X Corp. (formerly known as Twitter) responded to the incident on Sunday night by removing the images and the account that first published the deepfakes, as well as temporarily blocking users’ ability to search “Taylor Swift” on the platform.

“This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritise safety on this issue,” said Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X.

The pop star’s name is still blocked on X, resulting in an error when trying to search her name.

According to a report from The New York Times, one of the several images that were in circulation was viewed 47 million times before the deepfake, along with the account that published it, was removed from X.

In a news briefing on Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called on Congress to take legislative action against the abuse and misuse of AI technologies online, but also urged social media platforms to take greater measures to regulate content.

“This is very alarming. And so, we’re going to do what we can to deal with this issue,” Jean-Pierre said.

“We know that lax enforcement disproportionately impacts women and they also impact girls, sadly, who are the overwhelming targets.

“We believe they (the platforms) have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation and non-consensual, intimate imagery of real people.”

The creation and distribution of deepfake AI images has been widely regarded as a form of gender-based violence, as it disproportionately targets women and girls online.

In 2019, a study by Deeptrace, a cyber security company, found 96 per cent of deepfake videos online were of an intimate or sexual nature. The people depicted in the AI-generated content were primarily women actors, musicians and media professionals.

‘Extremely harmful content’

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant spoke to Women’s Agenda, explaining how easy it is to create deepfakes and how devastating it can be for people.

“Deepfakes, especially deepfake pornography, can be devastating to the person whose image is hijacked and altered without their knowledge or consent, no matter who they are,” Commissioner Inman Grant said.

“Image-based abuse, including deepfake porn, is persistent online harm which also represents one of the most egregious invasions of privacy.”

Generative AI is user-friendly and widely accessible to people. Inman Grant said something that would previously have taken large software and computing power to generate now can be generated with a click of a button.

“As a result, it’s becoming harder and harder to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fake. And it’s much easier to inflict great harm,” Inman Grant said.

Australia’s online safety regulatory body, eSafety, lists the use of AI to create sexually explicit deepfake images as “image-based abuse”. Online users can report image-based abuse on eSafety’s website.

While eSafety has a 90 per cent success rate in getting deepfakes and other abusive material down from online sites, including social media platform X, Commissioner Inman Grant called on the “purveyors and profiteers of AI” to do more.

“We’re not going to regulate or litigate our way out of this – the primary digital safeguards must be embedded at the design phase and throughout the model development and deployment process,” she said.

“And platforms need to be doing much to detect, remove and prevent the spread of this extremely harmful content.”

Earlier this month, the eSafety Commission released a transparency report, revealing massive staff cuts at X Corp around the world.

According to the report, the global Trust and Safety staff was reduced by 30 per cent, while the Trust and Safety staff in the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, had a 45 per cent reduction.

Between November 2022 and May 2023, there were 6,103 previously banned accounts on Twitter that were reinstated on X.

At the time of the report’s release, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Elon Musk’s staff cuts at X Corp. had created a “perfect storm” for the platform.

eSafety urges those concerned about the non-consensual sharing of images to report to eSafety at www.esafety.gov.au/Report.

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A seasoned business transformation specialist and CX pioneer, Gwynn has been at the forefront of the Australian tech startup scene for almost a decade following a successful international career as a corporate and government analyst and advisor.

“I really believe in TALK5’s mission,” said Gwynn. “We’re here to make safety universally comprehensible and accessible, irrespective of language or culture.”

Gwynn met TALK5’s founder George Bancs through a mutual friend in late 2022. Impressed by Gwynn’s track record in growing and scaling successful tech startups alongside some of Australia’s most impressive tech founders, Bancs invited her to join the organisation’s advisory board. 

In recent months she has taken on the role of CEO, and said she’s excited to work alongside George and our growing team to not only scale the business, but to lead the charge in AI-powered safety technology empowering a wide range of industries”.

In November 2023, TALK5 launched ‘Mina’ – the world’s first virtual safety, health coach and assistant, delivering voice-to-text and text-to-voice tools, in over 15 languages. This technology delivers essential safety instructions in each worker’s preferred language, eradicating potential misunderstandings caused by language differences. 

It’s a project close to Gwynn’s personal background as a migrant, having emigrated from Beijing to Sydney with her family as a teenager. She says going directly into an English-speaking high school was “a very scary process”, and she understands the impacts of cultural, linguistic and language barriers on learning and comprehension. 

Alongside Bancs, Gwynn’s vision is for TALK5 to redefine how language and safety intersect in the workplace. 

