How to be the best ally to women in STEM
Using whatever influence or power you have to ensure that everyone has their voice heard is essential, says WISE Award STEM Ally winner Paul Williams of Bloomberg, who will be joining the WISE Conference 2025 speaker programme.
How has working in diverse teams led to successful moments in your career? Can you tell us about a couple of notable examples?
Building a team with members from varied backgrounds has proven effective in problem-solving. For example, I set a challenge to someone in our Desktop Telemetry team to enhance our real-time displays used for performance analysis. I was expecting two weeks of solid work to design and implement a solution that drew on traditional real-time games programming techniques – at least, that’s the approach I would have taken.
I checked in with the team member the next day to make sure they clearly understood the task, and she said she had finished it! With a self-taught programming background rather than a formal computer science education, by applying fresh eyes and her great problem-solving skills, she had come up with a much simpler solution that avoided all of the complex data structures and logic I was anticipating she would need to implement. This incident showed me so clearly how vital it is to bring a broad range of experiences and backgrounds into the room.
Can you give us your top tip for being a better ally to women in STEM?
I think my tip applies in any situation where anyone, from any background, may feel unseen or unheard. I would encourage allies to be mindful of who is in the room and, whenever it is in their power, to make opportunities for everyone to have their chance to speak or present.
I have seen numerous situations where body language tells me someone would like the opportunity to make a point, but there is no gap in the conversation for them to do so.
My own confidence, experience, and professional relationship with others in the room can give me the power to make space for them to speak up.
What are you most looking forward to about the WISE conference?
Listening and learning from experts in technology who no doubt have inspirational stories that reveal how they found their own pathways into – and within – this field.
Paul will be speaking at the WISE Conference 2025, which takes place on 30 September at IET London: Savoy Place.
Focusing on the theme of accelerating the pace of change for women in STEM, the event is open to all.