Sure, you might argue, values are all well and good. But today is all about action! About what happens in real life. Good point. Then let’s outline what we as an IT company are doing to promote gender equality. Very specifically.
Supervisory Board Quota
At the outset, we set a quota for our Supervisory Board in our Articles of Incorporation. Both sexes should be represented by at least two persons. As our Supervisory Board consists of six people – currently three female and three male – space is also ensured for non-binary Supervisory Board members.
Set the stage for our female role models
Women in IT are rare – according to Eurostat surveys, in 2021, just 19 percent of employed IT professionals were female. Fortunately, there are smart initiatives to counteract this phenomenon. Given the shortage of skilled workers in IT, this is an absolute must! We are also doing our part: our female employees go into schools to offer girls an insight into career opportunities in the future-oriented field of IT, to answer their questions, and break down prejudices against IT professions.
We also strive to give our female employees a public stage, whether through collaborations with magazines or in our news/press releases. For example, our colleagues Mercedes Klemme and Jacqueline Hellmigk were portrayed as part of the Südniedersachsen Stiftung’s ‘IT macht Schule’ project, or our innovative management concept was intentionally presented by a mixed team in Faktor Magazin (all links to German text). Through activities such as these, we want to help raise the profile of women in IT and encourage young women to consider this career path.
Active networking for better career opportunities
We encourage our female employees to attend events for women in IT and to get involved in relevant communities – during their working time, of course. The medium-term goal of this association is to strengthen and support women in the industry; the long-term goal is that “women in IT” is no longer an issue, but rather part of normal everyday life. We have also registered with the “Frau und Betrieb” (“Woman and Business”) network, and hope to be accepted soon. In this alliance, the companies are committed to family-friendly employment structures, flexible personnel management, and future-oriented human resources planning.
Gendern?! Of course – (almost) from the very start
A few months after our founding – things were heating up to create all of our communication channels and documents – a small group of employees got together and discussed how we should convey our philosophy of inclusion and respectful cooperation in our communication. Our gender statement was created. It still serves as a guideline for communication for our employees today – because we are convinced that our language influences our thoughts.
And what is the point of all this? Show me the numbers!
percent of our employees are women
(as of August 2022)
percent: the proportion of women in the IT industry in Germany in 2022
(source: Eurostat)
percent was the female quota in our IT areas
(company without admin area) in December 2021.
percent: the current proportion of women in our IT areas
(company without admin area) in December 2021.