I’ve never been a feminist but decided to go to women in tech.
Why?
Because I figured that it would be nice to discuss challenges that you encounter when
you have the same gender.
As a woman you’re mostly focused on 3 things; your career, your family and your household. And most of us want to manage all these 3 things perfectly at the same time. Being a woman in this era can be quite challenging.
Next to that, most women are raised to be modest about themselves!
While they have many talents and can add soft skills that men simply don’t have.
So it’s important to constantly challenge yourself to grow as a person. Be a generic specialist and reflect on life on a regular basis.
This means that you have to plan time for this, for example 4 hours every 6 months to evaluate. See your job as a project with sprints, where you write down pluses and minuses and think about why these things are important to you.
Set out your career path and don’t forget to have fun, as many successful ladies mentioned during women in tech.
Start with a strategy and a structured plan. Segment your goals, make notes, and set deadlines for yourself. Be specific to men, read about ‘mansplaining’ and try to connect with them while staying a woman.
Communicate and develop yourself in presenting who you are and the added value you can have.
Plan, prepare and perform.
Yes, sometimes you have to prove yourself as a woman. Fight for it and you should feel entitled once you’ve reached your goal.
How you handle your career and life can be translated in how you approach dealing with problems. It’s important to embrace change, since a lot of ‘problems’ are based on change.
It’s important to be flexible, communicate and build on your network. Especially since
statistics show that women have a smaller network than men, or take a longer time to build
a similar network.
I’m the only woman in the room, what should I do?
-Stop crying and speak your mind. Don’t underestimate yourself!
Being a woman in tech can be difficult at times. To conquer a seat at the table it sometimes means that you have to shout louder than men do. Being in a meeting where most men speak out their mind. You can approach this by listening first and then raise your voice.
Same goes for being visible, the people that speak out their minds achieve more due to the fact that everybody is aware of their presence.
There is one thing in transformation that everybody has to deal with at this time,
technology.
‘It’s a tech company or a death company’, right?
You should innovate fast, disrupt your industry and yourself by developing skills that help you handle technology challenges.
Transformation is complex and only 30% is successful [McKinsey].
We should see this is a big chance for diversity to step in and bring innovation together with creativity.
Women from all ages now have the opportunity to be a change advocate and empower themselves at the same time.
So adapt and get rid of fear!
-What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
73% of businesses in Europe have one woman in a senior management role and 27% of businesses senior roles are held by women [catalyst].
We’ve made some great strides, so let’s bring this to the next level and empower ourselves.
There is beauty in risk! This is driving our daily lives, it’s tapping into our primary survival instinct. Use the sense of urgency to create change. Step out of your comfort zone and take that awesome opportunity.
This will bring you to the next level and opens the door to new experiences.
Don’t wait, just do it!
– You are the biggest obstacle in growth!
– Love it, change it, or leave it! Good to let things go?
– You have to see business as a game and enjoy it!
