Tell us about your journey in tech. How did you get started, and what motivated you to pursue a career in tech?
My path into tech was quite a squiggly one. I started off with a degree in Economics and International Studies, and a master’s in international business and development, and working within the Trade policy Unit at The Department for International Development. It has been my passion to work for organisations such as DFID, with a strong humanitarian ethos aligning with my own strong moral values.
This is possibly why it has also been an honour to be appointed as a UN Women UK Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women, striving for gender equity for a second year running.
I had always had a love of technological innovation since I was a child. Yet at the start of my academic career the wealth and breadth of free readily available high quality STEM courses, support, guidance, and mentorship, which is so readily available today, was absent. I didn’t even know it was possible to have a career that centred on Data.
This is why I am happy to be both a STEM Ambassador and Women in Data® Ambassador and am so passionate about mentoring young girls and leveraging my access, knowledge, and network to share with them of the wealth of opportunities now available, providing access to resources I wish I had and closing gender gaps in this traditionally male dominated field. To do my part in closing this gender disparity I have volunteered my time to mentor over 20 girls in STEM to date.
Share a pivotal moment or project that contributed to your success in the tech industry?
Today I am humbled by the fact that I am a multi-award-winning data, software, cloud, and project management professional with the ability to code in several languages including SQL, Python, Java, and JavaScript.
I am proud winner of Black Tech Achievement Developer of the Year Award 2024, Top Twenty Women in Data Award series 6, 2024, GTA Top 51 Women in Tech 2023 and featured in the beautiful accompanying book – Voices in the Shadow, Vol.3, UN Women UK Community Champion Finalist 2023, and have featured in magazine-book, Disruptors vol 3 – 60 stories of influential women positively challenging the status quo.
I am pleased to share that I will also soon be starting in a new role on promotion, successfully progressing my Data Analytics career. What has been most seminal to this success is investing in myself, taking time to up skill, sharing my knowledge and resources with my networks and enjoying the journey along the way.
“Everything in life is much easier if you do not do it alone. Find a community of genuine mentors, sponsors, coaches, and friends who you can learn from, contribute to, and be restored by.”
Have you had any mentors who significantly influenced your career? How did they support your growth?
Currently I have a wonderful mentor in Amelia Bampton, an award winning leader in tech, as provided by the ElevateHER Leadership Mentor Programme ran by Elevate Women in Tech, which I am honoured to be a part of this year!
This is such an amazing and exciting programme complete with powerful expert-led workshops that I am learning so much from, and a warm community.
I feel totally blessed to be matched with my mentor who has been wonderfully supportive, lovely, down to earth, and inspirational, providing invaluable guidance as I excitedly elevate my career and transition into a new role.
How do you actively network within the tech community? Any tips for others seeking to build meaningful professional relationships?
I have learnt that genuine connections are often formed in more natural environments such as events, activities and third spaces that are not strictly about networking but are themed towards learning something new – a workshop, course, or industry talk – or coming together over shared interests, this can even be somewhere as simple as the gym or a volunteering activity.
Here you can find common ground, discuss your shared interests, and seek ways to add value, matching your connections to opportunities and valuable contacts or resources, rather than focusing on what you can gain yourself. This is not only far more rewarding, especially if like me, you enjoy helping people anyway, but a stronger cohesive, and reciprocal network begins to expand and forms far more organically.
What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a woman in tech, and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges I have faced and am learning to triumph over as a woman in tech, is low self-believe. I have often felt imprisoned by the dreaded “imposter syndrome” which is quite a disempowering term, and one I dislike. Yet the experience exists and if we can reframe this into the empowering self-awareness of being in a growth zone, then we can start to replace this often-paralysing fear with energising excitement. Excitement for the opportunity to learn, develop and evolve toward our optimal selves and potential.
As a woman in tech, what changes or improvements would you like to see in the industry?
