Bristol can make a difference when it comes to women in technology

Don’t underestimate the power of a city with a difference to change politics and culture around women in technology.

This week we’ve heard that more IT firms are heading out to the West Country. Six digital firms are coming to Bristoland Bath.  The British Silicon Valley is set to be booming as Bristol and Bath have more high-tech digital firms than any other area of the UK, outside London.

As people get excited about the prospect of new jobs as firms announce plans to recruit in Bristol – is this good news for women in Bristol? Gender continues to be an issue for technology jobs. A recent meeting I’ve attended with a giant in the airspace industry revealed that under 10% of their jobs are taken up by women, and most of them are in female dominated roles such as HR, Communications, and admin. Technology insights report revels that of the 753,000 people working in the IT sector, just one in five (20%) are women.

Women have so much more to offer to the industry. We all hear about powerful women in IT, such as Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg, or the CEO of IBM Virginia Rometty, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, or Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitma. The list can go on.

But we do not have to look so far in search of women who are transforming STEM (Science, technology, Engineering and Maths) industries. Some amazing Bristol women have shared their experiences of working in STEM in the new summer issue of BristolWoman. IT Expert Elena Hensinger urges all women to get geeky. She successfully runs local enterprise At Home with IT. Entrepreneur Angela Fumpson discusses with our readers the key to success for women in the Technology revolution. She has worked as an engineer all her life and is currently running her own company.

In one of our articles, local expert Catherine Dunford examines what the future holds for women in STEM – calling for a shift in politics and culture. Perhaps Bristol can take a lead on this. We live in a very special city. A city that likes to make a difference. As we are looking to expand our IT expertise, let’s fully engage women and make a difference.

On a practical level, Bristol Woman currently runs girls groups in several schools across the city. We would love to partner with IT companies and work wit the girls to embrace the industry.

Reaching Out to Women in Bristol

Can you help us reach out to and support women in Bristol?

Bristol Woman is a new social enterprise in Bristol. The main activity of the company is empowering women through wellbeing, leadership and enterprise.

As part of this, we produce a quarterly magazine for women in both print and digital format. The magazine focuses on women’s issues in Bristol and provides an opportunity for women across the city to discuss parenting issues, health and wellbeing concerns, business and enterprise, safety and violence, discrimination and empowerment alongside a wealth of other key issues vital to women in the Bristol community. Our current readership online and offline is currently at 15,000.

As we are looking at this year’s issue #3, we would like to open the opportunity for 5 Bristol based organisations to advertise in the magazine. The selected companies will have to adhere to our equalities ethos.   Advertising slots include prime slots such as inside and outside back cover and key pages adjacent to Editorial welcome.

Both issues 1 and 2 of the magazine can be downloaded free of charge on http://www.bristolwoman.org.uk, and have been made freely available in 28 libraries in Bristol, 90 GP surgeries in Bristol and SouthGloucestershire. The magazine is also available in some schools, local businesses, cafes and other public buildings across Bristol. Your advertisement will help us reach out to even more women across the city.

If you would like to propose article submissions for our Nov 2014 issue, please do let us know. We would love to hear your ideas!

To register your interest, please email editor [at] bristolwoman.org.uk.

#100Kin100days

Bristol Woman: Inspiring Enterprise

At Bristol Woman, we are focusing on 3 major strands: well being, leadership and enterprise. Last week, I have put in a bid to RBS – Inspiring Women in Enterprise to set up Bristol Woman Enterprise Zone. RBS is offering grants to help build the capacity of organisations that encourage and support women, who are not yet in business, to explore enterprise. It is an inspirational opportunity!

It was an exciting process as it allowed us to consolidate all the work we do around confidence building for business. The funding will help us to lay the foundation for some exciting work and within a year support at least 50 women to start their business and at least another 50 to develop their existing business further.

Research shows that women lack confidence in enterprise, but when it comes to business, confidence is as important as competence! The funding will allow us to work with hundreds of women in Bristol and boost enterprise confidence. If you want to find out more about this project, get in touch with us: ask-at-bristolwoman.org.uk.

#100Kin100days; #inspiringchange

Why a Community Interest Company

Damien Hirst's 22ft Charity statue was displayed in Bristol. 

