Wednesday, 8th March 2023, was International Women’s Day (IWD)! This year’s theme was “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality”. By exploring the impact of the digital gender gap on social inequalities and emphasising the importance of protecting women and girls in digital spaces worldwide, IWD 2023 aimed to spread awareness and education.

By increasing the representation of women and other underrepresented groups in the tech sphere, technology can become more accessible and provide creative solutions to solving women's and those who are women-presenting’s needs.

At Mindera, we hosted various workshops and events in our Global locations to celebrate and applaud our epic Minders!

Representative & Inclusive Mentorship In Tech - Female Empowerment in the Industry:

Female representation and role models within tech and software development are essential to encourage more women and girls to pursue careers in this space.

Unfortunately, there are still stigmas surrounding women in the tech sphere and software development; these stigmas surround gender bias, making it hard for women sometimes to be taken seriously when pursuing careers in this area. Additionally, there are still outdated stereotypes about what kind of work women are suited for, with some believing women are more suited to caring or secretarial roles. We reject this at Mindera!

Anyone can be whatever they dream and want to be; every gender needs support during the process!

With more diversity and representation in the tech industry, the following benefits can be seen:

• Having a female mentor can help women in tech feel less isolated and more supported in their careers because it can help women envision themselves in these positions too!
• With increased diversity, the industry will become less male-dominated and, therefore, more accessible and favourable to other genders;
• Stigmas will also be addressed that surround women in tech; this will mean that women in software development and tech roles will be taken seriously in what they do! Additionally, with successful and inspirational female mentors, it provides a beacon and dispels stereotypes!
• Women looking to move into these careers will have networking and support opportunities with the more female mentors there are in the field! In addition, advice and guidance can be provided on the unique issues women face in the industry. This type of support is crucial to helping women thrive in tech.

Applauding all of the Amazing People in Mindera:

We caught up with some of our global teams to learn how they celebrated International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month!

Mindera UK:

For International Women’s Day 2023, The UK office hosted a day where everyone from Mindera UK was invited to the office for some talks, socialising, and celebrating.

We had a series of talks around which women inspire us the most and why and a session about taboo topics that we don’t discuss enough, such as menopause, miscarriage and sexual harassment. These talks involved everyone, not just women. It's essential that men be allies for women by challenging harmful attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination, so including everyone was crucial to our talks!

To continue the day, we all went out for lunch together, and in the evening, the women went to a pottery class to get to spend some time and get to know each other a little better.

Mindera Portugal:

In Mindera Portugal, we hosted an event with Geek Girls, a non-profit organisation that support women in tech careers! This event was on the 22nd of March in the Aveiro office.

Two main talks focused on career changes, with the first discussing entering IT and becoming a backend dev and the second focusing on paths into the tech industry.

In the first talk, our lovely Joana Alves shared the story of Mindera; a discussion by another amazing Minder, Alicja Kropidlowska, followed this. Alicja shared her epic journey into becoming a developer, along with her obstacles and challenges.

Gender stereotypes were among some of the barriers Alicja mentioned. With IWD and Women’s History Month, it was super topical for her to share this as an important reminder of the obstacles for women in tech.

In her talk at the Geek Girls event, Alicja also highlighted aspects of her journey and learning along the path to becoming a backend developer! She also touched on her time in the MindSwap Bootcamp!

Inês Oliveira held a final talk on work after technology. The speech told a story of a woman who changed her priorities in life to focus more on what she enjoyed; she took steps into writing and is soon publishing her first book! This was a truly inspirational and motivational journey which showed how a woman could be whatever she sets out to be!

Mindera India:

International Women's Day is celebrated annually on March 8th, but since India had the festival of colours and client visits that week, they celebrated the day on 16th March. It was a day to celebrate women's progress, honour their strength and resilience, and acknowledge their contributions to society. In India, it was a virtual event since women work from the length and breadth of the country!

One of the most significant aspects of Women's Day is the opportunity to share personal stories of inspiration and perseverance. Women from different backgrounds & cultures shared their experiences, learned from each other, and found strength in their shared struggles.

We had several women who shared their achievements and how they overcame obstacles. We also covered the following:

• Women & Health and Women & the economy.
• Lunch Talk led by Charu Kanwar
• We asked women to send a power pose picture.

Mindera Romania:

In Mindera Romania, we had an in-office celebration which was excitingly planned (in total surprise!) by the male Minders for the women. The guys surprised the women with gifts of t-shirts designed by a trendy brand within the office!

With the t-shirts in hand, we had an improvised photoshoot!

The celebrations for Women’s History Month and International Women’s day in Mindera, Romania, didn’t stop there! Those of us in the Romania office also planned a session to promote awareness and education on testing and prevention of cervical cancer. These sessions were open to female minders but were shared with male Minders to extend the invitation to their partners.

And, in Romania, we’ve certainly been busy! We recently kicked off our #MinderAtHeart campaign; this was rolled out through March 2023 to reflect the International Women’s Day theme of embracing equity!

A Final Thought:

As March draws to a close and spring has sprung for 2023, we want to say a final happy International Women’s Day to all! We can’t wait to celebrate again next year.