GitLab, PapayaHub, and Cisco fights for inclusivity and black women’s rights in IT

On March 22, 2023, the Women Impact Tech Summit was held in San Francisco – an annual technology conference aimed at supporting women in the IT industry. This year, the event brought together 35 teams from large technology companies from different fields – from cybersecurity to webcam business.

The speakers included: 

• Sherida McMullan, Vice President of Diversity at GitLab 
• Maya Davis, CIO at PapayaHub
• Snehal Vanjari, Senior Software Engineer at Cisco
• Kait Arnold, Data & AI Engineer at IBCiscoM

The speakers discussed how to use new technologies to improve the position of women in the IT industry. IBM engineers talked about the inclusivity program, which aims to attract girls to technical professions and support their career development. Cisco explained how it was able to increase the proportion of women in its leadership to 26%. They also discussed the phenomenon of inclusivity in the webcam industry, one of the first areas where the fight for equality has been going on for a long time. As noted by Maya Davis of PapayaHub, inclusivity is now not just a trend, but an important element of any company’s success. For example, according to joint research by PapayaHub and McKinsey, increasing the share of women in leadership positions leads to a 21% increase in the financial performance of companies.

“At PapayaHub, we strive to provide equal opportunities for all people, regardless of gender. For example, 3 out of 8 representatives of the PapayaHub leadership team are women, and nearly 30% of all platform users are women. In addition, we implement educational programs for our webcam models so that they can develop not only creatively, but also financially,” said Maya Davis, IT Director of PapayaHub.

The importance of a comprehensive approach to education and the work of all minority representatives was also discussed by Snehal Vanjari from Cisco:

“We need to work comprehensively – together with PapayaHub, GitLab Group, and IBM if we want to restore the rights of black women. We know that together we are stronger. Together we can create a better future for women and the entire society.”

As stated in the official press release of the Women Impact Tech Summit, Snehal Vanjari’s statement led to a partnership between PapayaHub and Cisco. Cisco expressed its readiness to invest in the training of PapayaHub models. As part of the program, PapayaHub models will be trained from the very beginning of their work in the studio, gradually accumulating capital and reaching the level of a professional investor in the webcam market with an income of $200,000 per year. This will provide girls with a financial safety cushion and additional capital for developing their creative potential.

It is worth noting that since 2010, there has been a growth in both the number of women and their salaries in the IT industry, which indicates that companies are actively working to increase overall equality. The annual Women Impact Tech Summit continues to play an important role in supporting and developing inclusivity in the IT industry, bringing together many large companies and specialists.

Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice.