Takayo Takamuro, Managing Director, Telehouse Europe, tells us about her inspirational journey as a woman in the tech space, the importance of resetting the culture to make it more inclusive and appealing to women, as well as offering her advice for embracing working in a male-dominated industry.
The IT and data centre industries have always been male dominated. While there is still lots of progress to be made, there are examples of women leading tech companies shaping our society.
Women have spent years shining a brighter light on diversity and inequality issues, coming together in all sorts of public forums, conferences and movements to have our voices heard. Yet, the progress we’ve made so far can be compared to only a small drop in a very large ocean. Women’s rights have come a long way, but if we look at the historical timeline, our right to work, or be paid the same amount as men, is fairly new.
The progress and the acceptance to assume a leadership position also differs from culture to culture. Coming from Japan, my career started at a time when women were still expected to fulfil support functions. It was quite unusual for us to work in sales within the IT market, which is where my journey began. This hasn’t discouraged me in any way; instead, it sparked a passion for learning and a determination to pursue higher-level roles, which I hope to pass onto an aspiring, younger generation.
Resetting the culture
The IT world needs more female professionals because they can offer a more balanced view on the sector’s issues, which can accelerate technological advancements and innovation. Today, however, we’re facing a huge digital skill and labour shortage, which adds to the problem of small representation of women in senior tech roles.
To tackle that issue, we need to start at the grassroots level – ensuring STEM subjects capture the interest of girls early in their education and cultivate their passion throughout the school years. It is the responsibility of individual companies to create a culture where women can thrive and feel inspired to succeed.
Building an inclusive culture will help attract and retain the best talent, regardless of gender. Employees and especially younger women want to work for a company that is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, and won’t settle for any less.
There are so many stories of pregnancy or maternity-related discrimination. Let’s normalise women wanting to start a family, and equally, ensuring a work-life balance to achieve their career ambitions. When I started work at Telehouse as a sales manager in 2004, I was already married, but decided to live away from my family, which was met with a great deal of astonishment within our partner company. I was lucky to have the support and respect for my decision, however, I know many women in a similar position are facing the opposite.
Women need to stand together, share our stories, support and inspire each other. I had no female mentors on my career path, however, with the rise in popularity of online media platforms now, we have the perfect opportunity to leverage technology and spark a change for the next generation of women in tech and data centre space.
Eagerness to learn
Throughout my career I never lost the passion and eagerness to learn. I largely attribute where I am today to my hunger for knowledge.
If I had to offer advice to women about a career in technology, it would be to embrace the idea of working in a traditionally male dominated industry. It is vital to forget the stereotypes as they simply just hold us back. And it is equally critical to be hungry and eager to continuously learn new things, even though you may not be a specialist in IT or technology. My degree, it is worth pointing out, was in sociology.
Hence, I am an advocate for women to find their way forward by constantly updating their knowledge of their industry. It is an exciting time for the data centre sector as we’re seeing unprecedented demand for connectivity, scalability and security. New technologies like AI and robotics are challenging our old ways of working and opening doors to new experiences, services and products. We’re seeing innovative ways in which we can build new data centre facilities and incorporate new solutions to help limit the negative effects of global warming. We can shape smart cities and smart factories with the power of IoT devices that require extremely low latency and real-time data analytics.
The tech world needs people from all backgrounds and genders to continue contributing to the evolution of technology. By encouraging a more diverse profile of workers and inspiring younger women at schools to pursue STEM careers, we will eventually reach a point where the industry accurately reflects our society. This will not only be a huge milestone for women, but for the future of technology.
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