Here, at Women Love Tech, it is our mission to empower young girls and women to overcome gender biases and embrace careers in STEM. That’s why for IWD 2023, we asked trailblazing women to share their thoughts on this year’s theme, ‘Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future’.
One of these women is Rowena Westphalen, Salesforce Senior Vice President for Customer and Solution Advisory in ANZ & Asia. Rowena is a technology-focused leader, who is passionate about disruption, innovation and how businesses can help improve the state of the world through integrated philanthropy. She works with business advisors, solution engineers and architects to unlock customer-centric digital transformation at scale.
When speaking about Salesforce’s commitment to gender equality, Rowena commented:
“We want all of our team members and employees to feel seen, feel valued and empowered. Especially in these challenging times, this commitment doesn’t waver. It’s why we have introduced a new gender goal from 36.4% to 40% of women-identifying and non-binary employees. That’s a global goal that we’ve set to get to by the end of 2026.”
Rowena highlighted staggering workplace gender statistics, as well as the benefits of diversity within teams:
“Less than a third of digital and tech jobs are held by women. The absence of a female perspective and participation in STEM is having an overall detrimental long-term effect on our community as a whole”
“Gender-diverse companies across all roles show higher financial returns and consistent growth in the long-term. They’re more productive, better at attracting and retaining talent, more innovative and can better gauge their customers’ needs and demands.”
Rowena says education is a crucial factor in addressing systemic gender issues, “Education plays an incredibly important role in cracking the code for gender equity. Girls and women are systemically tracked away from science and math throughout their lives and this limits their training options to explore these fields as adults.”
To watch the full compilation of IWD insights from 50+ inspiring women, click here.