CRN to launch Women in the Channel report

Nominations open for the UK channel's most influential women

CRN is launching its inaugural Women in the Channel project, and is appealing for nominations for the industry's most influential women.

Although some of the biggest tech brands are run by women, such as Meg Whitman, Ginni Rometty, the industry consists predominantly of men.

While the channel's sheer size and complexity makes it difficult to know exactly what proportion of its workforce are women, some of the large technology vendors do disclose their diversity statistics, giving some indication of what the wider split may be. At Microsoft, 27 per cent of its staff are women, while at Apple, the figure stands at 31 per cent.

The women in IT cause is not new, and companies have talked the talk on diversity and inclusion for a long time. But often, some of the trickiest and most controversial issues around the topic remain untouched, as many fear offending or putting their foot in it.

In CRN's upcoming project, we aim to get to the heart of many of these issues. Is promoting women in the channel even necessary to start with? Is the concept patronising, and does it undermine the successful women who have managed to rise to the top? Do people, especially men, shy away from addressing the issue for fear of saying the wrong thing? And how can these issues be resolved?

On top of this, research into the current state of play for women in the channel will be conducted, as well as a list of the most influential ones. The list will take into account a number of criteria, and women will be selected based on their years of experience and seniority within a company, as well as the relevance of their role to the UK channel.

If you are, or know, an influential woman in the UK channel who fits the bill, please email [email protected].