If you thought pursuing a career in tech was a climb, securing a leadership position is a mountain. Where women make up only 15% of tech graduates in Australia, only 50% of that number stay in tech long term. Of those left, very few are deemed “worthy” enough to become bosses, CEOs or long-term leaders.

At Code Like a Girl, we have heard time and again that women have felt they need to assimilate to fit in. These stories are all-too familiar and lean into why the stats for women succeeding are so significantly low.

We are sold this idea that if we tried a little bit harder to become “one of the guys”, we’d have no issue in finding success at work. Become the “cool girl”, the one not offended by workplace banter, the one without outside-of-work priorities, the one who doesn’t have to finish work early to pick up the kids. This pressure to change ourselves is what we have seen other successful women do. We feel we must follow the lead of the only women leaders who came before us.

Enough is enough. We’re putting an end to this assimilation, fighting back the abundance of privilege this narrative perpetuates. We are grateful for the amazing women who blazed the way but we want our next set of leaders to set their own journey.

It’s time to have a very frank conversation about why leadership of the future doesn’t mean sacrificing who we are, what we stand for or what is important to us.

Code Like a Girl invites you to join our last event for the year and possibly one of the biggest topics of our time.