Cracking the Glass Ceiling over Asia

The technology sector has often been hailed as one place where true meritocracy can flourish, but the traditional gender disparities in participation rates, wages and senior management positions persist. As part of our work to help right this issue, we have been holding a series of Tech Femme events across cities such as Bangkok, Manila, and Singapore.

Each event comprises speeches and networking sessions so that the audiences could learn firsthand from top women tech leaders, their insights on the opportunities and challenges of working in tech, as well as future tech trends. We will be expanding the scope with similar events in Australia and New Zealand in 2016.

Here are some highlights from Tech Femme 2015:

Indonesia: Besides an informative career session and a Microsoft tech showcase, Bina Nusantara University students had the opportunity to be inspired by leading women in the tech industry, which included individuals from Accenture, Microsoft, Oracle, and XL Axiata. They also gained insights into what the industry has to offer for women and how to overcome potential career challenges.

Malaysia: Themed “It’s Her Turn”, our event featured notable female professionals as they shared their perspectives on the growing IT industry in Malaysia to more than 150 students from various universities, and dispelled myths and misconceptions of IT careers for female graduates.

Philippines: Our forum ‘SheCanDoIt’ saw college and MBA students interacting with women executives from mobile retail marketing company ZAP, local IT company VFTS-Technologies and Microsoft, on topics such as the need to have a greater representation of women in decision-making roles in the tech sector.

Singapore: For our panel discussion on breaking into the tech sector and ensuring a balanced gender representation in leadership roles, we had women leaders from international and local brands share their insights. Those who joined us include Google, Dell and GrabTaxi.

Thailand: Besides a forum with women leaders from Nok Airlines, Thumbsup.in.th, the National Science and Technology Development Agency, and University of Technology Thomburi, we also held career and leadership skills workshops to support participants in their budding careers.

Vietnam: At the panel discussion, leaders in the IT industry, which included start-up founders and Microsoft personnel, shared their career experiences and discussed the massive potential of IT in creating valuable opportunities, especially for women