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International Women's Day

How is digital empowering women across industry? Mary Keane-Dawson, Rosie Arnold, Gail Parminter, Amanda McKenna, Janneke Niessen, Bridget Beale and Sarah Todd discuss

By Angela Haggerty, Reporter

BIMA (the British Interactive Media Assoc)

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International Women's Day article

March 8, 2014 | 10 min read

As the world celebrates International Women's Day 2014, The Drum spoke to some leading women in industry to find out how the digital revolution has - or hasn't - empowered women.

Mary Keane-Dawson, Group CEO of myHealthPal and founder of How She Made It

Frankly, I think digital is the ultimate leveller in terms of the opportunities it affords women to lead, to learn and to use their imaginations to fire personal wealth creation as well as generating interesting jobs for others. As someone who engaged with digital technologies over 15 years ago, and its disruptive nature in terms of its effect on consumers, business models and the 'rules and regulations' of the traditional media economy, I think that women have been well placed to bring order to an ever evolving landscape.

When you look around the industry, you will be struck by how many amazing and inspiring females are leading the charge and challenging their organisations to embrace the continuous trials digital inventiveness brings.

In this environment the need to educate, mentor, coach and above all else be consultative and collaborative, plays, in my view, to the strengths of the ‘elder daughter’ role that women are at ease with.

Ultimately, I think that whatever your race, gender, social background or cultural preferences, digital is a powerful force for good. Digital has no prejudices, it is whatever you wish it to become, and essentially inspires all of us to keep building new digital dreamscapes.

Rosie Arnold, deputy executive creative director at BBH London and former D&AD president

Digital has changed the face of how we all work. There has never been a more exciting time to be a creative - technology means that we can realise our wildest creative ideas and have real conversations with consumers.

For women it means greater freedom to work out of the office and at times and places more convenient for mothers. There will always be a need for face to face meetings and collaboration etc, however much of this can now be done over the internet.

One thing I have noticed is a general change in attitudes - men too are waking up to the fact that digitisation means you can work anywhere but the real trick is to make sure you don't let work take up all of your time.

Gail Parminter, senior copywriter at Mason Zimbler and former creative consultant at Mad Women

In short, I don’t believe it has. Or at least not yet, and not in the UK. If digital had really empowered women in our industry there would be no need for ‘Girl Geek Dinners’. This networking organisation was set up to help support women working, or wanting to work, in technology. Men can attend, but only if invited by a woman.

Founder Sarah Lamb says she started it when attending technology events made her aware of how isolated women in technology were. She said: “Some (but obviously not all) men don’t really know how to react to a technical female. And also some people immediately assume and truly believe some old fashioned social stereotypes are still relevant in today’s society.”

Women have been enormously empowered by technology – they’re using digital channels to influence culture and politics with websites like Mumsnet and Vagenda. And social media campaigns such as Everyday Sexism and No More Page Three have had a huge impact.

Women are also big on gameing – especially on tablets and smartphones. But, although women are known to be early adpoters of new technology and are influential users of online forums and social channels, they are still few women actually developing the technology or building the apps and websites.

Mason Zimbler has one girl geek – Iwona, and she’s from Poland. She told me she was shocked by how few women there are doing her job in the UK – especially back-end developers and programmers. But this worked to her advantage as, she says, it made her a “bit of a curiosity for employers” and “the queues for the loos at conferences are always shorter”.

Amanda McKenna, board director, Zone

Digital culture has affected the way we all do business. More than that, it’s creating new opportunities for women across the planet. New ways of communicating, sharing experiences, driving change: look at campaigns like Girl Effect or Let Toys Be Toys. They owe a lot of their power and reach to digital media.

As a (relatively) new mother, an obvious starting point is the way it makes flexible working far more viable. We’re all familiar with the challenges women face in finding balance between their working and family lives: digital makes that flexibility much more achievable.

It’s now easier than ever to connect to like-minded groups. And that’s not just about sharing experience: I’d recommend to any woman, if they haven’t already, to look at The Guardian’s Women in Leadership for the opportunities it gives to get mentoring and support.

Finally, to wrap up the theme I started in my first point: it’s helped us, as an employer, to find talented women through networks like Women Like Us. We found WLU through a casual search: they help women with children find suitable work opportunities. We’ve found some excellent people through them. I wish I saw more thinking like this.

By Janneke Niessen, co-founder and CIO of Improve Digital and founder of Inspiring Fifty

On a global level – not just within our industry - digital, mobile and the internet have enormous potential for women’s empowerment. We have easy access to platforms which provide vast opportunities to start companies, search and share information, interact, collaborate, network, and have our voices heard like never before.

The digital and technology sector has helped lead the recovery in the UK with 27 per cent of all new jobs created coming from within that sector. The digital economy is rising all the time with so many great opportunities, however, it is still very much a male dominated industry with too few women entering the fray, both in the UK and Europe. We also have too few women in senior roles within the sector who are visible.

This is why we have launched Inspiring fifty. Backed by the European Commission, it is an initiative to showcase top female leaders working in the European technology scene, to serve as inspiration to other women.

We know that many women in tech who seek female role models currently look towards the most visible, headline-making personalities - vice-President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer. These women are incredible role models who have without doubt helped change the perception of women in technology.

However, there are many accomplished, fierce female women in tech who are leading the charge, bringing about positive change in female leadership and proving that working in tech is not just for ‘geeks’. It’s time to highlight this amazing talent and provide more female role models ‘closer to home’ to change the perception of women working in tech among both men and women, ultimately to inspire others to rise to the top and encourage a younger generation of girls to enter the field.

In late spring this year we will launch the European Inspiring fifty list, start nominating here! You can follow us @InspiringFifty

Bridget Beale, managing director, BIMA

As an industry, digital offers great egalitarian opportunities. It’s future-facing, entrepreneurial and full of smart people – meaning there’s no room for the old school attitudes that can keep women out of leadership positions in other sectors.

In terms of empowerment through technology, digital provides the power to insist on being heard. A good example is the people chosen to represent and speak on behalf of the industry. Try holding an event with an all-male panel (which happened to us once, through our fantastic women panelists being unavailable last-minute) and you’ll quickly be taken to task on Twitter. This is as it should be.

Now that social media is a normal part of open everyday business communication, organisations have to be much more transparent, accountable and diverse at every level – and people making decisions on behalf of the industry have to keep this in mind too.

Sarah Todd, UK CEO, Geometry Global

In my view, digital channels have become so ingrained in our day-to-day lives that the industry is quickly becoming gender agnostic. The speed of change in the sector means it naturally turns to whoever can best provide the experience, skills and qualities required. As a result, if you’re good and you've got the passion, there’s an abundance of opportunity on offer, and women are in as good a position as men to fill this need.

However, those just starting out need role models who inspire an ambition for innovation. The number of inspiring women role models is increasing as the likes of Marissa Mayer rise to take the reins of high profile digital companies, but we need more of these powerful examples. I had a role model like this when I started my career, and strongly believe in the benefits it can offer a younger generation of digital evangelists.

That same role model was passionate about diversity in all its forms, not just across genders. The digital industry needs to be flexible and adept at all times. This is achieved best when challenges are approached from many angles, finding solutions where others wouldn't look. Agencies must invest in making this happen, creating environments where young talent is surrounded by different personalities, cultures, viewpoints and backgrounds, as well as the latest devices, gadgets and sector expertise. Industry leaders of tomorrow need to not only have an appetite for this diversity and innovation, but passionately believe in its importance.

International Women's Day

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