Meet Anna Andersone, an inspirational technologist behind Riga TechGirls. Recently bestowed with the highest Latvian civilian order, Order Of The Three Stars, Anna Andersone’s Riga TechGirls, is the first community in Latvia dedicated to educating and inspiring women in technology.
An expert in strengths-based leadership, Anna Andersone has mentored & inspired women in tech as her NGO plays a centric role in bringing gender equality in Latvia’s tech and start-up sector.
As Anna Andersone takes the Riga TechGirls mission beyond the Latvian borders to transform tech leadership and corporate culture for the better, AM Media Corp’s Editor-in-Chief Zeba Mahmud speaks to Anna Andersone, Chief Empowerment Officer at Riga TechGirls for her insights on how to become an inclusive leader, common challenges tech companies’ employees face and on growing women-tech entrepreneurs.
Women in technology is an issue even in the more mature markets. One reason is that at grassroot level there are not enough women students or entry-level professionals. How has this scenario changed in the last year or so as you have seen the market evolve?
The pandemic taught cities, communities including corporate leadership & even women that we cannot live without technology, we cannot imagine our future without technology. The pandemic almost forced companies, organisations, governments & ministries to go digital and use more technology in their daily lives. We have seen the importance of technology increased manifold. Now there is an awareness that we will need digital skills at a different level altogether. The perception of who should know these digital skills & understand technology has also changed because everybody should know including women, children and girls. In this sense, there has been a positive change towards technology and also towards gender stereotype but still the challenge of more women in tech remains, even in the more mature markets. There has been a slight shift, the result of which we will see in near future while “change in attitude” will still take more time. Perhaps for now we are still now seeing an increase in the percentage in women and girls going for IT but we will see that change eventually as now there is more awareness among men and women, that we need more women in technology and to understand technology.
Entrepreneurship is picking up in many markets even Latvia. But even in this women led tech starts up are few and far between entrepreneurs. Why?
In Latvia too only 6-9 percent of the founders are female. So it’s very, very low. I think it also has to do a lot with the stereotypes There are quite many women entrepreneurs but much less in technology. It stems from the attitude that technology is somehow more suited and more interesting for men. The other reason is that beginning start-ups means a lot of effort, a lot of resources and so there is a high risk that it might fail. Young women & girls are raised in a more risk-reversed manner; they value stability more than men. They find the decision harder to devote their time for something risky than for men. This mindset is a major reason deterring women to launch tech start-ups. And also, the society cliché that running your own company requires so much time and effort that it will them being good mother, a good wife or even a good girlfriend. Women face higher reputation-risks than men who is celebrated for spending his evenings working on his start-ups. He is seen as devoted and ambitious but a woman spending her evenings or weekends working on your passion, you are judged for being too career-oriented, too ambitious. This discrimination and attitude makes it emotionally & socially harder for women to start their start-ups.
What is some of your advice to the current women entrepreneurs especially because they need to pivot to a new vertical that is important to stay ahead or with the times?
We have to be brave. We have to be courageous to face the challenges and obstacles. It will not be easy but later it will be totally worth it. While we remain strong, brave, focussed and determined, we also must find support, find mentors who can support us; those can be both women and men the mentors. This will help you balance your life because the risk of burning out too much, too soon will reduce when you find this support. Also, building a great team eventually because if you don’t have a team its much higher risk and it’s much harder. You should bring like-minded people with the same vision in your team and network.
There are more and more concerns about the planet and ESG are coming to the fore. Are you seeing new age companies and event established companies doing enough around environment social and governance. What needs to change here?
I think the new generation is much more aware of the ESG goals and the strategies. We are seeing that the bigger companies are incorporating ESG goals in their core strategy. There still is a lot that can be done to create a need to learn, to build and to do more for ESG and sustainability. In comparison, start-ups still don’t have a lot of resources or time to do it due to their challenge of being profitable businesses or even breakeven. But in my opinion, ESG & Sustainability are not choice anymore, it’s a must-do.
