Women in technology leading with their collective power to empower

Amanda Jolliffe

Promote Co-Lead, CWiT

Technology is one of the most dynamic and influential fields in the modern world, but as is well documented, it is also one of the most male-dominated and unequal.

Connecting Women in Technology (CWiT), a coalition of over 20 tech companies in Ireland, aims to collectively lead the way in attracting, retaining and promoting women in the technology industry.

Harnessing a collective voice

According to various reports by the World Economic Forum in recent years, only 22% of the global workforce in artificial intelligence, 15% in engineering and 12% in cloud computing are women. Many technology companies have designed programmes and interventions to try and turn the tide on these statistics.

Although every effort by each company is warranted and should be commended, our vision at CWiT is to harness the power of the collective voice in the technology sector in Ireland, to break the bias and to relentlessly drive progress towards gender diversity, equity and inclusion to fuel innovation and accelerate economic growth.

Only 22% of the global workforce in artificial
intelligence, 15% in engineering and 12%
in cloud computing are women.

Being visible, vocal and vibrant

We are proud of all members and volunteers but are particularly proud of the governance structure that ensures our strategic, operational and programming objectives are met. This is comprised of female leaders who bring their skill sets, passion and expertise from Accenture, AMD, BT, DELL, Deloitte, ESB, Meta, Microsoft, New Relic and Workday to their voluntary roles.

Therefore, decisions and progress that drive CWiT come from a leadership team with a variety of perspectives and experiences — a unique occurrence in a competitive and dynamic sector. Through them, not only are we leading the charge across many collaborative initiatives and programmes which attract, retain and promote women in the technology sector but, crucially, they showcase the power of female leaders. This team is and will continue to be visible, vocal and vibrant when it comes to the role of women in business and women in tech.

Diverse collaboration to drive diverse outcomes

Beyond this leadership structure, we bring together over 200 volunteers from 24 Irish-based member companies — all with a large proportion of technology-focused roles. These volunteers participate in projects such as Digital Futures, a key programme under ‘Attract,’ which has reached over 30,000 secondary school students to date and the current UX Academy, under ‘Retain,’ where workers can upskill and utilise this on their career journey.

These contributions and this diverse collaboration across companies will continue to put the organisation in the best possible position as we work towards the ultimate goal of achieving a 50/50 female workforce in the technology sector and 40% women in management across tech companies in Ireland.