At the Women's Leadership Summit organized last week by El Cronista and Apertura magazine, Paula Cotto, Executive Director of Women in Technology, Paula Senkman, Director of the Economic Development Program of Sibec, and Carolina Colia, Principal Architect of Google Cloud Argentina, participated. There they shared their strategies for promoting radical change towards equal opportunities and female leadership.
„We work to close the gender gap in technology from a young age,” said Cotto. The CEO of Girls in Technology, a nonprofit organization that seeks to close the gender gap, says, „Women of all diversity face persistent barriers, from stereotypes to differences in pay and opportunities for career advancement in that field.
Golia, for his part, highlighted how important a culture of diversity is in the company: „As the technical leader at Google Cloud, my role is with clients in their digital transformation processes, facilitating the use of technologies for new businesses. And has the skills.”.
Schenkman, meanwhile, cited her recent research in which she found that women make up the majority of university students. He said this type represented 60% of Argentina's total student body. However, she highlighted that women's participation in STEM professions (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is low. In fact, only 35% of students in those areas are female. In technology-focused industries such as programming, the rate is 17 percent.
While the executive said women face a variety of barriers throughout their careers — from stereotypes to salary disparities — that keep them out of STEM careers, she believes these areas offer limitless opportunities due to geographic location. This will, in some way, benefit people living outside the big cities.
The panelists agreed on the importance of collaboration between the three sectors (public, private and academic), addressing barriers and seeking solutions to improve women's participation in these sectors.
They also spoke about programs aimed at promoting women entrepreneurship and the need to prioritize women talent in the workplace with clear participation and flexibility policies.