by Emma Watson’s speech on the HeforShe campaign to the UN on Feminism and the need for closing the gap on gender pay inequality between men and women among-st other issues (if you haven’t watched the inspiring speech, check out the video below).

Coincidentally, about two weeks ago I was having lunch with a senior manager at my organisation who’s responsible for a large number of tech employees globally and we got into a conversation about feminism, women in technology and the impact of having more women in senior positions at a management and executive level. He had a lot of insightful, interesting views which I won’t get into at at this time but is a worthy blog topic for another day. He was particularly interested in hearing my views on the need for more women in the workplace as well as the dire lack of women working in technology, little did I know that at the end of that conversation I would be tasked with putting together a strategy on how we can not only hire more women in technology but retain them. Needless to say that one of the key issues faced by major organisations is the inability to effectively retain women at certain stages of their careers, especially when women take time off to have children.

This is where you, my dear reader comes in. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this issue. First of all, do you agree that women should be paid on par with men in the workplace? What are some of the deterrents and barriers you may have personally faced either as a woman or observed as a man that is hindering gender balance in the workplace and particularly in technology? Is technology a profession primarily for men only? Lastly but most importantly, any ideas on some tools and initiatives organisations can implement to not only hire but ensure effective retention of women in technology and generally the workplace? I’m counting on you to help me build a solid case for presenting to the big bosses on why we need to prioritize employing more women in technology, the workplace and helping them attain more senior positions through meritocracy.

Thanks ladies and gentlemen!