Throughout my childhood I was surrounded by strong and inspiring women; growing up as the eldest of three girls, raised mostly by a single mum and attending all girls schools from the age of 6. I grew up making choices based on what I enjoyed or what was interesting to me, rather than feeling like I had to take a certain path because of my gender. This uninhibited curiosity led me to electronic engineering at university. Shockingly to me, in 2009 my class intake was less than 20% female. On my very first day I was asked by a male classmate if I was lost and in the wrong room. In this highly male dominated world I was regularly underestimated or judged based on my gender and appearance. These experiences helped shape who I am today. And even though situations like this no longer phase me, they still happen far too often.
Since university I’ve continued working in technology companies and within technical teams. Despite seeing more and more females moving into this sector, female leaders are still few and far between. Until working at Insight Timer, in my nearly 10 years of professional experience, I had never been managed by another female. Despite always being managed by brilliant, kind and empowering men; finding female role models and other senior women to look up to often instead came in the form of colleagues and friends in other industries. Additionally, men held the majority of the senior positions at the companies I worked at. It was really hard to see a career path in technology, or to find someone to look up to who I could imagine myself being in 10/20/30 years time.
Today, gender equality in the technology industry is still a long way from being realised, but I feel very fortunate to be part of the growing community of women smashing stereotypes and working loudly and proudly in tech. I am so proud to work at Insight Timer and to be part of a company championing gender equality and females in leadership; there are so many amazing females in management that I can look up to and aspire to daily.
Every woman out there should know what she is capable of and be unashamedly driven in doing and achieving that. I hope one day to help provide that inspiration for future generations too.