“What I love is the early-stage building part of an exciting young business, making an impact,” she says. 

Back in 2015, Gwynn was the first key go-to-market hire for global tech company SafetyCulture. 

“My years with Safety Culture gave me a really solid introduction to the work, health and safety space and instilled in me an obsession with safety and the importance of developing (and constantly evolving) an incredible product that delivers the best customer experience,” she said. 

 As their Global Head of Customer Success Gwynn achieved 40x MoM revenue growth and scaled the company from less than $1 million ARR to over $45 million, before joining recruitment disruptor Hatch in 2020. At Hatch, she led the industry-shaping development of their COVID-19 Labour Exchange, which placed thousands of workers in temporary employment in 2020.

Following Hatch, Gwynn joined Immutable, an NFT and blockchain technology platform, to lead all partnerships efforts. 

Now, as TALK5’s CEO, Gwynn is passionate about the software platform, saying it may ultimately “help save lives” as there’s “an increasingly diverse workforce, who are largely operating in high-risk sectors, with a sophisticated and efficient approach to work, health and safety training”. 

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Stock Up On Chargers 

Two? Five? Ten? The number of devices in our homes that need charging goes on and on. You can never have too many, and they’ll help you avoid “low batteries” whenever you’re in a rush. A powerful multi-charger is the way to go. You can charge multiple USB-C devices all at once and don’t have to worry about messy wires or a cluttered desk. High-tech versions can control over-heating and current-voltage so you can enjoy stress-free charging whenever you need it. 

Self-cleaning Robot 

What’s better than a clean home? A clean home that cleans itself. It’s no longer a far-off dream, thanks to robotic vacuums. While you’re at the office or out and about, your vacuum will do the work and leave the house spotless just in time for your arrival. Some can even do the mopping. So there’s almost nothing else left but to kick up your feet, get extra me-time and finally relax. They’re the perfect investment for families and help free up busy schedules. 

Increase Your Productivity 

There’s almost nothing worse than having plenty of work but finding it impossible to focus. And having so much tech available at our fingertips doesn’t help either. So here are a few tips to try and steer clear of wasting precious hours scrolling the web. The Self-Control app for Macs is a nifty tool that lets you block access to whatever sites you choose for a set amount of time. But once the timer starts, there’s no turning back, even if you delete the app or restart your computer. 

For something less restrictive, top-class noise-cancelling headphones are a must. Especially for working in open-plan offices, the train or a loud house, once you put them on, all the world will fade away. You’ll finally be able to hear yourself think or go into a super-focused mode with killer tunes playing in the background. 

High-Tech Coffee Machines 

We don’t always think of coffee machines as tech. But with all the improvements in recent years, big brands have set a high standard for what a coffee machine can do. Having one in your home will minimise coffee runs and leave you with more time and money and a fresh cuppa whenever you’re in the mood. There’s also something very relaxing about the smell of ground coffee beans wafting from the kitchen. It’s an extra boost of motivation to get us out of bed and help us start our day. 

Minimise Distractions 

Here are a few tips that are free and you can do right now. If you get distracted every time you hear the familiar “bing” or vibrate sound on your phone, you’re not alone. It can take us from productive to distracted in no time. To keep yourself on track, think about minimising the notifications you get on your phone. Or you can always put it on “do not disturb” mode. So you can call back in your own time and on your own schedule. 

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In the role, she will be tasked with leading Adobe’s business and operations across Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud.

She comes to Adobe from IBM Australia and New Zealand, where she was most recently General Manager. She has over thirty years’ experience in the global technology sector.

“Adobe is a global category leader that helps everyone – from creative hobbyists and small businesses to global brands – design and deliver exceptional, personalised digital experiences,” Troughton said.

“I have always held a passion for technology and am thrilled to be leading the Adobe Australia and New Zealand team. Digital has become the wayfor people to connect, work, learn, and be entertained, and I am confident Adobe is the best placed technology partner to help businesses, brands, and individuals succeed in today’s digital-first world.”

Simon Tate, Adobe’s President for Asia Pacific (APAC) said he was delighted to welcome Troughton to Adobe.

“Australian and New Zealand businesses and governments continue to rapidly accelerate their digital transformation strategies and implementations, and Adobe’s market-leading technologies are seeing strong momentum across the region,” said Tate.

“Katrina is an experienced and creative outcome-focused leader with a proven track record of delivering results and transforming businesses for sustainable growth.”

Throughout her career, Troughton has held senior leadership roles in Australia, New Zealand, China and the United States.