When looking to incorporate Bristol Woman, there was the route of making it a Charity. Instead I decided a Community Interest Company (CIC) status is more suitable. It has nothing to do with our objectives, because they are very much social and for the benefit of the wider community. It has nothing to do with the opportunities for funding, because if anything it is easier to get funding as a charity. It has nothing to do with the public perception of a charity, because a charity is currently easier to understand than a CIC.

But it has everything to do with the individual woman and her agency. Bristol Woman was set up because we believe in the power of individual women to change the world. In our work with women, this is about the constant battle between agency and victim in the non-profit sector. “Charity” as a word is very much associated with helplessness, the need for some kind of an intervention to change somebody else’s life. The word itself is the embodiment of white middle class thought. It can at times be patronising.

I was wondering if it is an issue of English Language. I think it’s more about British culture. When I first came to the UK and became familiar with this word in it’s organisational context, I was somewhat surprised. In the US I was used to “non-profit organisation”. The latter somehow offers stakeholders the freedom to decide if they want to be a victim or an agent.

Over the past decade I’ve work with women across continents. Women who have been trafficked, women seeking to balance work and caring responsibilities, women’s rights activities, or women struggling with mental health issues – they all deserve the choice of being agents of their own destinies. This was the foundation for my decision to register the company as a CIC. In the context of my 100 day challenge to raise 100K, this is more of a problem then an asset. But supporting women by giving them the choice to be agents of their own change much outweighs that.

Photo: The statue, called Charity, is of a collection box of a girl with teddy bear and her leg in callipers.

#100Kin100days

One of those 100 day challenges

This week, I embark on a new journey. As I leave my job at Platform 51 (YWCA England and Wales, now Young Women’s Trust), I will be focusing on building and growing Bristol Woman - a community interest company. We have been in operation since November 2013, but I have not had time to focus on the company because of my job.

I’ve set up the company because I strongly believe that individual women can make a difference and inspire – in Bristol, but also all over the world. Three amazing women have joined me on this journey. Together we can change Bristol by providing creative avenues for women to share their stories, running workshops and mentoring schemes which allow women to process, adapt and embody confidence, and supporting women as they unlock their individual leadership potential.

How Bristol Woman came about

These are the few words I said at the launch of Bristol Woman on November 25, 2013 at the Mauretania:

I never thought I would be interested in women’s rights. I come from Moldova, a former Soviet country, and being raised indoctrinated by the apparent equality of Soviet socialism – I never questioned equality between men and women. It’s not until I started researching trafficking in human beings and other forms of contemporary slavery and violence against women that I started to open my eyes to women’s rights violations and where these come from.  I could not believe it then that I’ve had my eyes wide shut to such systematic violations for so long. As I was learning about case of physical and psychological abuse – my view of the world and of the state of women in the world has changed forever.

I now have two lovely daughters and the oldest one is very outspoken, emotive, and pro-active. If I had a coin for every time she was called a chatter box or bossy, I would not be here today, I would be in the Bahamas enjoying some sun.  But there is a problem to her being called that  - as it is bound to influence her continuing to be outspoken and pro-active into  her teens and adulthood. The youngest one is probably the same, it’s just that she is only 17 months and only learning to express herself.

Even I, being a women’s rights activist get the occasional instinctive urge to tell her to be quiet and listen more, say less, be less “in your face”.  That’s what society would expect. Just like any other women, I easily feel and give in to the pressure of society’s expectations. And then when we look around and see that women are underrepresented in decision making and leadership roles, we wonder “why?”.

To be or not to be...

I often think I’d like to be a writer. Captivate audiences with interesting topics, have a sophisticated and witty style. I can almost see it – sitting at a desk with a view of  some greenery in a nice tranquil village. Writing away at my desk. A nice candle burning away by my side, inspiring a finger dance on the keyboard.

Except then reality hits and I am in a Bristol suburb, crowded houses outside my window, not a site of candles, dreading the blank page on my screen. If anything, having to write will more often frustrate me.  I get very excited and passionate when I talk about things like migration, or women’s rights, but I actually dread putting the thoughts on paper.

I always wonder why that is. And I also wonder if it is better to pursue such dreams until we perfect our skill, or if it is best to leave it and move on to things that are easier for us to do and develop a passion for them instead. What has your experience been?