These days, it seems like all everyone can talk about is their pivot into the tech industry. These conversations detail how they’ve done it, the personal satisfaction it gives people and most importantly the perks – including six figure salaries that position tech roles as a luxurious alternative to the boring 9-5s most people work. The most exciting part about all these posts is they are being made and shared by people – women – who look like me. 

However, the reality of the tech world could not be further from this glamourisation. The tech industry is still largely a man’s world, and a white man’s world at that. According to a report by the Inclusive Tech Alliance Report, women from ‘BAME’ backgrounds account for just 1.8% of female board members and 2.1% of senior executives. For Black British women, the figure is even lower – we make up 0.7% of the UK’s IT workforce. Having made the pivot into health tech policy myself, I know first-hand how this makes me feel; many of us working in tech are largely operating within silos.