Today is the first day of Women in Tech Month at IT Pro; five weeks dedicated to highlighting the successes and achievements of women in the tech industry and examining the challenges still faced by the female workforce.
When we talk about women in tech, the conversation can easily fall into handwringing about barriers to entry, negative experiences and under-representation, while ignoring the positive. With Women in Tech Month at IT Pro, we want to challenge this prevailing narrative and show not only what can be achieved, but already has been achieved by women working in the STEM sector.
Throughout the month, you can expect to read profiles of women who are leading lights in tech, starting this week with Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, Q&As with women working in tech in various different industries, and ideas on how to recruit more women to the workplace.
While this is very much five weeks of celebration, we won't be skirting around the hard issues, either, and you can expect to hear about why not enough women are taking up careers in STEM - and why those who do can end up leaving.
Ultimately, this is about highlighting existing opportunities for women to make a successful career in the tech industry, the efforts being made to create new ones and the hope of a more balanced and diverse workplace.
Women in Tech Month will run until 2 December. Come back tomorrow for a Q&A with Canonical's CEO, Jane Silber.
