Celebrating international women’s day: working to future-proof sopro
Celebrating International Women’s Day: Working to future-proof Sopro
The 2023 International Women’s Day theme is embrace equity. The #embraceequity campaign is to get people asking: Why equal opportunities aren’t enough.
But, this year, IWD also focuses on “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”. And as a tech company, this topic hits especially close to home.
In 2022, the percentage of women in large tech companies was 25%. That’s just one-quarter of the tech workforce.
We’re embracing equity at Sopro, as we have since day one. We’re proud that we can say Sopro has a 50:50 split between men and women.
“Part of the mission of International Women’s Day this year is to elevate and advance gender parity in technology and to celebrate the women forging innovation. We’re extremely proud of being a tech company in which women occupy 50% of the roles in our workforce and senior management teams.
As the founder of several businesses in this sector, where men have dominated for years, I cannot emphasise enough the importance of gender equality. Put simply, the future of our industry depends on an inclusive and transformative attitude to technology and towards digital education across the globe.”
Rob Harlow, Sopro Co-Founder
As with any industry and any workplace, greater diversity means greater innovation and creativity. With more viewpoints, you get a better understanding of your customers and the market, and find new and clever ways of doing things. It leads to a more positive employer brand and in turn, better employee retention.
But it’s important in the tech industry especially, as it has been male-dominated for far too long and remains male-dominated to this day – alienating women in the field. 71% of women who worked in tech described their workplace as having a strong “bro culture”. This could explain why the female quit rate is almost twice as high as that of males in the tech field.
Often, companies miss out on talent by not considering everyone in the talent pool. Companies that don’t discriminate when hiring are proven to be more successful. But equality shouldn’t just be success driven! At Sopro, we’re determined to elevate and advance gender parity in technology and celebrate the women forging innovation.
Where do we currently stand?
In 2022, women held less than 20% of all leadership positions in tech companies. Only one in four roles in the GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft) group goes to women. At Sopro, we believe in creating an equitable environment where everyone has opportunity to progress, and this is evident with the 50:50 split carried across into our Senior Management Team.
Tech is among the fastest-growing industries in the world. It requires more and more labour supply to thrive. Women make up almost half the workforce population. Their exclusion can deprive this industry of the crucial human resources it needs to grow.
Ultimately women are amongst the best tech innovators in the world, and at Sopro, we know this must be recognised and continue to be recognised as we grow.
