When we were planning this book, we decided that it needed to be a ‘guidebook’, because we really believe that change can be made if everyone understands what the tools are and how to make gender parity in the tech professions happen.

Since the early 2000s the number of women in tech in the UK has been stuck at 16–17%, and across Europe most countries fare little better (some reach 22%, but many countries languish along with the UK). Over the past two decades, despite this inertia, we still believed change would come and that the IT professions would become a place where women felt welcome, inspired and supported to achieve their best. We set our aspirational targets for the numbers at approximately 30% women in tech, since we were aware that when the numbers got to this level, they might be self-sustaining and we would have achieved brilliant progress. What was needed to underpin this was a situation where women could see examples of other women succeeding in careers at every level in the technical professions. Their working lives would be a good experience, not one fraught with inequalities. They would not need to work twice as hard to be assessed equally with their male peers. Their rewards would feel on a par with others in their team, and they would feel appreciated and valued.

As the numbers stayed stubbornly at 16–17%, we kept telling ourselves, ‘Things could be far worse if we weren’t working on this!’ That is, we imagined that the numbers might have been in decline if we (and others) weren’t pushing for flexible working, promoting role models, being mentors, doing work with girls in schools, running women-in-tech conferences, lobbying whoever would listen (and those who wouldn’t!), and setting examples to others.

The work that we are all involved in, and passionate about, is enormously important, because we are increasing the availability of skills for technical roles in the UK, in Europe and worldwide, by ensuring that women see the value of technical professions and know that they will receive equal treatment in the tech workforce. At a time when technology is pervasive across all our working and social lives, across all sectors and groups, having access to skills is paramount. The rate of growth of technology means we need to take advantage of all possible workers and not just focus on males to make up our teams. We must grow the numbers of women in technology and ensure that the technology professions are somewhere where women know they can find inspiration, reward, fulfilment and equality of access to the best careers.

We started this book with the business case for diversity and I covered the benefits of integrating more diversity into technical teams. Hannah and Clem looked at the actions required and already being undertaken in schools (Chapter 2) and universities (Chapter 3). Sharon and I covered the impact of unmanaged bias in the management of technical teams in Chapter 4, and Shilpa explained how to build practical projects to increase the numbers of women in the IT professions in Chapter 5. Finally, in Chapters 6 and 7, Andrea and Sharon outlined some of the activities required within organisations to ensure that women see our professions and workplaces as attractive places to begin their careers. Additionally, and most importantly, they showed what can be done to ensure that we retain the women who are already in our industry and professions.

Some say that women prefer to share the acclaim for success in projects with their teams and don’t generally claim the credit personally. I know that the whole team who have created this guidebook have worked in concert with many, many active technical women in the UK and have gleaned ideas and activities from activists across the world who believe, as we do, that change is possible. So, while it is important to acknowledge the efforts of the writing and reviewing team on this book, it is also crucial to give thanks to the hundreds of unsung individuals who are working on increasing the visibility and success of women in computing, whether they are working in technical teams, in academia or in other roles in the IT industry.

And when our collective efforts produce results, everyone wins. The skills available to the technical professions will be greater and broader, our organisations will be happier places to work, and our children and young people will see that they can all have successful careers while creating the technology solutions of the future.