Inspiring Messages from 50 Plus Female Leaders Around The World On IWD 2023

To mark International Women’s Day, Women Love Tech asked female leaders from around the globe to share their personal messages and thoughts about what this special day means to them.

Here is what 50 plus inspiring women had to share with our Women Love Tech community. Thank you to?StudioBucket?for helping Women Love Tech put together our video and all the amazing women who took part.?

"International Women’s Day is a day first to join the voices of women around the world and share our message for equal rights," says Robyn Foyster , Editor, Women Love Tech . "Women’s rights are human rights and we proudly celebrate all women in all their diversities - and I believe that together we will Crack the Code to achieve gender equity."

Tracey Spicer AM GAICD , Author, Man-Made

“To me cracking the code is all about continuing to progress the fight for equity into the future. Unfortunately, a lot of the bias from the past is embedded in the machines that will run our futures through unbalanced and stereotypical data sets, right down to machine learning which is embedding racism, sexism and bigotry. “”

Megan Dalla-Camina , CEO, Women Rising

“It will take 136 years to close the gender pay gap. It will take 286 years to reach earning parity. Only 5 percent of CEOS of ASX 200 companies are women. Only 10.6% of CEOS of Fortune 500 companies are women. Women founders got only .7% of start-up funding in 2022.

"Globally women are paid 20% less than men."”

Lissy Abrahams , Author, Relationship Reset

"We need to crack our cultural, economic and social codes and behaviours that entrench inequality. As a woman who developed a business with several decades under my belt, I can tell you that it’s never too late.”

Elisha Harrington, Senior Director, Service Now

“For me cracking the code is about empowering women from all walks of life to step into any room, unrelenting and fearless, filled by their experience, skillsets and vision for the future.”

Melanie Cochrane , MD A/NZ, Equifax Australia

“The phrase inclusive innovation really resonates for me. Whether that’s enabling greater financial literacy, inclusion through using data and AI, or whether it’s innovating with leave and flexibility policies, I think there’s a role that we can all play.”

Paula R. Bratcher Ratliff , President, Women Impact Tech ?

"Our goal is to ensure that over the next 5 years, not only to get more women involved in technology but we change the statistics. Today only 28 % of tech jobs are women vs men. “

Alison O'Brien, Director of Customer Success, PayPal Australia

“There are so many examples of male centric design. From crash test dummies being designed for male bodies, to the height of shelves in supermarkets, and in tech, there are examples. There’s a study that found speech recognition software was 70% more likely to accurately recognise male speech”.

Giulia Sirignani , Journalist, Women Love Tech

”We’re at an inflection point. We either crack the code or we cement it, allowing all the bias that the digital world has learnt from the patriarchy to carry on and oppress future generations of women.”

Aruna Pattam , Data and AI Expert, 凯捷咨询 ??

"WE need more women to be involved in the development of AI technologies. WE need more women to become AI engineers , Data scientists and Programmers.”

Camille Goldstone-Henry , Founder, Xylo Systems

"It’s no secret that diversity drives innovation so a homogenous tech industry is unlikely to overcome the global crises we are facing like gender equality and environmental degradation."

Joanne Wust , CEO, 4Tel

"It’s really important when we build our systems that our diversity is reflected in not only the way the systems are built, but the output that those systems generate.”

Rowena Westphalen , Senior Vice President Solutions ANZ & ASEAN, Salesforce

"It’s why we have introduced a new gender goal from 36.4% to 40% of women identifying and non-binary employees. That’s a global goal that we’ve set to get to by the end of 2026.”

Belinda Lyone , Co-CEO of? COS

“At COS, we have achieved 52 per cent female leadership in our leadership group and I have witnessed first-hand the power diversity brings to decision making.

Nicole Gardner , MD, Nibble Edge Agency

“We need gender inclusive language. The simple use of gender-neutral pronouns like they or them to avoid assuming gender."

Carly Leverington , Unboxed Pride

"We want to close the gap that can keep so many of the LGBTQIA+ community from accessing support by providing a safe, non-judgmental place online"

Heather Porter , Founder, Website Love Pty Ltd

"WE definitely need innovation, but people follow innovation and change when backed by passion. So I feel like we as leaders in this space really need to get passionate about the change."

Amanda Gilmore , Country Manager, Australia, Peloton Interactive

"And many times, they are smaller moments than you might think. They could be as simple as making a roster of who takes notes in meetings or brings the refreshments, activities that women far more often than men will just inherently pick up. It could be setting yourself small goals in how many times you are going to speak up in a meeting."

Monica Rouvellas, JD MBA , Music Producer

"Gender equality for me doesn’t mean having even numbers of men and women in the workplace, but ensuring that if women do apply for more “masculine” types of roles, that they have equal opportunity in attaining that role."

??Jules Brooke , Founder, She's The Boss Group

“Technology and innovation is super important in terms of education and of course education is everything if you are going to get gender equity."

Maree Beare , Founder, Clinials

“What IWD means to me is it reminds us of how far we have come but also how far we need to go. It reminds us of women seeking technology investments, workplace inequalities and inequalities in healthcare."

Rowena Westphalen , Senior Vice President Solutions ANZ & ASEAN, Salesforce

"Education plays an incredibly important role in cracking the code for gender equity. Girls and women are systemically tracked away from science and math throughout their lives and this limits their training options to explore these fields as adults."

Samantha Pillay MBBS FRACS FUSANZ GAICD , Entrepreneur

"Help me bust the myths about many male dominated careers, About STEM. About what careers are feminine, fun, fashionable and family friendly."

Megan Woodbury, Global CFO, Talent International

“It’s about removing the bias out of our society around social norms, it’s inflating our educational platforms and doing indirect messaging to our communities that have been around for centuries."

Sophie Sonnenwirth , Owner, Palm Ave Online Business Managers

"In an industry like mine that is predominantly female, it relies so heavily on embracing and learning new technology and the conversation around technical innovation and gender equality is a vital one."

Amanda Rose , CEO, Western Sydney Women

"So what we need to do is make sure that everyone is educated in what it actually means to be a part of the Stem and tech community, breaking that down, opening the doors and make sure we are supporting them all the way."

Liz Courtney , Film Maker

"I believe today’s youth are the gamechangers and that science and technology has the solution to change tipping points to turning points."

Joanne Wust, CEO, 4Tel

"Solving the problem now is one thing, solving the future problem is another thing. And to solve that future problem we need to we need to be talking to people not only in schools but talking to students that are in primary school. So things that I have been involved in is local robotic groups for kids.”

Dr Samantha Pillay, Entrepreneur

"As the author of the best selling inspirational careers for kids picture books, I want to encourage young women to dream big and smash those glass ceilings."

Tina Nettlefold , CEO, T.House

"I would like to see women of a certain age like myself be able to use technology and social media in a welcoming, comfortable safe space. To do that we need to break some of the biases that older women aren’t able to use technology.”

Jacine Greenwood , CEO, Roccoco Botanicals

"I have found that women over 60 are often disregarded in the job market. Having employed women over 60 that have brought a wealth of not only knowledge, but ideas into my business, their experience and insight allows me to understand and innovate for the wiser generation."

Lissy Abrahams, Author, Relationship Reset

"You’re also going to have haters and do you know that globally, 24% of women have reduced their internet usage due to online attacks. I encourage you to not dim your light for anyone. Double down and share your genius and speak louder knowing that your voice matters."

Janine Zammit , COO, CouriersPlease

"It’s about creating more opportunities for women to become innovators, entrepreneurs and disrupters and importantly, risk takers.”

Jessica Ridley , Founder, By The Way Media

"Women fill about one third of the tech jobs and a lot then leave the industry after 10 years so we need to have conversations right across government, industry and education about how we attract and retain our female talent."

Emma Warren , Entrepreneur

“I came from manufacturing and it’s been a pretty lonely female path at the top. So I am delighted to see the embrace equity bringing to the fore, the access of women to STEM subjects to encourage them on the technological side of things."

Rhian Allen , Entrepreneur

“Knowledge is power. And if we can teach women of all ages how to become your own boss, how to succeed in business, how to financially literate, it is going to change the world as we know it."

Vanessa Stoyklov, CEO, Evolution Media Group

"I think cracking the code on money, cracking the code on financial independence and financial empowerment is incredibly important."

Lissy Abrahams, Author, Relationship Reset

"I have some top tips for you to get cracking. The first is that you are good enough. But you have to stop apologising, stop pleasing people and stop minimising yourself by talking yourself down."

