Each year on March 8th, Node4 joins with the rest of the world to mark International Women’s Day and discuss how we, with collective and individual actions, can forge true gender equality.
2024’s theme is based on inspiring inclusion, with the aim of celebrating diversity and empowerment – not just on International Women’s Day, but across the year and beyond.
THE IMPORTANCE OF INSPIRING INCLUSION
The aim of this year’s theme is to emphasise the importance of diversity and enabling empowerment across our society – and inclusion plays a key role towards the overall goal of achieving gender equality.
Especially in the workplace, providing inclusive environments can provide boosts and benefits to innovation, engagement, improved decision-making, improved insights and a greater sense of belonging. In order to achieve this, IWD organisers are calling for global efforts to:
- Break down barriers, whether they be societal or workplace that stop women from progressing and achieving their goals
- Challenge stereotypes, to ensure a more accepting, less judgemental world
- Create environments where all women are valued and respected
Fostering inclusive environments is crucial to ensuring true diversity – when women from a variety of backgrounds are empowered, supported and able to succeed and thrive, we all benefit. And as part of a sector that is traditionally dominated by men, Node4 believes that businesses in technology have a responsibility to contribute to that aim.
TECHNOLOGY’S RESPONSIBILITY TO FOSTER INCLUSION
As we continue to support IWD and its themes, Node4, as part of the technology sector, recognises its responsibility to create an inclusive, diverse environment for all women to thrive.
Last year, we discussed the need to encourage more girls to take up STEM subjects from GCSE onwards. According to STEM Women, 31% of students enrolled on STEM courses were female or non-binary, with physical sciences offering the smallest gap of women/non-binary to male students (44%/56%) and engineering and technology offering the biggest (21%/79%). These statistics have been growing steadily but slowly over the last decade, suggesting that more work is required across the country to address these disparities.
As shared in our 2023 IWD blog, it’s vital for technology to respond to these figures and contribute towards a wider uptake of STEM courses. “It’s clear that girls need better, more equitable resources to embark upon a technology career pathway,” commented Node4 Head of Policy Samantha Thorne. “In 2022, as a percentage of the total, the number of girls taking Computing GCSE flatlined at 21%. This is especially important for technology, which is only considered a first-choice career for 3% of women.”
Node4 recognises the role it plays as a technology provider and as part of our sector to support initiatives to get more women and girls interested in careers in tech from an earlier age. By continuing to provide meaningful work experience opportunities and visiting schools in areas around our offices, we aim to make a difference in our local and wider communities, whilst striving to ensure that we provide a truly inclusive environment for everyone to thrive. We will also continue to host events, both internal and external with the aim of discussing the challenges, successes and experiences that women face, not just within technology but their wider careers and lives. We believe dialogue and education are key parts of not only inspiring inclusion, but breaking down barriers and challenging the stereotypes that exist for women in our sector.
4women – OUR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY EVENT
As part of our commitment to marking International Women’s Day each year, we hosted our second 4Women event at our Northampton Data Centre this week. 2023’s edition featured four women from different parts of the business discussing their journeys in tech and the specific challenges that have shaped their careers, and this year, as part of the theme of inspiring inclusion, we asked our workforce to help shape 2024’s event agenda.
Once again, we invited women from across our organisation to attend with our Managing Director Digital Hannah Birch hosting, and informative talks and breakout sessions covering the following requested topics:
- Managing a work-life balance
- Your network is key
- Understanding menopause
In an effort to further share knowledge and experience, we also provided informative sessions that broke down and detailed various aspects of the business and how they function, alongside welcoming colleagues to share letters to their younger selves looking back on their careers and lives.
Each session was packed with insight and thought-provoking discussion, with feedback proving that an agenda built with the input and guidance of our wider workforce made for an engaging, enjoyable event. We’d like to thank our speakers and attendees for sharing their experiences and contributions with our growing 4Women community, as we look forward to welcoming our clients to future webinars under the 4Women banner.
Learn more about International Women’s Day and how you and others can #InspireInclusion here.
You can also learn more about IWD from these sources:
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/
https://technation.io/
https://www.pwc.co.uk/
https://technologymagazine.com/