Luminary International Women's Day event 2023

Celebrating International Women’s Day ‘Luminary-style’

International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to celebrate our female team members. On Friday 4 March, Luminary presented a panel discussion to explore the present-day challenges of women working in tech and the lifestyle considerations that are put on women when considering a career and a family.

Claire Dunton

06 March 2023

3 minute read

Luminary has the fortune of working with some of the biggest and most well-known charity organisations in the country, many of which have annual events and initiatives to which our team will devote time. As a B Corp, there are also tree planting days that happen in Australia and Indonesia each year. All of this is to say that when we choose to highlight the many worthy causes that align with our business values, we want to make sure we give this movement or cause the time and support required. 

International Women’s Day is an important day in the Luminary calendar, and an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our female team members and engage in discussions that are critical to achieving a more equitable future.

Differing accounts will trace the beginning of International Women’s Day back to 1908, 1910 or 1917, although each of these reports recognises the suffrage movement as the instigator. In Australia, the first International Women’s Day was in 1928 with the core objectives of the movement trying to secure equal pay for women (who were only being paid 54% of men’s wages), a limit to eight hours of work per day for ‘shop girls’ and the ability to have paid leave. Ninety-five years on and we are yet to strike all these initial demands from the list.

Belonging to the tech industry that has a heavy male skew, we wanted to check in and see what International Women’s Day means to our Luminary women. Here’s what they said.

It's a day to reflect on our shared goals and progress to date, and realign on how much more work needs to be done to create equity for women.
Picture of Luminary employee, Shayna smiling at the camera with a black background.
It's an opportunity to look back on how far we've come and what we've achieved, as well as a chance to look at where there are still gaps for women and what we can do to address these.
Tami Iseli
For me, I think it provides the opportunity to further the discussion around how we continue to advocate for equity in our daily work environments. The more that we can educate around the historical in-equity, and how that has influenced all of our current day social 'norms' and biases, the more we can restore mutual understanding, respect and create even greater professional outcomes!
Leah Champion

Luminary is made up of 38 percent women, compared to the average of 29 percent women in the broader tech industry. We also have a responsibility to our female team members and future candidates to support emerging leaders through our provided performance coaching, annual professional development budget and the ability to facilitate mentoring opportunities. More recently, attaining B Corp status ensures we have governance guardrails that align our business with the B Corp mission ‘to inspire, empower, equip and support women to lead the change the world needs’.

We asked our women what changes they thought the tech industry needed to make to better support the career trajectory of women. Here’s what they said.

I want to see tech no longer be considered a ‘boys club’. I want to see women feeling comfortable to push themselves forward.
Amanda Pooley-Brand
More women in leadership! Just a continued progressive evolution of what is already happening.
Picture of Luminary employee, Anna Potter smiling standing in front of a black screen in a green top

Cracking the Code 

On Friday 4 March ahead of International Women's Day, Luminary presented a panel discussion to explore the present-day challenges of women working in tech and the lifestyle considerations that were put on women when considering a career and a family. Hosted by Senior Producer, Em Stewart, three women were interviewed: Melbourne-based Senior Front-End Developer and Team Lead Sarah Dam, Sydney-based UX Designer Marya Bautista, and Bali-based Talent Partner Hesty Noviana

With panellists belonging to different age groups and having varied experiences with higher education, an open discussion unfolded around the opportunities and considerations our panellists have encountered. While the experiences of our panellists may not reflect the lived experiences of each woman at Luminary, the aim of the panel discussion was to ignite curiosity and the exploration of women's lives and to better understand the barriers that are still very present in 2023. Topics included:

  • Planning a family while also nurturing career growth and skill development
  • The need to 'keep a hand' in the industry when taking leave to be aware of technology and process change
  • Imposter syndrome
  • The domestic load that falls on women more often than not 
  • Women who inspire 

UN Women Australia’s International Women’s Day theme for 2023 is ‘Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future’. This theme represents ‘the role that bold, transformative ideas, inclusive technologies, and accessible education can play in combatting discrimination and the marginalisation of women globally.’

This technology and innovation focus is perfectly paired with the values and reputation that Luminary has forged through 23 years of operation, and our commitment to making digital bright and the human experience brighter. Luminary pledges to champion the skills and knowledge of women in technology, working toward a future that is gender equal. We hope to see our tech community commit to the same benchmarks!

International Women's Day infographic

Data sources: 1-3. Australian Computer Society, 2022. 4. Australian Government: Department of Industry, Science and Resources, 2022. 5-8. WGEA (Workplace Gender Equality Agency), 2022

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