Today (8th March), we are celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD), a day when countries all over the world celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women past and present. However, the day is also a call to action to accelerate gender parity, bringing together many groups of women and men to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality.
This year’s theme from the United Nations is ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls’. A very fitting theme, as the debate seems to be moving from representation to redesign – of leadership, of systems, and of the technologies reshaping work itself. Because if representation alone is not enough, what must change in the way organisations operate?
Here, through the voices of Fay Cooper, Shilpa Kaluti, Alex Rumble, and Anna Triponel, we explore organisations, leadership, and technology to understand how and why workplace systems, leadership behaviours, and technology deployment must be redesigned so that women are not disproportionately excluded or disadvantaged.
Putting a face on office culture
Looking through a lens of leadership culture and authenticity
Fay Cooper, Chief Product Officer at Scrumconnect, argues that the conversation has stalled around numbers rather than exploring workplace culture.
Cooper says: “Authenticity is one of the most valuable qualities in leadership. Leadership is not about having the loudest voice in the room, but about having clarity of purpose and the confidence to stand by it. Through years of navigating male-dominated IT environments, often as the only woman in the room, I’ve learned the power of empathy, conviction, and staying true to my values.”
According to a survey from WomenTech Network, 64% of women report having been spoken over in meetings, 19% feel they are stereotyped and therefore pigeonholed, and 11% are asked to “supply the food” for meetings.
Meanwhile, the EEOC reports that over a four-year period, women filed around 78% of all workplace sexual harassment charges in the US. In the UK, 40% of women report experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace, according to a report led by the Fawcett Society.
However, if workplace culture does not encourage a feeling of safety and support, it is unlikely that harassment will be reported.
“Female leaders must feel able to stand their ground when something does not feel right, and organisations must create environments where different voices are heard and trusted. Strong leadership in tech also means understanding the communities we are building for. When delivering major programmes, we must start by asking what people actually need and how those needs can be met in a way that works in real life. By listening first, leaders build trust and better outcomes follow. Real change does not happen when technology is imposed on people, it happens when it is shaped around them.”
When women are spoken over, asked to take notes, asked to “supply the food”, or given any other task that would not typically fall to male colleagues, it erodes their trust and confidence in the system, in their peers, and ultimately in themselves. Cooper believes that companies now need to explore how leadership is actively practised and how workplace culture can ensure a safe space for women to share their thoughts, stand by their arguments, and feel that they are safe, heard, trusted, and valued.
However, a supportive workplace culture must be rooted in solid workplace systems so everyone understands what to expect and how to behave.
From culture to systems
Looking through a lens of inclusivity in daily decisions
Shilpa Kaluti, CFO and Co-Founder, Scrumconnect, and CEO and Co-Founder, AttiFin, explains that if leadership is to function, then the systems need to work: “When I first entered boardrooms, I was often the only woman at the table. Even as co-founder of Scrumconnect, I sometimes had to work twice as hard to be heard, not because of direct bias, but because I wasn’t seen as part of the delivery world. That experience shaped how I lead today. I make sure others don’t have to fight to be visible.”
Women hold just 31% of senior management roles in the US, according to Grant Thornton. In the UK, women occupy around 40% of FTSE 100 board positions, yet when it comes to CEO positions, women occupy fewer than one in 10 CEO roles, according to the FTSE Women Leaders Review.
Kaluti believes that the industry must focus on “the practical choices leaders make every day”. This includes looking around at teams and noticing who isn’t in the room – where is there space for a different point of view or skillset? How are employees being found? Who is sitting on interview panels or who’s missing from those panels? And who is in the room having the conversations that matter?
“Recruitment is a powerful starting point. Actively seek out talented women returning from career breaks and recognise that confidence often falls behind capability. Many may not feel ‘ready’, but with the right environment and space to grow, they will thrive. The same mindset should apply across ethnicity, disability, and socio-economic background. When decision-making spaces reflect a broader mix of experiences, the quality of discussion improves and so do outcomes.”
Research from McKinsey & Company shows that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 39% more likely to outperform on profitability.
