{"id":45645,"date":"2023-10-20T15:45:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/government-awards-recognise-the-entrepreneurs-working-to-improve-diversity-in-the-australian-tech-sector-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:45:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:45:20","slug":"government-awards-recognise-the-entrepreneurs-working-to-improve-diversity-in-the-australian-tech-sector-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/government-awards-recognise-the-entrepreneurs-working-to-improve-diversity-in-the-australian-tech-sector-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Government awards recognise the entrepreneurs working to improve diversity in the Australian tech sector – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
Entrepreneur and founders aiming to improve the diversity of the Australian tech sector have been recognised in a new series of awards run by the Victorian government.<\/p>\n
Code Like a Girl took out the first Victorian Innovation Minister\u2019s Award at the annual Tech Diversity Gala ball held last week.<\/p>\n
The title is one in a series of new awards introduced by Victoria\u2019s innovation minister Philip Dalidakis to recognise and celebrate people working actively to improve gender and cultural diversity in the local tech sector.<\/p>\n
Code Like a Girl, founded by developer Ally Watson, runs events, workshops and support projects to increase the number of women in digital leadership roles.<\/p>\n
Watson says the winning the award was completely unexpected.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a grassroots initiative, we do all this work in our spare time, on nights and weekends,\u201d Watson tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe were shocked, surprised and overwhelmed to say the least. It really means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n This year marks Tech Diversity\u2019s second anniversary, and it continues to put a spotlight on the problem of a lack of diversity in the tech sector.<\/p>\n Speaking at the event, Dalidakis said more needs to be done given women represent under 20% of Australia’s digital tech sector, only 14% of tech graduates are women and 30% will leave the field within 15 years of service.<\/p>\n