Science & Technology
Published: January 31, 2025 | Updated: 31st January 2025
Women in Tech Hampshire hosted its first meetup of 2025 recently as the networking group marked its one-year anniversary.
More than 70 people gathered to discuss their experiences in the world of tech and hear from the evening’s speakers – including Emma Woollon, technology director at Serco; Emma Dawson, senior inventor and technology engineer at IBM; and Sam Gaskell, consulting director and founder of DataFit.
The event kicked off with a talk from Claire Brydon, senior cloud solution architect at Microsoft, who explored the history of IT and what it’s possible to achieve in a career.
Over the past 28 years, Claire has worked her way through support engineer roles, to design and then to architecture – all the while the tech landscape has changed immensely.
She described a career break in 2016 which saw her quit her job at Barclays to go and live in Hawaii, and later her imposter syndrome while working at Microsoft, which resonated with many of those in attendance.
“Ultimately, whatever women achieve, we have been conditioned to question that we have done it well enough, as we have been told to always seek external approval and validation,” said one guest, Becky.
Other topics for the evening included diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) policies, male and female allies, career change and progression, and positive discrimination.
Many of the women present talked about positive discrimination in the workplace, and how this can feed into imposter syndrome.
“Don’t be afraid to speak up if you feel this is the case,” said Donna. “There are usually good mechanisms to do this.
“Educate yourself and recognise the difference between ‘positive actions’, which are helpful and measured, versus ‘positive discrimination’.”
And on the importance of allies, Becky added: “My advice is to find the people who are willing to advocate for you.
“This could include peers as informal mentors.
“Also, ask early on in your career to work shadow someone with no expectation of monetary gain if they have a set of skills that you’re seeking to develop.”
Feedback from the evening was very positive, with one attendee writing: “It’s a very thriving community.
“I love to hear the stories shared by successful women, as well as being part of conversations that inspire others.”
This was the latest of several meetups for Women in Tech Hampshire, launched last January by Amy Lee and Lauren James of Southampton-based Spectrum IT.
The group is open to anyone from apprentices and graduates to C-suite executives.