On International Women’s Day 2017, we thought we would take the time to celebrate the fabulous women at risual!

Women in IT has been a hot topic in recent years, with The Guardian posted an article in 2012 claiming that the number on women recruited to the industry has been falling for the past ten years.  Still today, the lack of role models, wage inequality coupled with general workplace gender bias are cited as some of the barriers to women in technology. 

Kate Lincoln, Operations Director at risual, said: “International Women’s Day has highlighted the achievements and difficulties of women for more than a century.  As we celebrate the event in 2017, we need to look forward to tackling the gender equality goals from a worldwide perspective.”

Numbers are continuing to fall in what is a largely male-dominated industry, however, it’s important to recognise the great work of female work population when it comes to the nitty gritty of IT.

The official line from International Women’s Day 217 is calling for everyone to ‘#BeBoldForChange’, to help forge a better working, inclusive and gender equal world. The fact that it’s 2017 now and there is still a gender pay-gap, means that the need to acknowledge and celebrate today is as important as ever.

Kate added: “In a traditionally male dominated industry, risual are committed to promoting our recruitment and development opportunities to both male and female alike. risual are actively involved in our own and nationwide campaigns to encourage our next generation of girls into IT careers and are proud of the number of females in a diverse range of roles at risual from apprentices to the board. 

“As an IT organisation, we take responsibility for playing our part to help redress the gender balance in our industry and ensure that women are more equitably represented in the technology workforce.” 

risual’s Managed Services team is one of the trickiest and most challenging departments to work in – with the responsibility of managing and optimizing IT infrastructure and systems for some large organisations. Helen Staddon is a risual Managed Services Team Lead, working within rMS Core Services means that Helen is required to provide proactive support to customers across a variety of products.

Helen said: “I previously spent ten years working in the IT industry before joining the risual family and I can honestly say that I have progressed more technically and personally, than in my previous roles. I really love working here at risual and enjoy learning something new every day.”

Claire Wall, Service Delivery Manager at risual, said: “Joining risual was a great career move for me. I have previously worked as a Service Delivery manager for a number of years and moving to risual really allowed me to expand my skillset and experiences. I feel valued in my role and have a supportive and encouraging manager.” 

Claire and Helen are two of many women working at risual across all roles in the organisation. Abigail Williams is a Consultant in risual’s Business Analysis team and she has progressed through the ranks into IT Consultancy after starting as a Business Support Admin before joining risual. 

Abigail said: “After working with Microsoft SharePoint every day, I decided that I wanted to learn more and see the benefits it can bring, so started learning more about the technology, before asking to be moved into the SharePoint team. That was six years ago and then getting the role as a Consultant at risual afterwards is probably one of my proudest moments.”

Kate Lincoln concludes by adding: “risual care passionately about gender equality and understand, from the industry that we work in, the contribution we can make to remove some of the barriers.  We have demonstrated our commitment through our formal commitment to Think Act Report campaign, a pledge which reaffirms our commitment to fairness, openness and honesty and allows risual to identify any issues around gender equality and take action. 

“We are proud of all risual employee’s but take particular delight in seeing our female apprentices progress through their IT careers and other colleagues bucking the trend by their risual roles as developers, technical consultants, IT team leaders and managers.  We are bold for change and are working hard to create, opportunities for, the female role models of the future.”

 

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