At IBM ANZ, she was responsible for driving growth and managing client relationships. She also developed and implemented IBM’s first Reconciliation Action Plan.

She also brings extensive experience in acquisition integration, having been responsible for 40 acquisitions throughout her career.

Last year, Troughton spoke to Women’s Agenda’s Angela Priestley on the Family Friendly Workplaces podcast, where she spoke about her career to date, her leadership philosophy and how she’s navigated promotions while having a young family.

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The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, revealed that women displayed faster reaction times while operating a driverless vehicle, and had better control of the vehicle’s wheels. 

A total of 76 participants (33 women and 43 men) were involved in the research, requiring them to drive a simulator that imitates the act of retaking control of a driverless vehicle to observe and compare their performance.

The simulator allowed participants twenty seconds to regain control of the driverless car to spot and avoid colliding with a parked car.

The study found that women were less likely to be brisk during takeovers, while also having slightly faster reaction time. On average, women took 2.45 seconds to regain control over the vehicle, while men took 2.63 seconds. 

Women also displayed more stable handling of the steering wheel, on average.

“Women often do not realise how good they are at driving, but our results found they actually perform slightly better,” Dr Shuo Li, an intelligent transport systems expert at Newcastle University told The Independent. 

Acting head of Newcastle University’s School of Engineering, Professor Roberto Palacin, believes the latest study can “inform software engineers so that the automated vehicle can be adapted for the user, in the same way, that people have different ringtones on their mobile phone, or might prefer to have it in dark mode.”

“This could include perhaps your safety needs in terms of reaction times,” he said.

“In the same way, you can change the size of your font on your phone if you don’t see very well, if I was buying a car for my mother, who was 70, then there could be a mode for that.”

Palacin’s team also highlighted the importance of studying the impact of gender in this area, since ignoring it could lead to harmful consequences regarding transport inequality. 

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Tech firms at home and abroad have recently downsized their personnel count or frozen their hiring plans, as venture capital funding dries up and companies adjust their growth plans to a high-inflation environment.

Between Work, launched last week, sees the entrepreneurial community platform Earlywork and venture capital fund AfterWork team up to assist job hunters impacted by those recent layoffs.

Between Work allows job hunters to “discretely” enter their employment history, qualifications, and experience, before being “quickly connected with tech companies that are still hiring”.

“Collectively, Earlywork’s and AfterWork’s network of tech operators are also here to support as both mentors for jobseekers and advisors for companies thinking of accelerating their hiring,” the platform states.

“What we are trying to do is just make that process more seamless by consolidating it, instead of having to apply for 100 different companies,” said Jessy Wu, head of community at AfterWork.

The platform also aims to move faster than the traditional recruitment process or established job boards.

“[It will] really flip the script and allow companies to be proactive about competing, and reaching out for the best talent to ensure these people get into their next launchpad,” Wu told SmartCompany.

Earlywork and AfterWork are both community-powered ventures, she added, suggesting “high calibre” job hunters may be more likely to turn to trusted voices in the scene for their next job instead of traditional employment-seeking avenues.

“Community is one of the reasons that we exist,” Wu said. “And we really want to step up to play our role as an orchestrator in the ecosystem.”

Between Work has already received 130 applicants since its launch last week.

Around 115 companies have already been inducted to the system, Wu said, including major players like Airwallex, Canva, and Linktree.

“There’s definitely more than a thousand roles available between them,” she said.

While it’s still early days for the platform, Wu said the data shows a significant crossover between the skills of laid-off workers and the needs of growing companies.

A lingering skills shortage means software engineering tops the list of most in-demand skills on Between Work, followed by marketing, growth, and product roles.

While demand for software engineers is still outstripping supply, candidates are coming forward with significant product skills, Wu said, making a “good match between supply and demand” in marketing and product.

Workers and companies interested in the program can register here.

As Between Work aims to help tech experts impacted by new economic challenges, fresh data shows redundancies are crossing over industry lines.

New data from workplace advisory firm Employsure, released Monday, showed a 64% increase in redundancy-related calls between May and June.

This article was first published on SmartCompany. Read the original article here.

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In the role, Baullo will be tasked with leading ADP’s business strategy in Australia and New Zealand, working closely with the global leadership team to identify key growth opportunities.

Previously, Baullo has been VP of Client Services, Asisa Pacfic at ADP, and has been instrumental in driving client experience forward.

“ADP is committed to building a better world of work and even more so in this present climate,” said Peter Hadley, President – Asia Pacific for ADP.