Sarah Britz , Founder, Spend With Us Us

"So this means challenging the assumptions that limit women’s potential and creating a more inclusive and supportive culture that values diversity and innovation."

Caterina Nesci , CMO, Tema Moda

"Together we can try to create a more inclusive world that ensures success and prosperity for all women."

Alyssa Blackburn , Director, Information Management, AvePoint

"The time for discussion on how to drive a gender-equal future through innovation and technology is over. Now is well and truly the time for action. There is no excuse for employees that fail to provide things like flexible working arrangements."

Rochelle Borton , Founder, EduInfluencers

"I choose to do things differently, using innovation to ensure that our team has flexibility in their work, workspace and times. They are encouraged to pursue personal work ventures, to write and explore and to think, to be creative and be their authentic selves without pretence."

Dr Kristy Goodwin, CSP , Author, Dear Digital We Need To Talk

"The real benefit and one that will afford women greater flexibility in how they manage their work lives is providing schedule flexibility. Flexibility around when we work. This is the silver-lining of the pandemic and this will address part of the wellbeing gap we are seeing between males and females."

Terri Martin , GM, The Marketing Room

"I think it’s really really important that we stop putting the onus on women to solve the issues and we put the onus on industry. That we say, how do we actually rethink this model? How do we come up with different ways of working that allow women to do the things they need to do?"

Sarah Spence , Founder, Content Rebels

"I was so sick of the corporate cultures that I had been in where I effectively had to come to work and either pretend I wasn't a woman with menstrual pain and everything else going on, and I basically had to pretend that I wasn't a mother when I was at work and then when I got home I had to pretend that I didn't have a job. It just wasn't sustainable for me and I was determined to never work in that environment again.”

Lisa Sweeney , CEO, Business in Heels

"Some of the best organisations now have parental leave that’s really flexible, it’s balanced for both parents and has NO hurdles. Imagine that and how those organisations are really attracting talent within the marketplace."

Tzipi Cohen Hyams , Microscopy Facility Manager, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research

"This year, the theme cracking the code -innovation for a gender equal future means feeling less isolated and more at ease at work and a more diverse research environment."

Elisha Grace Harrington , Senior Director, ServiceNow

"As technologies continue to advance and disruptive innovations such as Chat GPT, Blockchain, and advancements in clean energy really take the world by storm, upskilling is vital ensuring that women are staying ahead of the curve and driving change for a sustainable future."

Giulia Sirignani, Journalist, Women Love Tech

"I’m a journalist and storyteller and I commit to finding telling the stories of women innovating in Stem, wherever they are, to ensure we crack the code, fill senior leadership ranks with women, thereby making sure technology is authentically By Women, For Women."

Liz Courtney, Film Maker

"I salute women in science. You have my support and I’m proud to tell your stories through film.”

Madeleine Park , Fashion Stylist & Podcaster

"To me cracking the code is about finding innovative ways to share the meaningful stories and lived experience of other women."

Azadeh Williams , CEO, AZK Media: Global B2B Technology PR & Marketing Agency

"We need to continue to amplify and share great stories on who is leading the way on diversity programs. We need to build debate on how to break the bias and we need to recognise who’s getting it right."

Megan Dalla-Camina, CEO, Women Rising

"We as women get to take our next level of power back. We get to work on our own empowerment."

Rochelle Courtenay , Founder, Share the Dignity

"I’m looking forward to a world that everybody can be a part of a world that is kinder, stringer and you are able to do whatever it is that you set your mind to."

Roni Millard nee Taha Millard, CMO A/NZ, Equifax

"For me this is about achieving genuine equality for women, breathing life into our big hairy and audacious goals. Let 2023 be the year that we, as powerful women, continue to rise to be seen and heard so that we can birth new versions of ourselves that we are meant to be."

Sonia Bestulic , Author, Flourish For Mums

"For me, this ignites my imagination as I ask myself and I ask you what if the code was already cracked? What would the world look like in a gender equal future? How could we all be interacting differently? And if you can invest some moments, even close your eyes and transport yourself into that world and it takes you on a trajectory of experiencing limitless possibilities."

Rochelle Borton, Founder, Eduinfluencers

"It’s about showing that boundaries and barriers, real or imagined, are actually for being pushed through or climbed on."

Happy International Women’s Day from Women Love Tech!