What is WiT at Dunelm?
A question answered by Emma, a Full Stack Developer at Dunelm.
Introduction
‘Women in Tech’ is not a new term by any means. It’s definitely a phrase that is being used more and more, particularly in the last few years, and it’s easy to see why it’s been gaining so much momentum. So what does ‘Women in Tech’ look like at Dunelm and how are we moving forward?
Who is it for?
We need to make sure that everyone at Dunelm knows they are welcome at our Women in Tech events and all input is valuable and appreciated. Whatever role they’re in, whatever their gender, even if they’re not working in tech, everyone is more than welcome and we’d love to know the motivation behind each individual’s involvement.
What is our goal?
Promoting WiT isn’t just a way for getting more women into junior developer positions, it’s to promote women into all roles within tech including leadership and management positions. A diverse workforce on all levels of the organisation can only be a good thing, right?!
There is certainly plenty that we can do within Dunelm. There are very few women in leadership roles within our technology department and that’s something we would love to improve on. We’re not talking about promoting women over men just to ‘be diverse’, we want to make sure that we’re giving women the same opportunities, training, and confidence to be in the running for those leadership roles.
It’s widely known throughout the technology sector, not just within Dunelm, that tech leadership can come across as a bit of a ‘boys club’ and might be intimidating for women and other minorities to want to work in that space. Our goal is to create a culture that anyone can be a part of and feel at home in. It would be amazing to have more women in leadership roles to give those starting in tech more diverse role models and may help some to see themselves in others and what they can achieve in their careers.
How far have we come?
The honest answer is not very far in the grand scheme of things! We definitely have a long way to go but we’re proud that we’re starting and aren’t going to give up.
You can see an increase in women in a wide range of roles throughout our technology department in the past few years, a momentum we will continue with.
We restarted Women in Tech events towards the end of 2021 and had an amazing turnout of people wanting to listen, learn and get involved. It was vital for us to get an understanding of what people wanted to gain from the WiT sessions and what ideas everyone had for how we can reach those goals.
Conclusion
We have a long way to go, there’s no denying it. We want to take inspiration from other companies that are further ahead in their journeys to create a more diverse workforce, so please reach out if your company is doing great things!
I would love to hear if you have ideas on how we can make our Women in Tech events as impactful as possible, so please get in touch with your thoughts!
