Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

Women in Tech: Illustrate Digital introduces majority-female board of directors

The WordPress agency Illustrate Digital has appointed two new female directors, making it one of the few UK digital tech agencies with a majority female board. Both Melin Edomwonyi and Margaret Ascroft have joined the board, alongside MD Scott Jones.

Melin talks about the challenges of being a woman a male-dominated industry.

What does it mean to you being a woman in tech?

It means that there’s a lot of work to be done so that this sort of question doesn’t need to be asked in future. Questions such as ‘what does working in tech mean to you?’ rather than ‘what does being a woman in tech mean to you?’ should be asked instead.

How does it feel working in a male-dominated field?

It can be quite challenging sometimes, but so much easier and enjoyable when you have a team that supports you, and respects you for the work that you do. That makes unpleasant experiences less important. 

Was working in technology your first career choice? 

My first career choice was graphic design. I found out early on in my career that I was a kind of designer that enjoyed adding to my skillset as the world evolved. I started designing websites pretty much straight after I graduated.

This meant that I was designing websites, learning and researching techniques to communicate the looks I wanted to achieve with developers. This was a time when personal websites were still rare. From then on, I delved into branding, social media management and finally full circle, delving deeper into UX Design.

What made you choose this job role?

I’m passionate about design and people. I have grown a lot as a designer but I’ve also discovered my passion for helping people, and bringing the best out of people. So my new role hopefully will allow me to keep being creative while building our design team, by training and working alongside creatives with mixed experienced. 

When you were looking at going into such a male-dominated industry, was this off-putting? 

In all honesty I never thought about it this way. I’m of course reminded of this fact now and then via personal experiences or in the media, but I truly believe that we as women need to know our worth and what we bring to the table, without worrying about who else is involved or what they think about us.

I don’t believe in focusing on this fact, I believe in being aware of it but focussing on my work, and how I and the people around me can be better at it. 

What advice would you give for a woman wanting to go into the tech industry?

Don’t be afraid to express yourself. Create your own space if none is given to you. Don’t let the traditional way of doing business stop you from being yourself.

Who is your female in tech inspiration and why?

Unfortunately, I don’t have many heroes specifically in UX (which speaks volumes in itself), but Tina Roth-Eisnberg is a woman I really admire. She has been a great leader to look up to in the way we can use digital to create communities and find new ways of doing businesses. She shows me every day how to lead with our hearts, with honesty, with creativity and with love.

What steps do you think should be taken to attract more women in tech?

There needs to be more women at events, in magazines, in news, in films and in ads. Women need to be okay to be under the spotlight, we need to be more verbal and particularly more active at events.

Let’s not wait for people to chase us to do talks, let’s put ourselves forward for things so that the young girls can see their right to have courage, their right to have a say. If they see people who look like them, they hopefully won’t find the tech industry so threatening.