In light of this year's theme for International Women’s Day, 'Inspire Inclusion', Inès Guittonneau, Communications Officer at TSF shares her thoughts on women in tech and acheiving gender inclusion and equality in the workplace. Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) is the world’s first NGO to use telecommunications technology to offer solutions that bring practical support to marginalised individuals internationally, especially women and children.
Andrea: What can we do as individuals or companies to create a more inclusive and equitable tech workplace?
Inès Guittonneau, Communications Officer, TSFInes: For companies, one step can be to have flexibility - flexible hours, remote working, etc - so that people can handle domestic labour, children and so on - because when it's not, women often are the first to have to work part-time or not join a specific industry that doesn't adapt to their obligations outside of work. Implementing training for all employees to be mindful of discriminatory behaviours and remarks can be a way to make tech companies more inclusive. Finally, visibility wise, I believe it's important for tech companies to broadcast their inclusive approach, explain how they make their companies inclusive, represent diversity, so that minorities outside of the company feel encouraged to apply.
For individuals, we should be alert and speak up when we hear or see something that perpetuates harmful stereotypes. We can be careful to avoid making important decisions in informal settings, as women often have responsibilities that don't allow them to stay longer, afterwards, etc., disabled people are often too tired or don't have access to some spaces, and so on. We can also try to use inclusive language.
Andrea: What are you most excited about for the future of technology, and how do you see women shaping it?
Ines: I don't know what the future of technology holds. I'm excited for people to be able to share ideas and findings and discussions thanks to connectivity, and I hope the efforts to bridge the digital divide can mean more people have a seat at the (virtual) table when it comes to existing in online spaces. However, we have seen that technology can be harmful for women, who can be attacked online to a scale that wasn't possible before. What I see, or rather hope, for the future of technology, is for women to take more and more part in creating it, regulating it, making technology adapted to women and online spaces safe for them.
Andrea: Who are your female role models in the tech industry, and why?
Ines: Monique Lanne-Petit - Monique Lanne-Petit is French, she is the director and co-founder of the organisation I work for, Télécoms Sans Frontières, a humanitarian NGO specialised in technologies. It's important for me to see a woman at the head of the organisation, how she can manage so many things at a time, seeing her experience and her drive to try and help people with ICTs. I admire her creating an NGO based on a need nobody really saw before her and TSF's other co-founder - with technology that was not popularised at the time, and she was about my age (in her early twenties) when she did! She's not afraid to speak up and she still takes the time to listen, understand, empathise - many qualities girls are often raised with, and that tend to be less encouraged in positions of power.
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