Local CSO to facilitate UN session on gender equality

Silverchain’s Chief Security Officer, Jo Stewart-Rattray, will take part in this year’s UN Commission on the Status of Women from 6–17 March, where she will facilitate a session on the affordability and accessibility of technology for rural, regional and remote women.

Having grown up in rural Victoria, this topic has been close to her heart for many years, as evidenced through her demonstrated leadership over the last decade.

One of Stewart-Rattray’s first steps was co-founding the SheLeadsTech project, a female-led initiative of a global IT association to improve women’s career opportunities in the cyber and tech industries throughout the world.

While promoting SheLeadsTech at an event in Canberra, she was encouraged to nominate for one of only two civil society delegates to join the official Australian Government Delegation to the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women in March 2018.

As she prepares to return to New York for this year’s event, which coincides with International Women’s Day on 8 March 2023, Stewart-Rattray reflects on her own journey from rural Australia to international IT leadership, and the challenges facing girls and women in the tech world, no matter which continent they’re from.

Through her role with SheLeadsTech, she has been involved in setting up the initiative in 17 of the 180 countries where it now operates. From that experience, Jo said there were any number of barriers for girls and women when it came to establishing a career in tech, regardless of whether you were in Africa, North America, Asia, Europe or Australia.

“While there are differences across different continents and countries, a strong common thread across the world is that there is a distinct lack of role models for girls and women in IT and information security,” she said.

“It’s important that girls and women see role models and hear showcased stories of women at any time in their career trajectory so they can say ‘look, they’ve done it, so can I’. That would make a huge difference.”

She acknowledges that mentors in the broader IT and tech sector were in short supply and encourages female colleagues across the industry to mentor other women.

“I believe that equality is something that all genders must achieve together because we can’t begin to move the needle unless we are standing shoulder to shoulder, particularly in the tech workforce.

“Research shows diverse workforces deliver better business outcomes, so we all have the opportunity to do more.”

Her attendance this year is sponsored by the Australian Computer Society, for which she is the Vice President, Communities. She is playing a key role in drafting Australia’s working document to inform the agreed conclusions of the summit, which sets the stage for each country’s commitments to gender equality.

Image credit: iStock.com/Askolds