Women Aren’t Broken, the Tech Industry Is

The tech industry in Australia is struggling to find sufficient talent to fill the job vacancies that exist, meanwhile women and minority ethnicities are not participating in tech in great numbers. Women have been given conflicting, and unhelpful advice over the years to change themselves in order to fit in to the tech industry; my argument is that the problem is not women and our behaviour, and the solution lies in making changes within the tech industry and how we work in order to make tech a viable option for women to freely choose. We will all benefit from making improvements to conditions in the tech industry, and changing the way we prioritise family/home life and business – regardless of our gender. In this talk, I will discuss the current state of the tech industry in Australia, what diversity and inclusion means and why it’s important, the role of individual choice and how that plays into diversity and inclusion initiatives, and some suggestions on how we can make real change to the tech industry, improving conditions for everyone who’s already participating in it at the same time as making it more attractive for those who haven’t considered tech before now.