Time to hear from our Global Head of PR and Content, Beatriz Vieira. Beatriz shared some of her thoughts about what we can do to #BreakTheBias and her personal experiences as a woman in tech.

1. What were the one or two most important bias-breaking career moves you’ve made to date and why? 
   I think I’ve done quite a lot of bias-breaking moves to get where I am in my career now. It has never been just about being a woman. It’s about being a non-native English-speaking woman working across communications and PR in the UK. When I first moved to the UK back in 2016, I always felt that I had to work five times harder than anyone else just to break down preconceptions. It was almost like being sentenced before being judged.
   
   

   Then, I had my daughter in 2019 and found that being a working mum can be tough. Trying to find the balance between personal and professional life is challenging. That’s quite a heavy burden to carry, but I’ve always found I could rely on other strong women and allies around me to make it easier.

2. What is the most important challenge we still need to tackle for women in tech?
   People need to understand the unique challenges we all face as women. In tech or anywhere else. It’s about putting more women in senior positions to address these things from the top, rather than having just white men decide what is best for women. I can see a lot of movement across the industry to enhance HR policies and benefits to give women the support they need during specific moments, such as coming back to work after having a baby or during menopause, for example. These are all great things, but they need to continue cascading down from the top and that will only happen when we have enough women in executive teams.

3. What does #BreakTheBias mean to you?
   It means making sure the next generations don’t go through the same issues we are facing now. It’s about creating a more inclusive and diverse environment by getting involved in difficult conversations and raising my own voice as a woman.
   Breaking the bias is about supporting others, sharing knowledge and encouraging women to go above and beyond without the fear of being judged.
   
   
4. What people can do to help #BreaktheBias or be a better ally?
   Listen. But listen to understand, not to reply. Actively listening to what we are saying is the first step. It’s all about learning before doing something.

   
   Then, speak up! Have our backs. How many times have you seen a man talking over a woman in a meeting? How many times have we all seen people paying more attention to what a man is saying – even when they are saying exactly what a woman said 10 minutes before?

   Call people out, so we can stop these behaviours when we see them happening. You could even add a bit of humour there, you know? ‘Great to see we have a couple people who share the same view’. Make it lighthearted, but make sure it doesn’t go unnoticed.