Happy International Women’s Day to all! To celebrate, we thought we’d share some must-know trivia of inspiring and pioneering women in history, as well as 5 ways we support the women (and everyone) on the Strategenics team.
5 amazing women’s history trivia you should know
1. Which country was the first to grant women the right to vote?
In 1893, New Zealand was the first self-governing nation in the world to give women the right to vote.
2. Who was the first female computer programmer?
Ada Lovelace, who is also largely believed to be the first-ever computer programmer, pioneered the work and vision that formed a key foundation of the programming field today. She even has a technology award named after her, for female scientists who excel in or make outstanding contributions in the computing field.
3. Which country has the smallest pay gap?
In 2018, Iceland formally introduced a policy that became the first in the world to require companies with over 25 employees to prove through accredited certification that they equally pay men and women for jobs of equal value.
4. How many countries are led by women?
As of September 2021, the United Nations counted 10 countries with a female Head of State and 13 countries with a female Head of Government.
5. Who pioneered information retrieval in search engines?
Karen Spärck Jones, a British computer scientist, introduced the concept of Inverse Document Frequency (IDF) which is the underlying technology of search engines and how we use them today. In essence, we can thank her for the way we are able to use human language instead of code in search engines!
5 ways we support and champion women (and everyone else) on the Strategenics team
1. We promote gender-balanced recruitment
Over the years of growing our team, we’ve made sure to recruit fairly to maintain equal balance on our team. As it stands, 50% of our team is made up of women from diverse talents, backgrounds and age groups — and in fact, this has been the case for the last 10+ years of Strategenics’ history.
2. We encourage female leadership and perspectives
We don’t just recruit equally, but we also make sure to allow everyone equal opportunities to lead. Many of our projects are led or designed by the women on our team, and we derive input from everyone on the team to ensure that everyone’s voice has an opportunity to be heard.
3. We are a flexible, family-friendly workplace for all our team members
We are well aware of the various family structures, dynamics and commitments each team member may have. Strategenics is proud to be a family-friendly workplace; our team members enjoy flexible work arrangements where needed to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
4. We advocate lifelong learning, professional development and career progression
Learning and continuous improvement is a key element of the Strategenics ethos. We passionately encourage all our team members to develop their skills and interests as they build their careers and be the best versions of themselves at Strategenics.
5. We support women forging innovation and having a seat at the table
Being in the thick of the technology landscape, we would be remiss if we pretended there wasn’t a lack of support and representation of women in this industry. We are supporting the women on our team by ensuring they play vital roles in our projects and opportunities, and make their contributions known in order to break the bias and give them a voice in the industry.