 “With Kylie, who has been a tremendous resource for ADP since the day she joined, we have an accomplished leader with deep expertise in the business and a track record of driving consistent growth. We’re excited to see her leading the future strategy for the ANZ region.” 

Baullo said now is the time to reimagine the future of work.

“In ANZ, and the world over, we’re at the intersection of what workers want and what organisations need. ADP has always been about designing solutions to achieve better ways to work,” she said.

“This is an exciting time; I’m thrilled to lead and help bring to fruition ADP’s vision, and empower clients to shape the constantly changing world of work.” 

Baullo joined ADP in 1991 in a management development program, where she studied and worked in various teams across the business. She has held several leadership roles across the ANZ business and established ADP’s first GlobalView Service team.

In 2012, she moved to Barcelona to lead a team implementing the integration of GlobalView, Streamline and third-party Human Capital Management systems. Baullo later took a role as VP, Field Services, where she delivered key programs including the operationalisation of the General Data Privacy Regulations.

She is passionate about inclusion and diversity and is a member of ADP’s Advancing Women in Leadership Corporate Board.

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Clark was a member of the gold medal winning Australian water polo team at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. After her sporting career, Clark diversified into the marketing and events space in the NFP sector, before moving into tech as the Senior Marketing Manager at BrainStorm.

Now, she’s been appointed the General Manager at BrainStorm, which is part of an industry that still lags when it comes to promoting women into senior management and leadership positions.

“It’s an honour to be appointed into the role of GM for Brainstorm Software. We have such a great team and I’m looking forward to growing the business more and more,” Clark said, reflecting on her appointment.

“I’ve held a few management roles in the past but this feels different, we’re a global company and the evolution seems endless.”

“I don’t take the role lightly, I know there is a lot involved in the position and I hope to represent not just BrainStorm Software well but women in the industry.”

In 2014, Clarke launched her own marketing and events agency, which was the catalyst for her move into the tech industry.

“I didn’t mean to fall into the tech industry and I wasn’t sure about it at the start as I didn’t think I was following my passion in helping people, however, BrainStorm doesn’t just create software, they help companies become better and that’s what I love most about it,” Clark said.

Ty Osborne, the owner of BrainStorm Software, said appointing Clark to the role was a “no brainer”.

“Jo has been with us almost since the beginning, she’s helped the company grow and was already at the forefront of management within the company, so it seemed like an easy decision,” Osborne said.

“It’s not about if you’re a male or female, it’s about who can do the best job and Jo was the perfect fit. It’s nice to see women moving to the forefront of our industry, we have six women working over both our Australia and Indian team engaged in all areas, marketing, management, tech, consulting and development.”

Clarke won her gold medal in water polo in 2000, the first year women’s water polo was included in the Olympics. She was the youngest member of the team, at age 21.

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The report, which was undertaken by nonprofit Girls in Tech, looked at the ways the NGO’s 40,000 members were coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Adriana Gascoigne, founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, said the study proves women working in the technology sector are burned out from COVID-19.

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“The results from our study were abundantly clear,” Gascoigne said. “Organisations must realise this is at crisis level.” 

“We were particularly stunned to learn the impact a supervisor’s gender had on women’s burnout rate,” she added. “We call upon organisations to acknowledge this disparity, dig deeper to better understand the issue and take real, meaningful action toward positive change.”

The study, titled The Tech Workplace for Women in the Pandemic, found that male bosses are the leading cause of burnout for women, despite 93 percent of respondents saying they felt lucky to have a job. 

Sixty-three percent of respondents with male bosses said they felt burnt out, compared to 44 percent of those with female bosses feeling wearied. Eighty-five percent of those respondents who are employees at organisations where executives were men reported burning out, compared to 15 percent of employees at companies where the executive was a woman. 

Almost 3 in 4 respondents with dependents at home said it was difficult to juggle work and home responsibilities, while 4 in 5 of the same cohort said they were burned out.

“Burnout is also connected to the closure of offices, schools, day care, and pretty much everything else in society,” Gascoigne wrote last month in Ms Magazine. “…with the burden of homeschooling a particularly arduous task that disproportionately fell on the shoulders of mothers.” 

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“Every household is different in the sharing of responsibilities, but women spend more time than men on childcare, as a caregiver, and on housework,” she continued. “This equates to a part-time job on top of an already 40-hour work week.” 

The study also found that among full-time employees, more than 82 percent expect their employers to make adjustments to meet their needs and seventy-six percent reported that they preferred working from home over working in the office. 

