Female channel bosses unite to discuss why there aren't more of them
In the same week as International Women's Day, top female executives from firms including Computacenter, Capita and CDW came together to talk about how to move the needle on the industry's gender deficit
Ahead of International Women's Day today, ten of the channel's top female leaders came together to discuss how to address the industry's gender deficit (click here to view video)
According to CRN research conducted last year, just 14 per cent of top executive roles at the UK's 50 largest resellers are occupied by females.
This compares unfavourably with the 25 per cent of board roles that are occupied by women among FTSE100 companies.
During a CRN dinner, held in partnership with Lenovo, ten top female channel bosses shared best practices on how to make the industry more female-friendly and grow more women into the kind of top-level posts they occupy.
The line-up comprised Jane Ashworth (pictured, top, right), director SMB and channel at Lenovo, Lisa Ergun, partner account manager, Lenovo (pictured, near bottom, right) Columbus UK managing director Mary Hunter, Bamboo Technology group managing director Lorrin White, former SCC sales director Tracy Westall (pictured, top, left), CDW directors Penny Williams (pictured, near bottom, left) and Yvonne Matzk, Capita's purchasing services general manager Michelle Black, Naomi Hewitt, category manager for client at Computacenter and Distology CEO Hayley Roberts.
One issue immediately flagged up was that job specifications for roles in the industry aren't always geared towards female candidates. This could be because flexible hours aren't offered, or even because the language employed plays to what are regarded as traditionally ‘male' characteristics, those present commented.
"Sometimes it's about the tone of the job description for the advert," said Distology's Roberts (pictured below).
"When I look at some of [Distology's] job descriptions, I ask myself whether that's a masculine word being used. Am I asking for aggression rather than compassion? Some of the emotional intelligence comes more readily, biologically, from women and to be honest I've found that most of the really good people for commercial stuff in tech are women. As employers, I think we should encourage those skills.
"I'm not suggesting women come into a male industry and act like men - that's really not what we want to encourage."
On a similar note, CDW's Matzk added: "Until I had my daughter I felt like I had to behave like a man to succeed. The ironic thing is when I had my daughter and I was more authentic and nurturing, my career flew."
Westall, who now works in a variety of non-executive roles after leaving SCC two years ago, claimed heightened rhetoric over improving the industry's gender imbalance hadn't been matched by action over the last two years.
She called for employers to take "real meaningful action".
"Those numbers shame us," she said, referring to the lack of top female bosses in the industry.
"We're not a sector that's been around for hundreds of years. We're a sector that's been around for more than 30 years, so those numbers are a real problem. Are we seeing change? The answer is actually, ‘no'.
"I'm not convinced that changing the tone of job adverts will change anything, although it is something we can do. We need to actively encourage women to apply for jobs. If you'd asked me two or three years ago whether I believed in quotas for shortlists, I would have said ‘no'. I would have said that was tokenism. Two years on, I think we need to make some positive, aggressive change to some of the behaviour."
Westall was one of several attendees to admit she had at certain points in her career suffered from ‘imposter syndrome', and said employers often underestimate how much of a barrier confidence can be for women rising into senior roles.
Columbus' Hunter also admitted she'd suffered from imposter syndrome upon returning from her first maternity leave.
"When I came back I found that my confidence had hit rock bottom," she said.
"It took me almost three months to get back in the saddle before I thought ‘wow, I'm back'. I was a total imposter in my own role.
"And so I have a focus now on my females that are coming back from maternity leave. I bring them in before they come back and make sure they feel that they're ok and that it's going to be balanced."
Matzk at CDW, a $16bn-revenue global solutions provider headquartered in Illinois, admitted that tech firms in the US are often ahead of their UK counterparts when it comes to diversity.
"I think it's also a cultural thing because if I take our organisation in the US, they're a hugely positive example. We have just announced a female CEO and in addition to a female COO. We have female executives running the world's largest IT solution provider - that's phenomenal, and that's because they've made a positive impact," she said.
"They have not just focused on gender, but diversity more broadly and I think in the UK we're a bit shy about stepping forward and making those commitments. Maybe because we're worried about what people are going to think or whether it's going to have an adverse effect, as culturally we are quite different."
Several of those present lamented the lack of females applying for apprentices within their business.
They also agreed on the importance of selling a career in technology to girls at a young age, particularly considering that 90 per cent of those who take A-level Computer Science are boys.
Hunter said that every year Columbus donates its old laptops to schools.
"I say to my team that anyone who wants to go into schools to run coding clubs, or showcase technology to children, particularly if it's girl-focused, let's do it," she said.
Lenovo's Ashworth said: "Computer science is seen as a boys' subject. It's about nurturing and trying to open their minds as to what the possibilities [in tech] are. I was the UK MD of Smart Technology and did a lot of work with schools. We sponsored a lot of girls' schools around STEM and hooked up secondary schools with universities like Brunel University that have a particular STEM centre to give girls real inspiration of what it could be like.
"I'm absolutely positive that is transferable to the IT sector and there's a huge amount all of us around this table can do in that one area to stimulate and nurture this talent we have in the UK."
The dinner, held on the 38th floor of the Gherkin on Wednesday, came two days ahead of International Women's Day, which aims to advance women's rights.
It also comes on the heels of CRN's inaugural Women in Channel Awards and ahead of the publication of the inaugural Women in Channel A-list. Stay tuned for further announcements.