Today (March 8th) marks the 110th anniversary of International Women’s Day (#IWD). It’s a global celebration to highlight women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements, which was first celebrated in 1911.
It’s also a day to draw attention to the issues women are still facing and a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
The theme for 2021 is: Women in Leadership #ChooseToChallenge.
“A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day.
We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.
From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge.” (https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Theme)
Read UN’s Statement on International Women’s Day here.
The theme celebrates the huge efforts by women around the world in shaping an equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an opportunity to look into the future and what an equal technology industry may look like.
Why is gender equality in tech so difficult to achieve?
Despite more women in tech dominating the headlines (“Bumble’s 31-Year-Old CEO Becomes a Rare Female Billionaire“), they are still largely underrepresented in boardrooms across the globe. Of the 559 companies that have gone public in the U.S. over the past 12 months, only two, aside from Bumble, were founded by women.
Today, the representation of women in the tech industries still has a long way to go. A recent Tech Nation report that looked into diversity in U.K. tech companies revealed that men fill 77% of tech director roles. Stats also suggested only 19% of the tech workforce are women.
From my own experience, I’ve noticed that many females don’t consider going into gaming (or tech) simply because they aren’t aware of the opportunities in the industry, and no one is sharing the information with them.
At Buildbox, we have partnered with organizations that share a common goal – to encourage women to pursue careers in tech industries:
Girl Develop It
“We’re a nonprofit organization that provides affordable programs for adult women and non-binary individuals to learn web and software developing in a judgment-free environment.”
STEMettes
“We’re showing the next generation that girls do Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) too at our free, fun, food-filled experiences.”
Black Girl Games
“Dedicated to heightening Black Women’s voices in gaming. Advocates for DEI. Home to the Black Girl Gamers global community of over 7k members.”
As a Women In Games Ambassador myself, another organization that I would like to highlight is Women In Games (WIGJ).
Their vision is a games industry, culture, and community free of gender discrimination, where full equality of opportunity, treatment, and conditions empowers all women to achieve their full potential. With ambassadors across all continents, WIGJ has created a network of leaders in the industry to increase its programs’ reach and scale and help it achieve the strategic goal of doubling the number of women in games over ten years.
It’s up to us how we choose to contribute towards the creation of an equal world. Let’s celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness and take action for equality.