However, once the right candidate has been hired, there needs to be structured support to ensure people, cultures, and companies flourish. This is not about hand-holding. It is about setting clear boundaries, implementing transparent policies, and creating actionable adjustments to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to confidently grow in their role.
“Regular check-ins, mentoring and structured one-to-one support make a tangible difference. When someone shares a specific need, whether linked to neurodivergence, mental health, or childcare, flexibility and trust should follow. High performance does not look the same for everyone, and it does not need to. Redesign roles where needed, adapt responsibilities, and trust that performance can look different and still be exceptional.
“Inclusivity is about designing systems where people don’t have to fit a mould – the organisation evolves to support them. That is the standard we should hold ourselves to. Not simply opening the door but reshaping the room so more people can thrive within it. When businesses are built to flex around talent, we can create stronger teams, better decisions, and a more resilient industry for the future,” shares Kaluti.
When you have the culture and the systems in place, there must then be accountability.
Substance over superficial
Looking through a lens of the influence of workplace systems
Once the right teams and systems are in place, the next step is ensuring that they are adhered to and that employees are heard.
Alex Rumble, CMO and AI Ambassador at HTEC, says: “[I]ndividual acts aren’t enough. Organisations need to give real access, not good intentions. Sponsorship over mentorship, because sponsorship combines advocacy with influence and opens doors that mentorship alone cannot. Transparent career pathways, flexible working, and genuine leadership development. These remove the barriers that persist even when capability is not in question.
“Allyship operates at the level of daily interaction, not annual declarations. Redirecting credit when someone’s work gets overlooked, returning the floor to a colleague who was interrupted, and challenging assumptions in the moment. The cumulative effect is cultural, and culture is what actually changes outcomes.
“When organisations give time, sponsorship, visibility, and opportunity to women, they build stronger teams, reduce bias in their systems, and make better decisions. That’s the gain. The case is strategic.”
According to LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, women are less likely to be promoted than men, even with they have sponsors. This early gap compounds over time, narrowing the leadership pipeline long before the board level.
However, it seems that workplaces are being disrupted as quickly as technology is being created. Not least thanks to AI. Yet, this new ground could be an opportunity to build systems with women, and indeed, humans in mind.
AI and structural risk
Looking through a lens of industry-wide transformation
Anna Triponel, Founder of Human Level, believes that, when it comes to AI, businesses must focus their attention on human-centred transition because it is the right course of action for people and for companies.
We have already witnessed mass redundancies across the technology sector. AI is changing the shape of business so fast that it is hard to keep up, and these skewed models and their proliferation mean that marginalised workers are facing a higher risk of losing their jobs.
According to the International Labour Organization, women’s jobs are 1.8x more likely to be exposed to AI automation than men’s jobs in high-income countries.
“Companies are navigating a shift surpassing the scale of the Industrial Revolution. Now, AI is reshaping business models at scale … and we are not replacing some jobs with other jobs. The entire way of working as a company – and the workers that it needs as a result – has changed,” says Triponel.
She argues that if we are redesigning organisations anyway because of AI, we ought to rebuild them more equitably – or we risk embedding existing bias at scale.
“Companies are becoming leaner, they need more strategic, creative, and technically skilled people, and they don’t need people performing tasks that AI can do.”
The World Economic Forum estimates that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted by 2027 due to AI and automation.
Triponel offers a five-step framework for companies going through AI rollouts and restructures:
- Adopt worker-centric AI
- Ensure core labour fundamentals are in place
- Reskill and upskill – with others
- Counter disproportionate impact on marginalised workers
- Actively shape relevant policy with government
Not only is this the right thing to do for workers, it’s the right thing to do for companies.
It helps:
- Retain and attract top talent in a competitive labour market
- Maintain workforce morale and engagement
- Mitigate reputational and legal risks
- Ensure long-term operational viability
From culture to systems to influence to structural transformation – there is still a lot of work to be done in ensuring safe and equitable systems are in place to allow not only women, but whole companies and cultures, to thrive. Because if organisations are being rebuilt for AI, they must be rebuilt for equity too.
