As a mark of celebration for International Women’s Day we interviewed 6 of Box UK’s outstanding women, who themselves are ‘Breaking The Bias’ towards women in technology.  Here we talk to Claire Aspinall our Head of Business Development & Marketing.

Q. Why do you think it’s important for more women to join the tech industry?

I see it reported time and time again that women in tech are still hugely underrepresented, and yet here we are still in the midst of a significant misalignment of gender parity in our industry.

It’s widely known that diversity is key to embracing different perspectives; increased creativity and increased innovation within teams and organisations all leading to increased revenue and growth, it’s no different in tech than the needs of other industries and so it begs the question ‘why is the tech industry so far from reaching that level of equality’?

Q. What advice would you give yourself just starting out?

Don’t give in to imposter syndrome – I believe it exists in all of us so let’s use that knowledge to our advantage.

Actively seek out mentors / coaches that can support you to become the best version of yourself regardless of your skills and ability.

Don’t be afraid to ask the seemingly dumb questions – as a marketing professional in tech I’m often the only one in the room that doesn’t understand the technical jargon, but it’s my job to translate that jargon into a meaningful message to a CEO of an organisation that similarly doesn’t need the technical details but just wants to know how it will increase revenue for their business.

Q. Do you think enough is done to help women get into the tech industry? If not, what would you recommend?

The percentage of women entering STEM degrees is increasing and this is where it’s believed the ‘next generation’ will shift the dial on current levels of underrepresentation.  But still more positive gender representation is needed to demonstrate the career path for women in tech, as are female role models and the celebration of those role models within the media, for example; founders of tech start-ups and women in senior leadership positions.

Q. What first sparked your interest in working in the tech industry?

It was never an industry I sought to work within, but then a specific job advert I saw was too appealing in its challenge to ignore, it read something like this: ‘we are looking for a sales and marketing specialist to grow the adoption of our technology in organisations throughout the UK’.

Technology of course is the foundation on which most, if not all, businesses operate, and hence the conversations you have with business leaders are of the utmost importance to their business health, growth and survival.   It was clear to me that the challenge was simple – take a technical product or service, package it up to demonstrate hugely impactful business outcomes and suddenly you’ve captured the interest of a huge market of senior executives willing to invest – what marketer that doesn’t want the attribution of that level of revenue growth?