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International Women’s Day #BreakTheBias

International Women’s Day provides a valuable opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women and highlight the importance of gender equality in all aspects of our lives. At Creative Technology (CT), we believe it is important for us to be open and transparent with our clients, providing honest and trustworthy information. Yet, it is no secret that the technology industry is heavily dominated by men, who lead in pay, leadership roles and representation.

However, there is no question that in recent years the industry has begun to shift. With a new generation of young people discovering their career paths, we hope that girls and young women are being more encouraged now ever before to enter this industry.

The young women of the CT Ireland & NEP Ireland Graduate Training Programme have shared a small insight into their experiences as students while entering the tech industry.

A huge influence of a student’s career path is their primary and secondary education. STEM subjects are an essential foundation for students recognising their future career options, yet there continues to be a wide lack of STEM subjects on offer in all girl secondary schools. Due to this education inequality, it is important for educators to highlight the career opportunities available to them beyond what is presented to them in school.

We spoke to one of the CT Ireland & NEP Ireland grad students who has joined the training programme, she spoke of the lack of information provided by her career guidance teacher on STEM careers and was thankful for the aid of her local Foróige, a youth development organisation, praising the support and communication received from one of their volunteers.

The volunteer, who spoke of her film production group, not only educated her and her peers on the different aspects of film production, but also encouraged them to take part in competitions and sign up for classes to further their production knowledge.

While completing their post-secondary level qualifications, the CT Ireland & NEP Ireland grads were happy to share that their course make-up appeared to be mostly equal men to women, with a slight lean towards men. Despite this growing equality, one grad commented on the common occurrence of the men in her course expecting to get their hands on the equipment first while completing practical work, while the women would generally wait for their turn.

However, she was proud to share that when pitching for documentaries or scripts to be produced, it was the women’s ideas that more often than not, came out on top!

Even though this industry has presented a strong bias towards men, one grad commented, “If it’s something you’re interested in don’t let anyone talk you out of it…I met my closest friends while working on productions and being able to work with people you love on projects that you are proud of, is the best feeling in the world”.

This International Women’s Day, Creative Technology hopes to encourage more girls and young women to enter this industry despite the barriers that they may need to break through and hope one day for this exciting industry to no longer be considered a male dominated area, but a great career choice for everyone… #BreakTheBias