How many female role models in the tech industry can you name?

We all know that role models heavily impact our considerations when making career decisions. We also know that women are still underrepresented in the tech industry.

For the first time at TAFE NSW Meadowbank, with immense support from Ashraf Salem and the IT support team, I initiated, developed, and had the unique privilege to facilitate an Emerging Technology Pilot course for Women.

To complement the course, I encouraged the women to learn, share, nominate and increase visibility of their own women role models as displayed in their MS Teams background.

In the hope of inspiring others to pursue a career in tech, we have expressed key significant contributions and impacts each of our role models have made both to the tech industry and in our lives.

Cheryl Mah:

Melanie Perkins is the CEO of Canva, the graphic design company and Australia’s first unicorn start-up that adopts a holocratic organisational structure. I have been especially inspired by Melanie’s ability to exude humility, encourage diversity, and oppose materialism by generously giving away billions to help eliminate extreme poverty.

Kathryn Parsons is the co-founder of Decoded which is famous for teaching people how to code in a day. Her ability to engage any audience as a motivational speaker, mentor and supporter of multiple educational charities and female founded businesses truly inspires me to ignore the odds and to keep growing, learning and persevering. More than 50% of the staff at Decoded are female and Kathryn has big goals to banish myths, cliches and stereotypes by inspiring more women to create and champion new technologies.

Megan Cox:

Anna-Grace Millward is the Founder of The Orbispace Initiative, a charity aiming to train and empower the next generation of Australian female innovators. She created a Future of Female Leadership Forum which was a key factor in me pursuing a career in technology. Her passion to increase women in STEM is incredibly inspiring and she is an amazing role model to me and for other females in the industry.

Whitney Wolfe Herd is the Founder and CEO of the dating app Bumble, which has resulted in her becoming one of the youngest female self-made billionaires in the world. She is a powerful advocate for women in leadership roles and I’m inspired by her determination to break down stereotypes for women in the workforce.

Illen Maraweera:

Ada Lovelace is my inspiration as she developed her own area of interest and became the very first computer programmer in the world. Despite many battles with illness, she never made excuses and was devoted to achieving her goals.

Radia Perlman invented and developed the Network Protocol Spanning Tree Protocol which is instrumental in making today’s internet possible. She was the only woman programmer in her high school class and worked in a male dominated field. She was not bothered by that and worked hard to contribute greatly to the STEM field.?

Joanna Thomas Thomas:

Anne-Marie Imafidon is known for her achievements as a child prodigy in fields such as computing, mathematics and language. Unlike many child prodigies however, she has continued to shine well into her adult years. She is the founder and CEO of Stemettes, a social enterprise headquartered in the heart of London, which encourages women to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).?She is in the business of inspiring others and I must say her pursuit in empowering other women is something I want to be in the habit of. We often get caught up in the rat race - competing with each other to stay on top, when really we can uplift each other in our individual journeys to the heights of leadership. We need to band together, because we know there is strength in numbers. So, it is time for us to 'lean in', but this time, let's do it together.?

Eileen Burbidge is a highly successful venture capitalist who co-founded Passion Capital; a?partnership of operators and entrepreneurs that specialise in building digital media/ technology companies from the ground up. They work hard to help founders and early-stage teams make their professional dreams a business reality. We are all in the pursuit of some dream or the other - whether it is professional or personal. Using one's expertise to empower others is a skill that I want to continue to develop. Whether it be through teaching or simply working hard together, I want to be an uplifting force to my juniors and colleagues alike. As the number of women in leadership positions increase, we need to band together to continue the upflow of women through STEM companies, rather than becoming fixtures of the glass ceiling that may have hindered us in the first place.

Annika Sanker:

Cate Luzio is the founder and CEO of Luminary, a space for professional women – across all backgrounds, levels and industries – to connect, develop and foster female talent in the business world. Cate’s role model is her mum, who instilled the importance of giving back, doing for others and being as selfless as possible.?