I recently attended an excellent Women in Data® Lunch and Learn on Healthcare Gender Inequalities Progress, hosted in conjunction with Capgemini. The statistical disparities when it came to how women fair in terms of provision of health care, detection of health issues and survival rates were harrowing. Right down to how data is collected which is often not aggregated when it comes to gender, so vital insights which could improve health outcomes for women are being missed.
Statistics shared by Capgemini revealed that the UK has the largest female health gap in the G20 and the 12th largest globally (UK Parliament, 2021). Women are 13% less likely than men of the same age to receive life-saving medication following a heart attack. Women are routinely excluded from clinical trials, and yet experience adverse reactions to medications, nearly twice as often as men. Furthermore, 80% of the population that suffer from an autoimmune disease are women.
The Women in Data® x Capgemini presentation demonstrated how figures become even more startling when we look at health outcomes for Black women, who are 4 times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than their white counterparts. Black Women are also at a 43% increased risk of having a miscarriage in comparison to white women and are 50% less likely to receive a diagnosis when suffering from endometriosis.
There is hope in the form of AI. An AI screening tool for liver disease was able to identify the 43% of cases amongst women that were previously missed as opposed to the 23% previously missed in men.
MIA (mammography Intelligence Assessment) is a deep learning software tool which the NHS Breast Screening Programme are utilising to decrease the number of missed breast cancer diagnoses and have increased breast cancer detection by 13% reducing delays in diagnosis during a growing shortage of radiologists. MIA has also managed to reduce the workloads of existing radiologists by 30%.
I would like to see vast improvements in this area, further harnessing the revolutionary capacity of aforementioned AI tools such as MIA and the AI liver screening tool. The presentation also demonstrated a great need for a substantial increase in investment in FemTech, education surrounding women’s health disparities and needs, targeted interventions for Black women, and gender inclusive research with sex-disaggregated data and substantially increased data quality. It is astonishing that “51% of our population are disadvantaged in accessing the care they need, simply because of their sex” (Steve Barclay, Secretary of State for UK Health & Social Care).
How can companies and leaders foster a more inclusive and supportive environment for women in tech?
Inequalities are often systemically embedded within institutions, this in turn creates a culture of exclusion. Therefore, to ensure that companies and leaders foster a more inclusive and supportive environment for women and all marginalised groups, we first need to identify what those inequalities and blockers are and remove them.
We do this by centering the voices of marginalised groups, in this case women. We put women at the forefront of conversations and decision making when it comes to research and the creation and embedding of inclusive policies and practices which tangibly promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in recruitment, retention, and advancement.
It is paramount that companies and senior management tangibly support women by addressing and eliminating gender pay gaps.
Identify and remove the barriers which prevent women from accessing opportunities to information, guidance, training, mentorship, career development and self-advocacy.
Eliminate subjectivity and grey areas when it comes to equitable and inclusive recruitment, retention, and advancement and put in place tangible, consistently monitored barometers for success and hold offenders to account. From my own experience gender equity and the equity of all marginalised groups resonates and encourages action when it is promoted from the top, down. When consistent, frequent, visible, vocal messaging and action of support comes from the C-Suite/ Executive Leadership team the rest of the organisation feels safe to follow suit.. Bias loses its impact and fails to thrive, when DEI is embedded within systems, policies, and processes.
Create effective and targeted mentorship and development programmes and similar interventions for women, which plug skills gaps, build confidence, provide support, community, opportunities for development and progression and address barriers to access. Track, and measure progress and hold leaders accountable for lack of development and progression of staff. People will not speak out against unfair policies and practices if they feel their job is unsafe, so we also need to create safe reporting channels for all instances of harassment and discrimination and confidence that concerns will be respected and resolved appropriately.
Women are often not only the architects of their own careers, but are also carers, whether that be of children, elderly parents, or both. Recognise this and offer flexible working, support networks and childcare concessions and /or subsidised on-site childcare.
Provide access to visible inspirational female role models who can share their paths to success and provide not only hope, but awareness of opportunities and something to strive towards.
What are your top 3 pieces of advice for women striving to succeed in the tech industry?
