Every year on March 8, the world comes together to celebrate the wonderful women in our lives on International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is a global event which celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, while calling for an acceleration of gender parity.

Believe it or not, International Women’s Day started with its first gathering in 1911 and was supported by over one million people across the world, including the Suffragettes – those are some serious shoes to walk in!

Every year, the International Women’s Day campaign has a different theme. This year, the theme is #BalanceforBetter. This is particularly exciting for us here at Ivanti, as we know that diversity in the world of technology is so important.

#BalanceforBetter

There are so many reasons, as a software company, we should encourage diversity. The first is the general lack of software engineers. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 71% of the 1.4 million computer science related jobs available in 2020 will remain unfilled. Since women make up 50% of the population, it’s easy to see that by encouraging more women into the field, we can start to fill those open roles which are so critical in today’s world. We also see this in cyber security where a skills shortage is widely reported.

The second reason is that nowadays, we design code using human-centric strategies, so it makes sense that having a diverse team will result in the design of products and services that reflect the needs of our diverse customers.

By the way, when I say diverse, I don’t just mean gender. Diversity is crucial in gender, age, background, ethnicity, etc. There are many studies which show that diverse teams provide many advantages, such as the benefits that come from multiple perspectives, knowledge and ideas. In case you need another reason, according to Harvard Business Review, diverse teams solve problems faster.

Ivanti’s Women in Tech Movement

Over the last 12 months, a team of passionate people at Ivanti have been working on our Women in Tech project. We are very excited to be able to support International Women’s Day 2019 today as part of our drive for diversity. We are passionate about equality and diversity and, in particular, supporting the Women in Tech movement.

We have written many blogs about how to attract and retain women in the technology industry and we still have a lot of work to do. But the fact remains that diversity can only be a good thing for any organisation, and International Women’s Day helps shed more light on this important topic.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions about women in tech, diversity, and #BalanceforBetter. Join in on the conversation by tweeting us @TheTechieGirls.

We’re also getting involved in the official International Women’s Day #BalanceforBetter campaign. Take a selfie with one of these cards (or make one of your own) and tag us @TheTechieGirls! We can’t wait to see your #BalanceforBetter commitment!