We celebrated International Women’s Day with a distinguished panel of IT leaders discussing IWD2022’s theme: ‘Break the Bias’.

I was in discussion with: Boohoo’s CIO, Jo Graham; DWP’s Deputy Director and Head of Integration, Jacqui Leggetter; and Mei Clark, Head of Technology for Short Term Borrowing at NatWest.

We discussed the importance of representation at board level and how we can encourage more women into leadership positions; how to remove bias from our recruitment and promotion processes; the importance of D&I initiatives and educating our workforce about unconscious bias; and finally, why it’s essential to start this conversation at a much younger age, to inspire the next generation.

This topic is as important as ever. A recent report by the Office of National Statistics shows that the number of women working in technology has risen over the past year to 31%. However, data from the Harvey Nash Tech Survey 2021 shows that women occupy just 10% of UK technology leadership positions, a statistic that has remained unchanged since last year.