What is stopping you from moving forward towards your dreams?
Despite the increase in women in tech in 2022, this statistic follows a significant decline in the proportion of women in the industry in 2021 after years of modest increases. This is what was put out.
The number of women in some parts of the technology industry continues to increase year on year, but especially development – Little changes to the constant reality that women make up 50% of the workforce, but only 22% of technology company executives are white women, and even more despicably, women of color 6% of women.
The reality for tech executives is that by 2023, one in three women in the UK will leave the tech industry due to a lack of retention efforts and support to improve work-life balance. Couple that with the fact that you share plans to leave.
Why does the number of women in the tech workforce continue to worry us?
Beyond the barriers of education, prejudice, and opportunity, could there be an issue as simple as a lack of clarity about what it actually means to be at the forefront of technology?
You have to deal with outdated assumptions about who you should be, how you should act, and how to juggle your daily (or worse, nightly) responsibilities. What you need today to manage your role as a technology leader may be surprising.
magician
Decades ago, the most common technology leaders were acronym-heavy and deliberately confusing, giving the impression of being rich in power but poor in service. The fundamentals of the technology were realized through purposeful sweat, tears, and incredible timelines, so the end result felt almost magical and otherworldly.
“Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain!” Oz went boom.
The magical Oz as a puppeteer seemed very big, but once his role was revealed, he wasn't all that wizard-like. Yesterday, everything felt much more complicated than it does today, and that's no surprise. Improvements, automation, and widely available education have made the industry clearer and cleaner.
In a world where users know what they want and what it takes to get it, the table has historically been reserved for the magician's savior-like ego. seats are open to more collaborative and transparent types of leaders.
Zero work-life balance
Gone are the days when software, hardware, and general technology solutions kept entire teams up all night. If everything was hand-coded and manually configured, when an alert of a system down occurred, a skilled technician would likely be working overnight to get the system back up and running. Probably.
With more than 90% of today's organizations adopting the cloud, today's solutions tend to be managed, or at least easier to manage. As cloud usage and managed systems-as-a-service increase, we have more time to spend on life and health.
Technology as a career today competes for balance with every other industry.There's time to lead in technology and Raise a family, sleep through the night, and enjoy uninterrupted time away from the office.
technology complexity
Given the ease of access to technology news and knowledge, one might think that technology has become less complex.
From low-code to no-code options, what the general public doesn't understand is that “less” means more complexity “under the hood.”
Similar to wireless environments, which require more wiring than wired ones to function properly, technologies that appear simpler are usually the opposite.
However, the reality today is, “Google it!” This era has allowed us to focus less on technical conversations and more on what matters today: increased service, support, and outcome-based communication.
In a nutshell
Perhaps technology leadership options in the past were a terrible idea for you? But today is for you!
Unless you thrive in an environment where all the money is yours and there is no room for collaboration, technology leadership is a solid career goal, choice, and consideration for the foreseeable future.
Technology requires different types of leaders. As long as you understand your strengths, embrace your weaknesses, and can strengthen your team with colleagues who are strong in areas of weakness, there's always room for your expertise and style at the table.
