Questers actively supports the gender diversity in the Bulgarian tech sector - Questers

Questers actively supports the gender diversity in the Bulgarian tech sector

Achieving greater gender diversity in the Bulgarian tech sector is a cause that Questers, as a technology company with a main development centre in the country, actively supports. In last year’s Women in Tech overview we have discussed the worldwide gender gap and went through the main drivers for striving to achieve balance and attracting more ladies to the tech sector.

According to a recent Eurostat report, Bulgaria takes the leading position in the EU in terms of gender diversity in the ICT sector. As the report states, the country had a share of 26,5% female employees in the sector for 2017, while the Union’s average was just 17,2%.

Distribution_of_ICT_specialists.png

Image source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=ICT_specialists_in_employment#ICT_specialists_by_sex

However, no matter the leading position of Bulgaria in this chart, there is still a lot of room for improvement. We, at Questers believe that greater gender diversity could be achieved through persistent efforts in three major directions:

  • Educating and encouraging young girls to pursue a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM);
  • Ensuring equal working conditions for women;
  • Inspiring ladies to re-qualify and start a career in the tech sector through various educational initiatives.

In line with the encouragement of young girls to pursue a degree in STEM, Questers is supporting various educational and training initiatives and organizations such as Robopartans Gabrovo, Muzeiko and CoderDojo, offering an equal opportunity to boys and girls to explore the wonders of science and technology.

To improve the working conditions for women, Questers is constantly taking actions aiming at ensuring equal employment opportunities for its people. As a TOP ICT employer in Bulgaria we have developed one of the most comprehensive social benefits programmes in the country. Furthermore, we ensure salaries are formed according to strict criteria based on employees’ skills and qualifications rather than gender (or racial) characteristics. The company also provides additional health insurance with excellent medical services during pregnancy and maternity. As a result of our constant efforts the share of female employees at Questers in 2018 has reached 34%.

As of inspiring more ladies to re-qualify and start a tech career, Questers regularly supports educational initiatives that aim at attracting a greater number of women to the technology sector. An inspiring example is the 11th edition of Rails Girls Sofia that took place last weekend in the National Palace of Culture. Continuously supported by Questers, Rails Girls Sofia is a 2-day tech workshop aiming to introduce the world of technology to women and provide them with the tools and community needed to better understand it. The last edition of the workshop gathered more than 100 ladies that with the support of their mentors had the opportunity to make their first steps in coding and to build their first web application using Ruby on Rails.