Today, on International Women’s Day (IWD), we celebrate the women of FINITE: Female B2B technology marketers thriving in a male-dominated industry, making leaps towards workplace and career-based gender equality. IWD seeks to celebrate women’s achievements, increase visibility and call out inequality, and at FINITE, we do too.
One of IWD’s main objectives is to elevate and advance gender parity in technology and celebrate the women forging innovation.
In recent years, we’ve seen a rise in female tech influencers, as well as a surge in female tech business leaders. Not only does this kick-butt on an individual level, it encourages other women to head into STEM career fields and inspire future generations to dream big, believe big and achieve big.
As a community for B2B marketers in tech & SaaS, we think it’s important to raise our voice on this important occasion, to champion the women of FINITE, female leaders in tech.
Four of our members have shared their thoughts on:
- What this year’s theme means to them
- What it’s like to be a woman in tech in 2022
- How we can work to improve biases and enhance opportunities for women in tech in the future
Hennika Kestilä
Head of Marketing at JigSpace Inc.
This year’s theme is #breakthebias. What does this mean to you?
We should work towards a world where there is no discrimination on gender, heritage or language, and one without stereotypes.
What is it like to be a woman in tech in 2022?
2022 is a year like no other. In the tech world, we’re all looking for a work-life balance within our organisations and teams. This may include family time, hobbies, travels, visiting family overseas, commuting to work, meeting people in person etc. We all have our new daily challenges that were not part of the normal in the past 2 years. Some teams understand that better than others.
Lots of network building needs to resume after the Covid lockdowns and challenges. We’re all looking for a new normal. Networking was hard during Covid and communities are still bouncing back from the challenging times. As a woman in SaaS, the support of communities is essential to succeed and grow. For me, 2022 will be all about that growth and connecting with people again, online and in person.
How do you think we can work to improve biases and enhance opportunities for women in tech in the future?
Let’s support one another to be better every day. Let’s keep on showcasing the good things we do day-to-day and in the process inspire the girls and women around the world to do what they wish to do – whether that’s in tech or in other industries. Let’s keep on building opportunities to network with each other without borders and keep on creating career and growth opportunities.
Aline Herth
Head of Marketing at Retorio
This year’s theme is #Breakthebias. What does this mean to you?*
I wish I didn’t have to think or talk about this, as it would mean that we have already broken the bias. But the reality is, biases do exist. I used to look for ways to acquire what may socially be considered masculine skills/traits to become a better leader. But over the years I realised that feminine traits could be just as powerful, especially in the context of leadership. We all have biases, whether we admit it or not.
For me #breakthebias starts with admitting that we have biases, identifying where and how they interfere with our work, and taking the time to create a more equal playing field.
What is it like to be a woman in tech in 2022?
I know I can only speak for myself and my experience. I always wanted to be in tech and have never felt held back. For a long time I struggled with the label #womanintech. Partially, because I did not hold a “technical position,” but also because I wanted to be known for my skills and personality, rather than fulfilling a quota. But that’s the problem, isn’t it? The playing field has not been leveled. After working across three different continents, I realized that we still have to break biases within the entire industry on a global level. Maybe someday I’ll just be Aline. Until then, I will proudly be a #womanintech. 😉
How do you think we can work to improve biases and enhance opportunities for women in tech in the future?
One of the reasons I decided to work at my current company is to do exactly that – work on improving biases across the entire talent management process with the help of technology. Retorio empowers hiring managers to focus on personality traits and skills when selecting candidates, while eliminating both negative and positive discrimination.
Especially as hiring managers/leaders, it is our responsibility to be aware of our own biases and make room for an inclusive environment. Technology can help with that, but it will take all of us – every gender, every race, every age – to create a more equal working environment. I especially want to encourage my female community; if there’s an opportunity you want, go for it!
Margherita Maspero
Head of Brand and Communications at Know Your Customer
This year’s theme is #Breakthebias. What does this mean to you?*
To me, #Breakthebias means to make a conscious effort, as a society, to challenge ourselves every day and identify how prejudices and preconceptions are having an impact on our opinions, our decisions or our way of relating to each other. This is an incredibly hard thing to do, but it is the only way to progress and really embrace diversity on a higher level. And in my experience, we can only do that by educating ourselves, keeping an open mind and fostering intellectual honesty and emotional intelligence at every level of our organisations.
What is it like to be a woman in tech in 2022?
To be a woman in tech in 2022 feels like being on a journey. It would be wrong to say that no progress has been made over the past few years, because things are changing, but we are still far from being where we want to be. To me, the power of representation is absolutely undeniable, and unfortunately women in tech are still the exception across all levels and all sub-sectors. There is still a lot of work we have to do there, but I am optimistic about the future.
How do you think we can work to improve biases and enhance opportunities for women in tech in the future?
I would start with small, practical steps that are fairly easy to implement but can really have a big impact on diversity in general. I am thinking of practices such as removing names or gender references on CVs during the initial screening process, or addressing AI built-in biases when using an automated system. I think this would help us ensure candidates are evaluated on the basis of their answers and skills first, before anything else.
Angeline Ng
Marketing Manager (APAC) at Sendbird
This year’s theme is #breakthebias. What does this mean to you?
It means to be conscious of biases. Even as a woman, I am guilty of having implicit biases at times and these include stereotypes about race, age, gender, etc. It serves as a reminder that these biases are not challenges that a particular gender has to overcome, but one we all have to overcome.
What is it like to be a woman in tech in 2022?
There are as many opportunities given as expectations to live up to, prejudice to prove otherwise and biases to challenge.
How do you think we can work to improve biases and enhance opportunities for women in tech in the future?
I think for the most part, many organisations have made improvements in ensuring gender equality and improving workplace biases, but most importantly it is a collective responsibility. The onus is on us to support each other, calling out unfair behaviour when we see it, learning that we do not always have to apologise every time we have an opinion to voice or a comment to make during a meeting and most importantly freeing ourselves from self imposed constraints.
What are you waiting for? Share #Breakthebias on your socials and connect with these amazing women in tech!
If you’re a B2B technology or SaaS marketers, and you’d like to join the FINITE community, apply for a free membership here. We’d love to have you involved!
