Helen Shaw’s article in Feb 2010 Digital: Not Just Toys for Boys highlighted the lack of females at digital conferences in Ireland. In particular the lack of women speakers and women sitting on panels. I became interested in why this was happening and what was being done to help make some changes to this gender imbalance.

I discovered that there were women and men trying to address the issue.

Many lists …

Like Margaret E Ward who set up Women On Air a voluntary networking group that runs seminars and informal training workshops to help give women the skills and confidence to go on radio and television. A list was put together of women willing to speak in public about their businesses and interests. There is now almost 1000 women on that list.

Catherine Cronin found that IT Women… were Not So Hard to Find After All and compiled a Google doc #ITwomen with the names of nearly 60 women in IT — current and potential speakers and conference presenters.

Unfortunately, lists like this one The Talented 38 Irelands Top Technology and Startup Leaders which are all male do not help or encourage women to stand up and promote themselves.

Thankfully, John Breslin came up with this list Another Talented 38 more of Irelands Top Technology and Startup Leaders in the interests of equality and highlighted 38 talented women who were leading the way in technology.

International Women’s Day 2013

And with it being International Women’s Day coming up next week, my collegues Rita Tobin of Asar and Siodhna McGowan of Inspired Thinking thought it would be a good idea to gather pictures of these women on the list and make a short video. The video will be launched on the 7th of March 2013 to help celebrate the digital women in Ireland and their achievements to date.

So we are inviting the digital women in Ireland in business to share a photo of themselves holding a card saying the following I am A #DigiWoman, followed by your name and website or digital contact details. Very simple!

And the response has been great so far and thank you to Carol for being the first one in with her picture.

So keep them coming. You can post your photo to the DigiWomen Facebook page or email us at digiwomenirl@gmail.com

DigiWomen is all about being active in promoting your business, speaking at events and sharing the work you do in order to encourage the next generation of women in digital business.

What do you think? Are lists and projects like this necessary?