“Perhaps it’s fortunate that many women in the study don’t anticipate returning to the office in-person once pandemic restrictions are lifted,” Gascoigne wrote. 

The study found that almost 41 percent of respondents said there is racial inequity at their workplace, and more than one in four women reported having been sexually harassed at work.

“We can and should be hopeful that lessons will be learned, but this study is proof that sitting idle won’t reverse the losses of working women over the last year,” Gascoigne explained.

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Her NGO, Girls in Tech, is trying to change things with their new four-year campaign with an aim of hitting 50/50 gender parity in tech boardrooms by 2025.

“It’s an ambitious plan” Gascoigne said. “It’s also long overdue and easily achievable for any company willing to make the pledge.” 

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In an email to staff, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company has extended its work from home policy until September 2021 but will also be testing a permanent flexible work model once it is safe to return to the office. The proposal comes as companies and employers around the world grapple with what work should look like in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The hybrid model would see workers at Google come into the office three days a week for “collaboration” days and allow work from home to continue on other days.

“We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being,” Pichai wrote in the email to staff that was obtained by The New York Times.

“No company at our scale has ever created a fully hybrid work force model — though a few are starting to test it — so it will be interesting to try.”

The proposal comes after Google has extended its work from home policy multiple times since the pandemic began, first to January 2021, then July and now September. The timing of the proposed flexible work week changes are not set in stone, largely due to the varying state of COVID-19 in different countries.

Google’s plan for a flexible work week comes after Microsoft announced a similar plan for a hybrid work model and greater flexibility once offices reopen. In October, Microsoft’s chief people officer Kathleen Hogan told employees they will be able to work from home for less than 50 per cent of the week, and managers would have the ability to approve permanent work from home for employees.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to think, live, and work in new ways,” Hogan said in a note to employees.

“We will offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs, and ensuring we live our culture.”

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For Pip Marlow, the Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce Australia and New Zealand, declaring what she wanted from her career used to feel difficult and conflicting. Sharing her aspirations didn’t feel congruent with who she was a person, or as a leader.

“I felt that if I said for example: ‘my aspiration is to one day be this global CEO of Salesforce’ – I thought that if I said that, it would mean I was arrogant, and I really don’t like arrogance,” she tells Kate Mills in the latest episode of The Leadership Lessons podcast.

But what Pip’s realised over her years in business and tech leadership, is that two things can be true at the same time.

“You can have an ambition and you can dream and aspire to do great things, and you can still have humility and still be a team player,” Pip explains.

“It just took me a while to find a way to hold both of those things at the same time.”

As a leading business executive, Pip says she’s felt the pressure that is often placed on women leaders to be humble and nurturing, but what’s most important in her role is helping others to do their job well.

“My number one thing is to create the best possible environment for other people to do the best work of their life,” she says. “You can’t do that if you’re too worried about you doing stuff for you.”

Pip says that her approach falls under the theory of ‘servant leadership’, where helping others to perform effectively is paramount. To do this, authenticity along with a layer of good judgement has been critical.

“I would describe myself as a pretty authentic leader. That means I’ve gotten more comfortable in that authenticity, being vulnerable, saying ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I made a mistake’,” she says.

“I’m actually a really funny person… I think I am. I’ve got a great sense of humour, but it is not always the right moment for that part of me to come out. That doesn’t make me not authentic because I’m not bringing out humour right now – it’s good judgement.”

After two decades at Microsoft and a period at Suncorp, Pip Marlow was appointed CEO of Salesforce Australia and New Zealand in 2019.

She was only just beginning to settle into the role when COVID-19 hit, and it threw her straight into the deep end. Now, she sees the pandemic as an opportunity to build back organisations and our society for the better.

“The world of work is changing for all of us,” Pip says. “Nobody asked for a global pandemic and I know it has cost lives and livelihoods.”

“However, we have some choices to make. We can be deliberate about what we build back to. You can go back to how everything was, but why not make it better?”

At Salesforce, there is a belief that there should be much more to a company’s purpose than just pleasing shareholders. It’s about living out values and considering that all different kinds of stakeholders matter.

“We believe it is about stakeholders, not just shareholders. One of those stakeholders is our planet,” Pip says.

“How do we think about climate and building back in a way that is more sustainable as we evolve our work practices?”

“If you’re going to live your values, you have to be able to stand up for them and walk away from revenue for them. That’s a moment of leadership.”

