The importance of empowering women’s voices in the workplace

To mark this year’s International Women’s Day, we are featuring several women across CI&T teams in EMEA throughout March, sharing how they prioritise inclusivity in their respective fields.

Last week, we highlighted a discussion with Lead Designer Inez Torre and Lead UX Designer Ola Podgorska on the importance of designing inclusive experiences.  

This week, we spoke with Roberta Silveira da Mota, CI&T’s Head of Digital about ways to support women entering the industry. Here’s what they shared.

How do you bring a voice to women in your role, and what is the biggest challenge for women in tech today?

Roberta:  As a Head of Digital at CI&T, I have made it my mission to carve out space for women and help them maintain it. I want women to have as much space in the workplace as possible, where they feel integrated and heard by their teams at meetings, in leadership interactions,  at corporate events etc. Sarah Mamou, a colleague and inspiration of mine, always says making space for women should be everyone’s mission, and is not a given. It’s a challenge that goes unrecognised daily.

I also want to promote psychological safety for women, sharing my own vulnerabilities so they feel comfortable being vulnerable as well. We create a rapport and I can be a ‘safe haven’, a confidant, an advocate, a listener, or a resource to help them shine. 

We women inherently feel inferior to our male counterparts. We suffer from chronic burnout having to overperform for bits of recognition and we experience anxiety at higher levels than men, so every chance I have, I make myself available, encouraging them to not overexert and be authentic. 

In my opinion, there are plenty of women ready to shine. However, barriers and the mindset of those in charge hinder women’s success relative to their male counterparts. To achieve equality, women must have the chance to grow as much as and at the same rate as men, and be paid accordingly. And, in practical terms, they need extra support to find genuine and authentic inclusion. If in a more technical career, it is even worse.  Proving you are a good coder or a great software architect as a woman is hard, and everyone underestimates your ability. It’s quite common to see men thriving in this world, and very uncommon to see women having the same sort of luck. 

In rooms full of men, how do you feel being the only woman at the table? How are you mentoring the next generation of women?

Roberta: To be honest, that’s never easy. Through my decades-long career, I’ve been in numerous meetings and day-to-day interactions where it felt like I had guns pointed at me. I raise my voice to be heard and say things like ‘let me finish what I was saying’; or be ruder than I naturally am to get a point across. It is not a comfortable position at all. Additionally, women are commonly viewed as contributors (i.e. meeting minutes’ writers), and not necessarily as people who add value to the conversation. Not to mention, men use jargon like ‘she must be on her period’, or ‘she’s always like that, ignore’ when they feel confronted by women. This must stop.

As a mentor, I like to be whatever my mentees need on a given day. Some days it's a powerful voice; other days, it's a shoulder to lean on. It's essential to support and validate women’s experiences. I try to be 100% engaged in the ESG agenda, making time to engage and encouraging other people to do the same. I like to be a reference for bringing change so that the next generation can thrive.

---