Belinda Parmar is the founder and CEO of The Empathy Business (formerly Lady Geek) and was awarded an OBE for services to Women in Technology in 2014. Her expertise in transforming company culture using behavioural science, nudge theory with a focus on diversity and inclusion is inspiring.?

Raghdah Al-gahdari:

Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of Meta Platforms and the founder of LeanIn.Org. In June 2012, she was elected to Facebook's board of directors, becoming the first woman to serve on its board. She is married with two children and an inspiration to me.

Marissa Mayer is an information technology executive, and co-founder of Sunshine Contact. She formerly served as the president and Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! She is my role model because she is a mother of three children and has achieved such great success in her career.?

Madeleine Marsh:

Angelica Ross is a transgender woman and now recognized as one of the leading advocates for transgender opportunities in tech. Angelica has been an inspiration to me through the way she has overcome her obstacles and hurdles.?

Grace Hopper is best known for her tribalising contribution to the development of computer languages. Throughout her long career, her dedication and commitment to the IT field has been an inspiration to me to in overcoming the odds and challenges.

Miko Cheng:

Ivana Bartoletti is the Global Privacy Officer at Wipro and an internationally recognised thought leader in the field of responsible technology. Her speaking relating to privacy and ethical challenges in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data is inspiring and motivating in which she asks, “How can we be an ethical machine learning user in a digital world?”

Jennifer Lauretta is a Serial Tech Entrepreneur who has founded 360 HealthTech and 360 Smart Home as part of 360 Degree Digital group business related to Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, and other advanced technologies.?Jennifer’s perseverance and insistence on providing customised solutions which formed to combat the global Covid-19 pandemic with AIoT products, inspired me the most.

Sophie Blume:

Steve (Stephanie) Shirley is an entrepreneur having started her own business selling software in the 60s. It was staffed by women working from home, blazing a trail for flexible working practices for women with caring responsibilities. However, the industry wasn’t forward thinking and people either laughed off the idea or were openly hostile to it. When that started to happen, her husband decided that she should change her name to Steve so she could get her foot in the door. Since then, the business has flourished. The business was built around the notion that she didn’t want to seek wealth, but a workplace not hemmed in by prejudice or by other people's preconceived notions of what one could and could not do. She believes that people should take risks more often.

Margaret Hamilton was the Director of the Software Engineering Division 2 of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. She was critical to landing the astronauts on the moon in 1969 and an inspiration to many. ?This quote resonated with me, “Never let fear get in the way! Don’t be afraid to continue even when things appear to be impossible, even when the so-called experts say it is impossible. Don’t be afraid to stand alone, to be different, to be wrong, to make and admit mistakes, for only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

Mandy Cheng:

Juliana Rotich?is the co-founder of Ushahidi, open-source software for collecting and mapping information.?I have been inspired by Juliana who builds tools for democratising information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories.

Nicola Mendelsohn?is a British advertising executive. She was named vice-president for?Europe, the Middle East and Africa?for?Facebook?in June 2013 and is also a non-executive director of?Diageo.?The Daily Telegraph?has called her "the most powerful woman in the British tech industry". Her strong advocate of?work–life balance?and?flextime?for women with families has strongly inspired me.

Sonia Diengdoh:

Radhika Thekkath is the CEO and co-founder of AgiVox, Inc., a Silicon Valley startup. I am inspired by their vision and goals to keep talking about the minority status of women in the Tech industry to turn the tide and see change. ?

Bojana Ostojic is the Microsoft Principal Design Director for the mixed reality headset HoloLens. Her ability to focus and balance her studies despite the challenges she faced to survive through the civil war is an inspiration. She stresses the dangers of finding a quick fix to gender inequality through checklists and quotas and believes it is essential to continually speak up, question and discover the real issues at play.?

I'd love to hear about your own female role models in tech and hope you were uplifted and encouraged to follow in the footsteps of these remarkable women!