Embracing Equity with one of our women in tech.
Equity refers to fairness and justice and is different from equality, which means providing the same to all. Equity means recognising that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.
Women have always been underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and careers in these fields are still, more often than not, male dominated.
Our very own technology expert (one of them!) Nicola O'Toole is a Service Delivery Manager for ICT and shared her experience of working in this area.
"When I left school and headed to college, I knew I was more practical than academic and ICT really appealed to me. I did a two year course in ICT and then applied for university. However, it wasn’t for me, so I applied for an ICT Trainee Technician role at the NHS and out of 60 applications I was successful. It was a real insight and I learnt so many technical skills.
Now I'm at #TeamYHG, it's the practical problem solving part of ICT that I love and I’m more about providing the best solution for customers and ensuring they get the best service which helps support them in their role, so there's a real sense of reward too.
I think, if I’m honest, whilst it is still a male-dominated type role, I have been lucky enough to have been given the same opportunities as anyone else but I know that's not always the case as some girls are still talked out of these jobs."