"Talk to them" women workers meeting

The Technology Park of Andalucia (PTA) and the Belife Sports Centre celebrated International Women's day with an event called “talk to them” in which women from companies such as Oracle, Accenture and Opplus described their work experiences.

Equality between men and women was the order of the day, and the speakers discussed issues such as the percentage of women and men in the workforce of different companies, family friendly policies and work-life balance, the gender pay gap or the challenge of encouraging women to pursue careers in science and technology.

In the case of Opplus women represent 67% of its workforce, a figure that is very different in the other two companies. At Oracle, the team is 25% women and at Accenture it is 34%. This company has a goal: to reach parity in 2020, and Nuria Iglesias explained that to do so, they are conducting STEM workshops in the PTA, lectures at universities and offer scholarships focusing on women.

Concerning work-life balance and family friendly policies, all agreed that there are many measures in their companies to help. "The possibility to reduce working hours exists for both women and men, as well as teleworking," said Nuria Iglesias. The case of Oracle, according to Sofia Schneider, is very similar: they offer the chance to take up to 3 years off to take care of children with the right to return to the same position.

With regard to the numbers of women within the companies all agreed that: "the person who occupies the post has to be there because of professional merits, not because of their sex." The next point discussed was the existing income gap that all the speakers confirmed which they are working to reduce and has been monitored for several years.