“Why promoting diversity in IT is so important? Nowadays programmers, engineers or UX designers are those who create solutions that shape our reality. IT is not a separate industry, it’s an inherent part of every sector from beauty to agriculture, medicine to education.” With these words, Małgorzata Ratajska-Grandin opened the 7th GGC Birthday throughout which we celebrated advancements in the implementation of diversity and drew plans for the next year.
Our work wouldn’t be possible without our Partners who support us throughout the year, as well as those who joined us for this event because they believe in supporting women building a more diverse future for all of us:
Accenture
Chivas Venture
HubHub
Mytaxi
Hoplala
Thank You!
Why do we know that our work is important?
“It’s not just that if women make up 50% of society, they should be involved in a proportionally in shaping the future for themselves, their relatives and future generations.
The point is that, contrary to common opinion, programming is not a set of tasks delivered in individual work. It is a search for solutions to complex problems that require teamwork, and therefore soft skills and creativity.
New products and services require new perspectives on reality. There is no place for business as usual today. To get new consumer groups you need to understand them first. And you need people who have different social roles, different experience, different views.” explained Małgosia Ratajska-Grandin.
“The issue of women in IT is really a discussion about diversity. Diversity is today a hot topic because it simply pays off. Gender diversity in teams increases innovation and thus economic competitiveness. Many studies have shown that companies with a balanced employment structure achieve better financial results by 34%.
The employment deficit on the IT market in Poland is 50,000 employees and all forecasts indicate that it will only grow. Currently, women make up only 25% of people employed in this sector. This is obviously related to the situation on the graduates market: only 13% of IT studies are women. How can we reach the goal of 50-50?” she added.
Throughout the year we work on strengthening the role women play in IT. On this special occasion, we did something unusual in our highly competitive, fast-paced world – we shared the stage with four thriving organizations to celebrate the feminine side of technology.
Diana Koziarska is the CEO of ReaktorWarsaw, an organization helping startups by leading a coworking space, mentoring sessions and organizing monthly OpenReaktor meetings for the startup community. Co-founder of preacceleration programme ReaktorX. Ambassador of Startup Poland.
Ewelina Wołoszyn is the CEO of the software house Lonsely which delivers solutions based on AI and machine learning. She’s also an organizer of events supporting entrepreneurship and innovation. Ewelina created Tech Leaders Global, a series of mentoring programmes organized all around the world. The main aim of Tech Leaders is to create a space for people with different skills to discuss, exchange experience and build connections between mentors and mentees.
Katarzyna Wierzbowska is the Co-founder and President of Fundacja Przedsiębiorczości Kobiet, Initiator of Sieć Przedsiębiorczych Kobiet, Co-founder of Black Swan Fund and Black Swan VC Fund. She graduated from Economic Cybernetics and Informatics and MBA at SciencesPo, College des Ingeniurs, Ecole de Mines de Paris i Ecole de Ponts et Chaussees. In the past she manager CSR and PR companies. She started her professional career in the advertising industry. She’s a happy wife and mother of three kids.
Dr. Bianka Siwinska is a journalist, scientist, initiator of public campaigns. She is editor-in-chief of educational magazine Perspektywy, correspondent of University World News. She is also the initiator of a public campaign „Girls to Technical Schools” and Start-up Academy for female students of technical and exact sciences studies, as well as projects: “Lean in STEM,”, “IT for SHE,” “Girls Learn!”, and „New technologies for girls” scholarships (in cooperation with Intel). She is the coordinator of the program “Study in Poland” conducted by the Conference of Polish Academic Rectors and the Educational Foundation “Perspektywy” and expert of World Bank in Tajikistan.
Thank you for your insights and willingness to cooperate in order to build a more diverse future.
See you next year!
