Making digital media a woman's business

The eight women who head digital media companies in the Digital Hub are bringing changes to the Irish IT industry, writes Karlin Lillington.

As anyone working in information technology knows, women are not highly represented in this field - and nowhere are they harder to find than in chief executive positions.

But the Digital Hub seems to be bucking that trend. Of the 50 companies currently in the Hub, eight are organisations headed by women - or 16 per cent, an encouraging ratio in a mostly oestrogen-free zone.

The eight are Helen Maguire of Reverse Perspective, www.reverseperspective.com; Ruth MacPartlin of Fluid Rock, www.fluid-rock.com; Irene Gahan of Irish Internet Association, www.iia.ie; Irene Kavanagh of Digital Media Forum, www.digitalmediaforum.net; Áine Burke of DVD Postcards, www.dvdpostcardsofireland.com; Munia Kanna of Beyond Entertainment, www.beyond.com.au; Helen Shaw of Athena Media, www.athenamedia.ie, and Anna Hill of Space Synapse, www.spacesynapse.com.

So it was intriguing to put them into one room for a round table discussion on what they do, why they do it and whether they feel women bring something different to the tech table.

Surprisingly, for the five that were able to line up their calendars for the session - everyone except Irene Gahan, Helen Shaw and Anna Hill - this was the first time they had all met each other, and they were not aware of the number of women running companies in the Hub.

While they run digital media companies that do everything from creating holograms and DVD postcards to distributing television programmes internationally or designing websites, they do all have one thing in common - they all started in disparate fields, none with a specifically technical background. Now they find themselves running technology-oriented organisations, usually because at some point they became fascinated with technology.

Burke, for example, started started in fine art and moved into television production, then to digital media. "When I saw the encoding - 0s and 1s going onto a disk - that fascinated me," she says.

Says Kanna: "I fell into it. My passion was film-making." However, this Middle East-born Australian's jobs have all been sales-related. "Then a job came up selling TV programmes around the world. It was just one of those things where I found my niche."

MacPartlin worked for Silicon Valley company Dialog just as the internet began to take off, returned to Dublin in 1999 and did a course on new media project management in Arthouse in Dublin.

She says of her class: "Five of us had lived in San Francisco and half of us were women. We were in the midst of career changes and we were hungry."

After working for interactive agency Windmill Lane, she set up Fluid Rock in 2002.

For MacPartlin, her US experience, where she says women are taken more seriously as entrepreneurs, has helped shape her business career. "I think after living in the States, if an opportunity arises, I go for it," she says.

She also has made the company the type of company she wanted to work for, a "nine to six company". "We don't work into the night, which was usual for the industry. It has taken the men about three years to adjust."

She says her firm's hours are chosen "because of children. Men weren't used to women with children in the industry, hence the long hours."

Burke concurs, but describes how work practices have now begun to change for both men and women:

"I was in an editing suite and at 5.30pm, the guy got up to go collect his kids. If I had done that before, it would have been, 'When will you be back'."

Are there advantages for women in working in digital media? Maguire, whose company creates holographic media, thinks so, because it's possible to work in the office or from home. "You can work anywhere with a laptop," she says.

"But it does impede family life," says Burke. Having the laptop at home also means women - and men - tend to do longer than a day's work on top of family duties. There are several nods around the table. You can't really mind the kids and do a day's work on the laptop, they concur.

Has being a woman helped them in their jobs? Burke, who runs her DVD Postcards company with a female business partner, thinks so. "I think because we were women, we had a good idea of what consumers would want. "Also, in general, women work in the shops where the cards are sold, and we made sure to take time to ask them about what would help them in selling the DVDs."

Maguire believes: "As a woman, maybe you can assess what a customer wants more intuitively. I also think that we see connections more, though maybe what we are talking about are human traits that for a long time have been seen as gender traits."

And does being a woman hinder them in any way, or cause difficulties?

For Kanna, who initially was working in the male-oriented business culture of the Middle East, yes: "If it was a male colleague going in to do the deal, they'd probably clinch it. With me, they'd be very gracious, but that was it. So in the Middle East, we had to go through an agent. There are a lot of cultural barriers in that regard for women."

Several say that they sometimes feel that it helps to have a male colleague along with them on business meetings. One says: "I have a problem that I look younger than I am. I find sometimes that I like to have a male consultant come with me just to balance things out. But once we get talking, it overcomes the 'young girl' thing."

Says Burke: "It's just that men are taken more seriously initially - initially! They have to warm to you."

She says in digital media, women tend to work with products while men do the coding. And in manufacturing: "Boys mind the machines, and girls do the packing. But girls are really good at managing!"

Kavanagh adds: "But they don't always choose to jump into that role."

And when they do, they are often criticised for being 'aggressive', say the women. "I hate being called aggressive!" says Burke.

MacPartlin says that she can get a bit of a hard time as a woman with lots of male employees: "As a boss I get slagged off all the time for being a woman" Burke sets off a round of laughter when she cuts in swiftly: "And sometimes we use it!"

Several feel the Irish education system was a significant factor in discouraging girls from pursuing science and technology careers. Says MacPartlin: "There wasn't physics in my school and we weren't encouraged to do maths. We didn't get guidance. We were directed into nursing and teaching in school.

"So sometimes there's this lack of confidence for women in the sector."

Kavanagh agrees: "Five girls in my school fought to do mechanical drawing and engineering. We were top of the class, but we were never encouraged."

Does being a woman make a difference working as a chief executive or in technology?

"I think that if you can lead, whether you're a man or a woman, you can lead people around you," says Burke.

"I think that the industry has shifted significantly. Women can be successful and play the same game, though I think that there is a glass ceiling. I'd love to see more women in the technical areas, authoring, coding."

"Primarily, I'm a woman in business, not a woman in digital media and technology," says Kavanagh, to nods.

And when they summarise their approach to business - and advice to other women entrepreneurs - it's business as usual, not business for women only. "Get the business up, get in, and get out, taking your profit," quips Maguire.

"The ultimate drive is to run a business," says Kavanagh. "Keep it small, keep it tight, know where it's going. And keep it profitable."