Celebrating women
Today is a day to celebrate the evolution of women in society around the world. It's also a day to celebrate the women I'm lucky enough to work with.
In the IT industry, gender parity is almost impossible to achieve today due to the disproportionate number of women in science. Even if, like me, you could succeed with a business school education, you need to be an engineer or scientist to be a developer, data scientist or cloud architect!
This is an important issue that we need to address in our universities - increasing the number of females pursuing careers in the tech industry - because without a doubt, we need more women. We need diversity in how we think, act, and how we create, innovate, and manage projects, both in start-ups and at large companies.
Many women I know in my professional sphere are admirable in how they manage complexity, their performance, difficulties and generally in their way of commitment. I consider that as women, we are often more effective because we must balance both professional and private concerns, especially child rearing. I don't believe this is a cliché, and I'm not suggesting that men do nothing at home.
At the beginning of my career, I had the impression that I had to be better, faster and smarter than men to be recognized. I'll never know whether or not this was a reality, because my career wasn't that different from men's. But that was my feeling. Fortunately, today, I think that being a woman - a 49-year-old woman with my professional background - gives me a little bit of an advantage. I no longer feel like I have to be better than a man, but I just have to be myself.
To all young women, I want to offer the following advice: Don't hesitate, the IT industry is very exciting. There are many intellectual, technological and business challenges waiting for you.
We need you! With your determination and passion, we will put an end to the notion of gender parity. We don't need rules or laws, we just need to have the right opportunities and to take advantage of them!