Accelerate Action today and every day

I have worked in the technology industry my whole career – and when I say that I am taking you back to the late 1990s. I know first-hand that it can be a hostile environment for women.

I have seen progress made. But I have also seen it falter. And I believe passionately that more action is required - to drive true, lasting gender equality in our sector.

Our culture from day one at UP3 has been rooted in a desire to unlock the potential of every member of our team. To ensure we are creating an environment where anyone, from any background, feels safe and enabled to thrive.

When I started UP3 with my co-founder Matt, I knew the kind of business I wanted to build. I also knew that gender equality – or any form of equality – does not happen by accident and is never finished. Action must be intentional and sustained.

In those ten years our workforce has consistently been between 35-40% female (while the UK tech industry average sits at 21% today); our leadership team has always been 50% female; and we have been named one of the UK’s best places to work for women for the last two years.

Am I proud of what we have built so far? Absolutely.

Do I commit today to do more? Also, absolutely.

Because as we celebrate IWD 2025 and its theme of Accelerate Action, it is vital we acknowledge that maintaining momentum is just as important as accelerating action.

In the spirit of this, I want to share some of the things we have been doing at UP3 in the hope that it will inform and inspire more action elsewhere.

Being a destination for outstanding female talent 

As we have grown, we’ve actively and deliberately worked to make sure that female representation across our entire workforce doesn’t go below 35-40% (much of which is technical talent too).

• We’ve doubled down on ensuring the language we use in our job descriptions and our policies is free from any kind of gender bias – a part of the process that must be baked in when we create them.

• Also, we have diversified all our interview panels to ensure that when women – or anyone from a diverse background – first experiences our business, they understand from that moment they have a place at UP3 – and hopefully they feel comfortable enough in that process to get the information they need from it.

• But the work goes beyond our processes. We celebrate and bring to life the stories of the brilliant women across UP3 internally and externally – like this story from Kat Finn in our team - with the aim of inspiring others and empowering them, leaving them in no doubt that UP3 is a place they will thrive.

Providing multiple pathways and opportunities for women to thrive

My role now – and I think this is true of all female leaders – is to make it easier for women to come through in a technical environment, to feel respected in a technical environment, and to feel like they can and will thrive within it. For me this is about the culture you create and the opportunities you provide.

• As I said up top, we have always been very deliberate in the culture we create at UP3, and it is rooted in openness and inclusivity. We talk about unconscious bias as a leadership team; we call each other out in a respectful and clear way; we normalise challenging it and importantly we hold the line. What that creates in the workforce is a clear signal that it is okay to have a voice and to challenge when you think it is necessary. And it builds trust that you will be heard. For anyone to feel psychologically safe that trust and empowerment is key.

• And then within this environment we put a strong focus on training. Technical training of course – we are a technology business after all – but also a wide range of professional and business acumen training, as well as new opportunities that expand their experience and accelerate their career paths. This is about finding multiple ways to provide women with the technical skills they need but also the ability to hold power – and be empowered – in an industry still dominated by men.

• But at the core of retaining female talent lies flexibility. At UP3 we work hard to ensure that every people manager knows that we come from a position of trust when providing flexible working practices for our people. We have policies in place of course, but we approach each person as an individual, with individual needs – and our starting point is ‘how can we make this work for you, your career and for us?’. Too often in my career I have seen women in technology take themselves out of the race and find it too hard to get back in it. I myself was really inspired by Ayda’s take on balancing motherhood and a thriving career, which you can read here.

Accelerating action for the future generations of women in tech

I said at the start of this that while I am proud of the work we do at UP3, we’re also committed to doing more. We are focused on our ability to drive positive change beyond UP3 and to accelerate action in our industry for the long term.

For us this is about partnering with organisations – providing our time, our expertise, practical guidance and real-world opportunities – that help bring girls and women into the sector and to thrive within it.

And we are proud to be kicking off new partnerships with Next Tech Girls and AspireHer to deliver against this. Both organisations focus on supporting women who want to get into the tech sector and specifically focus on women from diverse backgrounds.

Action, always

We have always been an incredibly action-orientated business, and I am proud of where we are. But we recognise that for all the steps forward we take today – we must continue moving forwards. There is still so much more to do.

We – and I am talking to the whole industry when I say this – must never take the progress we have made for granted. We simply cannot afford for that to happen.

So absolutely, accelerate action today, but also make sure you do it tomorrow, and the next day and the next day.