5 Things You Might Not Know On International Women’s Day

With International Women’s Day coming up on the 8th of March, we’re keeping you in the loop with some lesser-known facts.

#1 The world celebrates the day to highlight gender equality

Not only is International Women’s Day about sending love and respect to the women in your life, it’s also about highlighting gender equality across the globe.

The day focuses global attention on gender bias, stereotypes and discrimination in order to make change. 

#2 Tech needs more women

One area that is notorious for lagging behind in the equality stakes is the world of technology. 

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The tech industry has made huge improvements over the past 5 years, however the percentage of women in tech roles still only make up 29% of the tech workforce (up from 26% in 2018).

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And it’s not just the number of roles held by women that tech lags behind, it’s also in terms of pay, leadership roles and representation. Tech needs more women in higher paying, more senior roles. 

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In the tech sector senior decision making roles are often left up to the men. While 54% of men surveyed by CIO said they felt it was likely that they’d be promoted to executive management in their company, only 25% of women said the same, noting a lack of support, self-confidence, and mentorship as key problems.

#3 In Italy, women get flowers on IWD

The date of March 8th has been around for a while in some parts of the world, and in Italy they celebrate this date with mimosa flowers.

These yellow flowers are not romantic, but a sign of solidarity. Thought up by Italy’s most famous feminist Teresa Mattei, the mimosa was made a symbol of Women’s Day in 1946.

#4 Each Year’s International Women's Day has an official theme

In 1996, the UN created a theme for that year’s International Women’s Day: Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future. In 1997 it was “Women at the Peace Table” then “Women and Human Rights” in 1998.

Since, the tradition of this has been continued with this year’s being #BreakTheBias. The organisation is calling on people to “imagine a gender equal world”. It has become a day of celebration around the world, and an official holiday in dozens of countries. 

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#5 We have some amazing women in tech working at Yoello.

One of the initiatives that our HR team have been working on is collaborating with a recruitment agency that specialises in female professionals working in tech. 

We want to create a diverse workforce, not only in the interest of fairness and equality but also in the interest of building the best products possible. By balancing the workforce, we’re able to generate more diverse ideas that pull from a more diverse range of experiences.

This year, we wanted to honour some of Yoello’s own women in tech. 

Thank you to:

🤟 Kate Hodge - Lead Product Manager

🌟 Ava Hosseini - Software QA Engineer

🧠 Emily Hodge - Scrum Master

🎉 Niloofar Nazari - Software QA Tester

✨ Clara Fitzgerald - Software Engineer 

🙌 Sama Kazemi - Quality Assurance Expert

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Read more about the work our Yoello team gets up to in our recent article on Women Shaping The World Of Online Ordering.
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Here at Yoello, we are always striving to improve gender diversity. If you are a female that is already in tech or would even like to kickstart your career in tech, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us!