Today is International Women's Day. While women's rights and equality are always important, the 2023 theme, "DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality", feels even more critical and closer to our hearts.

For us at Curity, striving for inclusivity and gender balance is a given. We're not there yet, having only a 24.5% / 75.5% ratio, but we are working hard to address this. And we do that every day, not just today. It’s also why we support organizations such as Women in Identity. However, we see March 8 as an opportunity to reflect on the gender balance and women empowerment in the tech industry and discuss how we can achieve greater equality.

This year's theme focuses on the importance of: 

• Protecting the rights of women and girls in digital spaces;

• Addressing online and technology-facilitated gender-based violence; and 

• Finding actionable ways of making the tech industry more diverse and inclusive.

We spoke with some female team members to hear their experiences and how female representation in tech can be improved. 

Sathya Duraisamy, Lead QA Engineer, says: 

My mum has been my biggest supporter since childhood and has empowered and motivated me to persist and follow my passion of becoming an engineer. Despite that, I still had to try hard and convince the rest of my family to let me move to a big city to work as the societal rules and expectations for women in India differ from men. However, the situation is starting to change, and I am happy that with more awareness, and access to social media and other platforms, more girls and women are empowered to pursue the careers they want. 

Throughout my career, I have often been the only woman in the room. I used to feel odd in some places, and it's great that I don't feel like that at Curity at all. But in general, women are underrepresented, and to change it, we need to show women the positives of being in tech. And that there are many of us who do it successfully.

Judith Kahrer, Product Marketing Engineer, says: 

When choosing an education and a job, my family and friends have always encouraged and supported me. But it is a fact that many girls are put off by the idea of entering the tech industry as it is heavily male-dominated and there are not as many female role models as is needed.  

What is important to do is to provide more opportunities for women to enter the tech job market and make the recruitment process as unbiased as possible. Another great thing is to make women visible, show that technology needs women and provide even bigger support to organizations and initiatives that connect and empower women and girls wanting to work in tech. It is time to accelerate and power on. 

We hope that you will join us on this important day to consider gender equality and how we can all achieve the desired ratio of women in tech.