With employees travelling less into offices, Salesforce is already noticing the multitude of benefits that have come along with re-thinking the role of commercial office space.

“We can have less emissions…and a better ability for our planet to breathe. We can meet talent where they want to live. We’ve shown we can do things remotely and in doing that, we can open our mind to a more diverse candidate pool.”

Salesforce has also spent around $15 million in closing their own gender pay gap, and it offers superannuation to employees while they are on parental leave. They are also in the process of their first Reconciliation Action Plan, and are finding that the educational uptake among employees has been incredible.

As Pip shares, the private sector can, and should, play a major role in shaping society. At Salesforce, there’s a real belief that big companies can be forces for good.

“I think organisations are making more of a shift in this and our research says employees are demanding an expecting business to make a bigger impact on the planet and the community we operate in,” she says.

Pip’s clearly come a long way from her early days, when she didn’t like declaring her ambitions. Now, she’s an established leader and doesn’t shy away from declaring big goals. In fact, she thinks it’s essential for real progress.

“I’m happy to try and talk about the undiscussables. I’d rather us bring those out and address them.

“I believe in courage over comfort, which means I’ll put a bold goal out there and maybe we’ll miss it, but I’m happy to take on the bold goal.”

The Leadership Lessons podcast series, hosted by Kate Mills, is a set of interviews with brilliant female leaders across industries, sharing their perspective on the critical decade ahead.

The Leadership Lessons is supported by Salesforce.

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The best product development teams contain different points of view, with these visions contributing to problem solving by sparking ideas and challenging individual concepts of the “norm”. This is why diversity should be at the heart of developing new technologies. 

The world is a diverse place, with people of different gender identities, ethnic backgrounds, cultures, personality types, and sexuality. Unfortunately, this diversity isn’t reflected in the tech workforce. For example, in Australia, women make up less than a third of STEM university graduates and only 16% of the qualified STEM population.

There’s a clear disconnect between the diversity of the population and people who work in our industry. Diversity isn’t just a buzzword. Combining people with different skills, experiences, and personalities creates fertile ground for innovative thinking, leading to imaginative new ideas and solutions. Diversity brings increased productivity, improved creativity and the addition of new cultural insights. 

The outcome of all this isn’t just a warm and fuzzy feeling. According to McKinsey, the most diverse companies are more likely to outperform financially. The Grattan Institute has estimated that an extra 6% of women in the workforce could add $25 billion to Australia’s GDP.

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Conquering unconscious bias

Diversity in the workplace has provided me with an opportunity to learn and grow from all sorts of people. A one dimensional team dominated by a single gender, personality type, or culture, is inherently limited by unconscious bias and a narrow field of experience. Operating in an environment with people who hold a variety of viewpoints and life experiences creates a much stronger team. 

Whilst the value of diversity cannot easily be measured, recent research from Harvard Business School found that normalisation of gender diversity in the workplace is linked to increased productivity, economic growth and the enhanced ability to attract talent and retain employees. 

These findings are consistent with my experience across many companies and work environments. And for those fortunate enough to work within diverse STEM and STEM-adjacent teams, these positive outcomes need no explanation. Exposure to new perspectives and ideas paves the way for thinking about difficult problems in new ways, leading to higher levels of innovation.

Recruiting allies

In a landscape where we do not yet have enough female role models, it’s important for males to champion females. Throughout my professional life, I have had the support of many supportive male colleagues and managers who have helped me to realise my strengths and achieve my goals. This has been critical to my career development. 

I am a firm believer in the concept that you can’t be what you can’t see. Female leaders in tech, as well as those from other under-represented groups must be seen and present for the many STEM graduates now treading the same path, as well as for future generations. These include my own two young daughters, whom I strive to raise free from bias regarding what anyone can do and achieve.

Passing the torch

Females in STEM need to be visible to schools and universities. My employer, Myriota supports its staff to do this as a part of HerTechPath – a briefing designed for girls to explore career options, presented by women in the tech industry. The hope is that it encourages young women to pursue a career in an industry that they wouldn’t previously have considered.

Diversity must also encompass more than gender. Hiring first generation migrants from different cultures can bring increased productivity, improved creativity and cultural insights. These cultural insights are extremely valuable for companies striving to go global.

By taking time to work with individual employees and understand their unique needs and challenges, employers can send a message that all are valued and heard. This leads to better results for both employees and the company as a whole. Whilst few organisations can offer the ideal working environment for every employee, even small steps towards that ideal is taking benefits in the right direction.

The Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry said it best: “Humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.”

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