Building a vision of progressive tech

Or, why you don’t have to be dead, white and bearded to be a tech role model

On Ada Lovelace Day, Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE of Stemettes, reflects on progress towards a more progressive technology industry.

Important as it is on Ada Lovelace Day to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM, many of whom were not properly credited for their work at the time, it’s equally important to recognise the work of living role models, many of whom will be in attendance at the Women and Diversity in Tech Festival in November as part of an inspiring agenda and also a mentoring academy.

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon is an exceptional role model, both for what she has achieved and in what she continues to do to inspire and encourage young people into technology.

In addition to her top-notch academic credentials (Imafidon passed A-level computing at the age of 11) and forging a stellar career, Imafidon founded Stemettes in 2013, to inspire and promote the next generation of young women into Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM.)

Since its inception, Stemettes has inspired thousands of young people across Europe to consider a future as part of the tech and science community. Anne-Marie explains what Stemettes has been up to most recently, in particular its partnership with Lenovo.

“We’re in our third year of working with Lenovo across the country with girls, young women and non-binary people from 5 – 25 and we run a full program of long-term initiatives including mentoring and school sessions using donated laptops to try and engage younger children in computing.

“We’re also working with Lenovo on our content platform so putting out stories of role models at Lenovo, talking about the technology and where we’ll be applying and using those technologies in the future. A big focus for us is how we’re future proofing our experiences and content and working with partners like Lenovo to make sure our young people are ready to be the leaders of the future not just followers.”

A decade of change?

Since Stemettes began, the need for a more diverse tech community has become widely recognised. But beyond the hashtags, cut-and-paste platitudes and “we recognise that we need to do better,” type statements from tech employers, what has really changed?

“When we began, I did have a bit of a fight to explain to certain folks that this was a problem,” Imafidon reflects.

“Now companies will say out loud that women are important. I don’t have to prove to them that it’s a problem but are policies, investments and funding moving in the right direction? I’m not necessarily sure that’s something we’ve seen.”

In the eleven or so years that Stemettes has been operating lots of other tech focused non-profits such as Code First Girls, Tech She Can and Next Tech Girls have begun to work in a similar space. All of these organisations do incredible work in trying to encourage more girls and people from all backgrounds into tech, but Imafidon’s point that money is draining away from DEI initiatives resonates,

“Lots more folks are coming in but none of us are really able to operate at scale to ensure that that big change in the pipeline and in retention rates. The big frustration that I have is that we shouldn’t be grappling for our share of an ever-shrinking pot. If we all know that this is important we should all now be able to work at scale to work effectively.”

It’s getting harder though, as the winding down of Tech Talent Charter earlier this year illustrates. Imafidon continues:

“The contraction of the sector recently means you’re having to get people to do things voluntarily, have them do things outside of their normal role. But things that are important shouldn’t be done on the side and things that are important should be fully funded.

“Someone needs to be given the time and the resource to focus on equitably evolving policies. How do you ensure that you’ve got policies reflecting difference? For example, some people are single parents, some have caring responsibilities. Another example is thinking about whether, ahead of an interview, was a candidate offered computer science at school?

“Policies should recognise different pathways into the industry and that just because someone can’t code in Python doesn’t mean that they have nothing to contribute. “

What does progressive technology look like?

After ten plus years of advocating for more diverse tech, Imafidon is very clear that it’s an enormously complex, multifaceted problem.

“Even when you consider recruitment and retention separately there are sub problems that are quite different in different parts of the industry,” she says. “It’s different in cyber versus semiconductors or the research and development side of the industry. There are cultures and norms that vary from one part of the industry to another which means you have to work against different elements which means it needs a multifaceted solution. This is why you need funding to apply different pressures in different places to ensure that overall the averages are moving in the right direction.”

Imafidon shares some fascinating insights on the importance of events like Ada Lovelace day, and diversity focused events like the Women and Diversity in Tech Festival, and why she thinks it’s important to look at the history of how we got here.

“If you look at the history, people are so used to hearing that you have to be dead, white and have had a beard to have contributed anything of value. So we’re having to counter that narrative to allow folks to see what the progressive version of the industry looks like. That involves changing power structures and that’s always difficult.

“Technology is a tool and tools are used by those in power. The challenge is to get folks to understand that it’s a good thing for us to disrupt power or be more progressive in how we apply power for us to have different types of folks making those decisions right at the top and all the way through.”

For further discussion about how to build a more progressive tech sector, look at the agenda for the Women and Diversity in Tech Festival which is packed full of engaging, inspirational and informative content.

One of the most popular items on the agenda is the Mentoring Academy, where one-to-one sessions with an array of diverse mentors are available. It’s an opportunity for both mentors and mentees to learn from one another and grow those all-important networks.

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