{"id":24394,"date":"2019-09-25T13:35:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T12:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/licensedashboard.com\/resources\/women-in-technology-sarah-lewis-ivanti\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T14:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T13:28:14","slug":"women-in-technology-sarah-lewis-ivanti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/licensedashboard.com\/en-gb\/resources\/women-in-technology-sarah-lewis-ivanti\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Women in Tech: Sarah Lewis of Ivanti"},"content":{"rendered":"

At License Dashboard we are, and always have been passionate about creating and maintaining a diverse place of work. One of our employees has been working with the Women in Technology Community<\/a> by building a space where women can support each other, share advice and work to narrow the gender gap.<\/p>\n

We asked some esteemed women within the IT industry to tell us a bit about their experiences within the workplace, here\u2019s what Sarah Lewis<\/a> from Ivanti had to say:<\/p>\n

When did you first start in the IT industry and what drew you to it? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I actually just fell into IT to be honest.\u00a0 I started my career as a veterinary nurse but soon realised that I found the work way too emotional!\u00a0 I started temping in customer support roles for organisations like Going Place and realised that as much as I love animals, I am pretty good with people too.\u00a0 An agency contacted me about an IT support\/purchasing role and, whilst the idea didn\u2019t excite me, I thought I\u2019d go along for the experience and ended up loving the people who interviewed me, so I took the job.\u00a0 After a while I moved into more of a Software Asset Management role and then, eventually, out of IT and into marketing. 18+ years later and I am still with the Ivanti and loving it.<\/p>\n

As a woman, have you faced any challenges within working environments?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first role in IT was in a very male dominated department.\u00a0 The team were all really friendly to me, but we didn\u2019t have a lot in common and I did experience a lot of \u201clad banter\u201d.\u00a0 However, over time I learned to speak up when I was uncomfortable with certain conversation topics and the team learned to be more inclusive and sensitive to our team diversity.\u00a0 I have witnessed behaviours that made me very uncomfortable over the years, and I have had some horror stories from other women but on the whole, I have been pretty lucky.<\/p>\n

My first role in IT was in a very male dominated department.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s now well known that a lot of industries have been highlighted due to pay gaps between men and women, do you think this is the same within the IT industry? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I do believe that the IT industry does have a gender pay gap problem, and this is something which a lot of women in tech also believe to be true.\u00a0 Last year, Ivanti did a women in tech survey<\/a> and 39% of the respondents cited Gender Pay Gap as one of the biggest challenges of being a women in technology.\u00a0 Despite the UK government gender pay gap survey, companies are still failing to meet the required standards and a lot of people I have spoken to feel, that the way the data is pulled together means that it is not completely accurate.\u00a0 I do think that the government survey has brought the pay gap to the forefront and companies are more thoughtful about this now.\u00a0 It is going to take time for it to really change though.<\/p>\n

In recent years there has been an influx of women in all workplaces, but it\u2019s not equal to men, I read somewhere that men are 30% more likely to be promoted to a managerial position than women. Why do you think this is and what can organizations do to prevent discrimination and maintain equality when looking at hiring, salaries and promotions? <\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, I\u2019ll talk about the lack of women being promoted; I think there are many reasons why women are less likely to climb the career ladder at the pace of their male counter-parts.\u00a0 Some leadership teams or organisations are inherently sexist, and women are blatantly over-looked but, in other more diverse and inclusive organisations, we still see this gap.\u00a0 I think women can be very susceptible to imposter-syndrome and others just have a lack of confidence to put themselves forward for promotion or special projects.\u00a0 Some of the way businesses can help is by offering management training for individual contributors before they are promoted, offer career path planning and offer mentorship and coaching schemes.<\/p>\n

In terms of equality in hiring, there are lots of things organisations can do including blind CVs (i.e. no mention of gender) as well as removing unconscious bias from their adverts and job descriptions as well as their marketing materials, messages and websites.<\/p>\n

Having someone to call out the great work you do, and highlight your achievements as vice versa, is very empowering.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do you have any advice to women starting out in the IT industry? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Try and find a mentor.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have to be a female but someone who understands the business and the industry and can help coach you.\u00a0 I would also say that, even if you can\u2019t find a mentor, try and find yourself a sponsor.\u00a0 Having someone in the business who believes in you can be a massive help.\u00a0 Not only can they be your \u201ccheer-leader\u201d but also put you forward for projects that perhaps you wouldn\u2019t have the confidence to apply for.\u00a0 Failing a sponsor, try and find yourself a peer who can become your brag-buddy, I\u2019ve worked with various \u201cbrag-buddies\u201d over the years and it is very powerful.\u00a0 Having someone to call out the great work you do, and highlight your achievements as vice versa, is very empowering.<\/p>\n

What resources and support are available for women in IT? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow, there are so many.\u00a0 There are lots of podcasts, books, blogs and online communities as well as face to face networking and career events.\u00a0 I think the key is finding an employer that cares about diversity and provides some specific resources for women within their organisation.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the biggest lesson you have learnt as a women in technology? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The piece of advice I wish I had been given was \u201cbe yourself\u201d.\u00a0 I spent far too many years trying to be less feminine in order to fit in.\u00a0 I did this by dressing in dark, boring clothes and pretending to love video games, football and motorbikes (not saying these topics are masculine, they just happened to be my colleagues interests at the time, and not mine).\u00a0 Once I started to be myself, speak up when I was uncomfortable, and wear some colourful clothes, my confidence grew massively.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to emulate men in order to be successful \u2013 just be you, you are enough.<\/p>\n

License Dashboard’s spotlight on Women in Technology<\/h2>\n

Keep an eye out for the next post in\u00a0our Women in Technology series\u00a0and if you would like to take part, please don\u2019t hesitate to\u00a0get in contact<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are, and always have been passionate about creating and maintaining a diverse place of work.","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":23553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202],"tags":[203],"class_list":["post-24394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-women-in-tech-en-gb","tag-women-in-technology-en-gb"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWomen in Technology: Ivanti's Sarah Lewis | License Dashboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read the first in our blog series around Women in Technology. 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