At last we have a female role model in the world of technology in the shape of the feisty blonde lastminute.com founder, Martha Lane-Fox. While she was a major player in the .com boom, and followed this with a stint in the world of Karaoke, setting up Lucky Voice, she is now back in tech mode with her role as the government’s new digital champion and adviser, providing a much needed role model for bright savvy entrepreneurial women considering a career in the technology sector.
At a recent event I attended I was so disappointed to see that nothing has really changed since I started out in the tech world several years ago. There were only a fraction of women and the majority of those were scantily clad promo girls!
While other highly technical professions such as medicine attract a high number of female candidates a career working in technology is just not on the wish list for most women. Martha Lane Fox shows that IT doesn’t have to be all servers, networks and back-end technology, the digital revolution which we have been happily ensconced in for a number of years has opened up a wealth of new opportunities for women.
You could say that Web 2.0 is designed for multi-tasking women who like to be in constant communication – so it is logical that they should also be involved in the development and deployment of this technology and bring some much needed female blood to the industry. Yes technology companies need to do more to attract female talent but here’s hoping Martha will show that glamour and Tech are not such an unusual cocktail!
