“Inspire and collaborate to move forward.” This is the idea of the Women Tech AUSAPE initiative, with which the SAP Users Association in Spain wants to contribute to promoting the presence of women in the technological world. And to achieve this, a key factor is to put female role models in the spotlight, making visible women who have achieved success in the field of technology, science and mathematics and who can serve as an example and inspiration to girls and young women. when deciding your professional future.
With this objective, the first Women Tech AUSAPE event was held on November 20 in Madrid, with which this initiative began and more than 80 people registered, far exceeding the capacity of the room that had been planned, to listen to a dozen speakers from the world of business, consulting and associations.
María Rosa Ribó, member of Women and Technology & Training and Employment of AUSAPE and director of IT Projects at Abacus Cooperativa, welcomed the attendees stating that in the association “we are committed to the full and equitable participation of women in science and technology.” In this sense, some initiatives are already being carried out, such as the Women Tech AUSAPE working group with people from the association who want to contribute to this objective, and collaboration with other associations that work to promote female technological talent.
At the event, Grant Thornton’s Women in Business 2024 report was presented, carried out among 5,000 senior managers from 28 different countries, by Carol Lago, director of IT Consulting and Innovation at the consulting firm and responsible for Digital Assets and Web3. The report indicates that only 33.5% of senior management positions globally are occupied by women, with a growth of only 1.5% compared to 2022 and 19% since the report began. in 2004, so it is estimated that parity could not be achieved before 2053.
The meeting held in Madrid on November 20 served as a presentation of this initiative of the SAP Users Association in Spain, which seeks to promote female technological talent by making visible women who have achieved success in this field.
In Spain, strategies in favor of female leadership have led to a constant increase in the presence of women in senior management positions: Spanish companies have reached 40% female presence in positions of high responsibility. Thanks to the commitment of companies and employees together with a favorable regulatory environment, Spain is at the top of this ranking, 7 points above the global average.
However, in the position of IT Systems Manager or CIO, this percentage is only 21%, which drops to 16% when we talk about Technology Managers. The lack of female role models in the educational field and, already in the company, insufficient inclusion policies and the survival of the glass ceiling mean that female representation remains low, although in the last five years the growth has been notable.
Silvia Roldán, industrial engineer and Senior Mobility & Technology Advisor, CEO, General Manager & Advisory board at ADIF, was the protagonist of an inspiring interview conducted by María Rosa Ribó. Roldán has an extensive career in the railway sector, which she declares herself passionate about. She was the first female CEO of the Madrid Metro, she has been Deputy Minister of Digitalization of the Community of Madrid and has received several recognition awards as an industrial engineer.
He spoke about all these professional achievements, as well as his work in the technological field and the keys to facing change. “We have been educated to be the best in everything, and that leads us to set such standards for ourselves that surviving those demands and the difficulties of everyday life already deserves recognition,” she stated. He also highlighted the importance of a family and professional environment that accompanies and
Motivate to give your best. And she made special mention of her work as a popularizer, explaining technology and engineering to young girls in a close way: “The important thing is to transmit and communicate life experience and the importance of certain values, which engineers also have an influence on.” the care of people.”
The point of view of associations and companies
The Women Tech AUSAPE event also hosted two round tables moderated by María Rosa Ribó. The first, with representatives of associations that promote female technological talent: Susana Muñoz, Team Leader Enterprise Customer Success Manager and lead of SAP’s Business Woman Network (BWN); Vanessa Cabral, senior consultant at Practia Global and member of Technovation Girls; Maica Aguilar, Board member at Women4Cyber and Manager of Compliance and Identity Management at Ferrovial, and Estefanía Serrano, territorial delegate in Madrid of the ASTI Foundation.
The four participants at the table shared the different initiatives carried out by their associations. Aguilar stressed the importance of women “being seen in forums” such as events, talks, mentoring… so that cybersecurity, in the case of Women4Cyber, is attractive to young women. At BWN SAP, as Muñoz explained, they work to “help make female talent visible and ensure that women have the same representation in leadership positions as men.”
In Technovation Girls, Cabral explained, they encourage girls to develop and present projects in which technology is used to improve the lives of their communities, through a national and international competition where girls participate with their mentors. . Here they acquire skills such as negotiation, teamwork, communication… as well as technical skills. Cabral pointed out that future professionals must have more confidence in themselves, thinking that they are good at mathematics and science.
As for the ASTI Foundation, it is dedicated to promoting talent in technology among children and young people. Serrano pointed out that there is a basic problem of lack of technological professionals, which is even more pressing among women. For this reason, the foundation works in two aspects: robotics for boys and girls and the STEM Talent Girl project, which works with girls from the age of 9, introducing them to female role models and explaining to them what different technological jobs consist of.
The speakers recommended that AUSAPE contribute to its work by disseminating the work of these associations, providing mentors, collaborating between associations and giving visibility to their work. “We need to collaborate between all associations and join our forces to achieve this purpose,” said Susana Muñoz.
Representatives of companies associated with AUSAPE participated in the second discussion table: Sandra Isart, CIO of Nexus Energía; María José Lodeiros, head of the SAP BTP team at Minsait, DonaTIC award in Catalonia and StemWoman award; Ana Shopovski, Managing Partner, SAP Analyst, ABAP and Integration Consultant at Code10; Gemma Martín, CIO at Suardiaz Group, and Mario Martín, Program Manager at Eviden.
The five participants at the table narrated their careers and what motivated them to choose the world of technology. Among the reasons why there are not so many women who reach leadership roles in science and technology, they mentioned hiring biases, stereotypes in the balance between personal and professional life, the high self-demand extended among women who lead them. to not apply for certain positions if they do not meet 100% of the requirements, the lack of interest in leadership, the shortage of women at intermediate levels and the lack of knowledge of technological professions.
At the same time, they mentioned some of the actions that their organizations carry out to increase parity: strategic equality plans, mentoring programs and female leadership… In this sense, some of these companies carry out measurements and extract KPIs from percentages of women in the company and in senior positions, training of women or satisfaction with the company.
Finally, María Rosa Ribó advanced the next actions of the AUSAPE Women and Technology Vocal Office. These include the creation of a specific email address to channel all proposals, ideas and initiatives in this regard; the launch of the Women Tech AUSAPE working group to debate and put these ideas into practice and the collaboration with associations that work to show female role models to girls and young women in order to encourage them to enter the STEM world.
Women Tech AUSAPE
In addition, an annual award will be created to recognize women who work in companies associated with AUSAPE in order to make their work visible and give value. Ribó finally encouraged those attending to participate in these initiatives, since “all ideas and points of view are welcome.”
For her part, Ana Encinas, general director of AUSAPE, recognized the members of the association’s staff and commented on the structure and activity of AUSAPE, in addition to thanking the assistance of its president, Mario Rodríguez, thus validating the strong commitment of the association for this initiative. Likewise, he showed a copy of an AUSAPE magazine from 2011 whose cover made reference to “SAP in feminine”, with data that corroborated that of the Grant Thornton report that had been explained previously, thanking the work of the men and women that have preceded us, the importance of the event and reflecting on the impact that these actions will have in the coming years.
The session closed with the institutional speech by Gema Sanz, director of Institutional Relations at Madrid Network. Sanz highlighted that women have qualities to contribute to the development of technology, which she defined as “the new oxygen” to build “the world in which we want to live.” And he was optimistic: “We are more than ever and we are in a better position than ever.”
AUSAPE encourages its associates to write to [email protected] to join this initiative and receive all the information about the upcoming events and actions that will be carried out.
