The missing piece of the UK’s tech puzzle

As any bright young mind will tell you crossing a chasm requires ingenuity. You don't just wish a bridge into existence. You bring men and women together to engineer one. And that's exactly what we need to do here.

This year’s theme resonated with me on redefining STEM. How do we ensure everyone who dreams of a career in STEM is judged purely on the merits of their insights, dedication to problem solving and ingenuity? How do we ensure the next Marie Curie, for who’s birthday this date was chosen is given every opportunity to flourish?

One thought occurs to me over and over. In the new age of AI, it is even more important to ensure women have equal access to opportunities as our world fundamentally changes.

Currently, in the UK tech sector, only five percent of leadership roles are held by women.

As a woman leading a cloud technology consultancy, I am acutely aware of my unique position. We are still a rare breed. I am optimistic that my path will in the future no longer be an exception but rather one of many well-trodden routes for women entering technology.

As it stands there is much work still to do.

According to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, there are just 22% of women in tech.2 The Institute’s findings show that achieving equal gender representation would require adding 530,000 more women to the tech workforce.

The consequences extend far beyond individual careers. When women are systematically excluded from shaping the technologies that govern our lives, we build systems that reflect a narrower worldview and are all the poorer for it.

The UK intends to become a global leader in AI, and this presents tremendous opportunity to empower a new generation of women.

Recent government initiatives offer reason for cautious optimism. The establishment of the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Liz Kendall's Women in Tech Taskforce represents a meaningful commitment to addressing gender imbalances through concrete policy interventions and industry partnerships. 

This taskforce brings together some of the sharpest and most inspiring minds from across industry, education, and government to develop actionable strategies for increasing female representation, from encouraging girls to study STEM subjects in school through to incubating high-growth technology companies with women at the helm.

Initiatives, such as the National AI Research and Innovation Programme and the Digital Skills Partnership, provide dedicated funding streams for underrepresented groups, recognising that digital literacy is bedrock of the modern economy. Ensuring girls and women have equal access to developing these skills from an early age creates clear pathways from education into technology careers.