{"id":118662,"date":"2026-03-10T22:06:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/898606263"},"modified":"2026-03-10T22:06:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:06:56","slug":"the-women-in-data-redefining-career-paths-in-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/10\/the-women-in-data-redefining-career-paths-in-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"The women in data redefining career paths in tech"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThere has never been just one way into and upwards through tech.\u201d <\/em>\u2013 Becky Straker, Director of International Communications, Confluent <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The technology industry still prefers a clean narrative. Study engineering. Join a fast-growth organisation. Climb steadily up the ranks.<\/p>\n

But when I speak to women working across enterprise technology, their careers tell a different story. They are rarely linear. More often, they are shaped by sideways moves, career breaks, and moments of self-doubt that cannot be neatly summarised on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

The \u2018ideal\u2019 linear career path has historically favoured men. Despite years of focus on diversity, the gender imbalance in tech remains stark: a sobering 50% of women are still leaving the data and technology sector just as they should be entering senior leadership roles, according to Women in Data.<\/p>\n

For my colleagues \u2013 Siobhan Ryan, Regional Sales Director for UK and Ireland; Dominique Hall, Senior Director of EMEA Marketing; Radhika Kapur, Area Vice-President, Partners and Technology Group EMEA; and Louise Potts, Customer Success Manager \u2013 careers in tech were not built on a single blueprint. They were built through experience: hard-won, adaptive and shaped as much by resilience as by ambition.<\/p>\n

A non-linear path into tech<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Siobhan Ryan attended a Women in Data Network lunch for senior leaders across the UK public sector, one admission kept resurfacing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that we all agreed to \u2013 which sometimes we\u2019re nearly ashamed to say \u2013 is most of us actually got into tech by accident,\u201d she told me.<\/p>\n

Ryan\u2019s own path began in Ireland in the 1990s. She joined Dell in an inside sales role that felt practical rather than strategic, and later she moved to the US, joining Oracle and shifting from hardware to software, from databases into ERP field sales.<\/p>\n

She was often the only woman in the room. \u201cI guarantee I had to work twice as hard,\u201d she says. And she did. She won Rookie of the Year. She closed major deals and built credibility through grit and determination.<\/p>\n

But what stayed with her was not just the success, it was the awareness that entry into tech rarely looks neat \u2013 and that the industry still struggles to reconcile that reality with its expectations.<\/p>\n

The penalty for stepping away<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ryan\u2019s most non-linear chapter came later, when she took a career break to move back to Ireland from the US to focus on a growing family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really deflating,\u201d she says of trying to re-enter the workforce. \u201cThe amount of tax that is put on women for taking a career break.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a decade at Oracle, she felt employers focused on the gap rather than the experience around it. \u201cFrankly, a guy with three or four years of tech sales experience would be ranked higher than me with 12, because I had had this break.\u201d<\/p>\n

She refused to accept a downgrade. An MBA helped her rebuild confidence and narrative. \u201cHang on a second \u2013 my skills are actually still relevant,\u201d she recalls realising.<\/p>\n

That determination to define your own trajectory echoes across other career paths at Confluent. Dominique Hall describes herself as someone who has spent so long in enterprise technology that \u201cif you cut me in half, it would say tech marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her move to Confluent felt familiar because of the buyers: CIOs, CTOs, and the enterprise ecosystem she had grown up in professionally. But familiarity has not erased the dynamics of being in the minority, despite progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually cannot remember the last time I was the only woman,\u201d she reflects. \u201cBut it\u2019s fair to say that when I\u2019m in a room, women are often still in the minority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning how to hold the room<\/strong><\/p>\n

What strikes me most in speaking to these women is not simply resilience, but strategy. Hall is deliberate about how she contributes to meetings, choosing not to compete for airtime by interrupting or getting louder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to have a strong voice,\u201d she says. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean being the loudest voice. You don\u2019t have to speak the most often to be heard, to make your point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep it fact-based,\u201d Hall says. \u201cTiming is key. Tone is key.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louise Potts\u2019 career reflects a different kind of lateral movement. Tech was never the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never intended to work in tech at all,\u201d she says. After studying sciences and maths at A-level and completing a psychology degree, she moved into event management. A role at a local software company came up. The people seemed nice, so she joined, intending to stay two years. She stayed nearly 19.<\/p>\n

Starting in marketing, Potts worked closely with pre-sales teams supporting financial services clients. Five years in, she wanted something new. She asked about a secondment abroad. Instead, she was encouraged to explore pre-sales.<\/p>\n

A one-year secondment followed, and she never went back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started right at the bottom,\u201d she says. From there, she built technical credibility step by step, eventually moving into management.<\/p>\n

Redefining what technical looks like<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conversations around inclusion often centre on coding and engineering, but Ryan believes that frame is already outdated.<\/p>\n

Generative AI (GenAI), she argues, is expanding the disciplines that matter in technology. Philosophy, law, and sustainability \u2013 areas historically viewed as peripheral \u2013 are becoming central as automation reshapes technical work.<\/p>\n

Even her own daughter once teased her: \u201cYou\u2019re not really a woman in tech, because you\u2019re in sales.\u201d Ryan laughs now, but the comment reflects a wider misconception.<\/p>\n

Tech careers are not confined to engineering. They include the people who translate, contextualise, sell and implement technology in the real world. Without them, innovation does not land.<\/p>\n

And yet, the talent pipeline tells a stubborn story. The number of women progressing through STEM education and into technical roles remains persistently low. As a hiring manager, Ryan is blunt: \u201cIf I\u2019m not getting the candidates in the pool, how am I going to hire from the pool?\u201d Representation does not fix itself.<\/p>\n

The reality behind the rhetoric<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across these conversations, one theme is constant \u2013 careers in tech are shaped as much by advocacy as by capability.<\/p>\n

Radhika Kapur believes that support structures in the industry often stop short of what women actually need to progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany women I know have had incredible mentors who have guided them through their careers,\u201d she says. \u201cBut without a sponsor actively championing their advancement, they remain stuck \u2013 circling the same mid-level roles despite being more than qualified for the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a distinction that matters. Mentorship offers advice. Sponsorship creates access.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout systemic change, mentorship becomes a way to pay lip service to diversity efforts while the real levers of power remain unchanged,\u201d Kapur adds. \u201cThe reality is, advice alone won\u2019t break barriers; advocacy will. We need to shift the conversation from mentorship to sponsorship if we want to slow the troubling trend of women leaving tech before they even have the chance to reach the boardroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan fought to return after a career break. Hall learned that authority does not require dominance. Potts moved sideways and built expertise incrementally. Kapur recruited the right people to advocate for her in the space she was not allowed in\u2026yet.<\/p>\n

None of their careers fit a textbook model. If technology wants to attract and retain the talent it needs \u2013 particularly as AI reshapes roles and responsibilities \u2013 it must recognise the value in diversity. Diversity in skill sets. Diversity in experience. Diversity in career paths.<\/p>\n

There has never been just one way into and upwards through tech. And these women are the living data to prove it.<\/p>\n

\n

About the Author: Becky Straker is Director of International Communications, Confluent. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… upwards through tech<\/span>.\u00e2\u0080\u009d \u00e2\u0080\u0093 Becky Straker, Director of International Communications, Confluent The technology<\/span> industry … Technology<\/span> Group EMEA; and Louise Potts, Customer Success Manager \u00e2\u0080\u0093 careers in tech<\/span> …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}