Breaking the bias, Huawei Celebrates IWD 2022

[Shenzhen, China, March 9, 2022] On the International Women's Day (IWD) 2022, Huawei and its employees are actively increasing women’s visibility via a video showing versatile female employees and speaking up for women in a Women in Tech webinar hosted by Times Higher Education (THE) to promote gender equality .

The theme for IWD 2022 is “Break the Bias,” encouraging people to call out gender bias, discrimination, and stereotyping. Hu Xiaoman, Director of Operations, Huawei Mindspore Community, joined the webinar together with Noa Havazelet, Head of Google Accelerator, Europe and DevRel Regional Lead of UK Ireland, Google, and Rameen Khan, Software engineer, Crayon.

Hu pointed out the glaring under-representations of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), which limit our ability to find inclusive, sustainable solutions to modern problems and build a better society for all.

She said, "In EU, women account for only 29% of PhD graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction. We represent only 25% of self-employed professionals in technical professions such as science, engineering, or information and communication technologies." These findings triggered discussions among the male audience about what men can do to address the problems.

To bridge the gender gaps in tech, Hu, as an expert in AI, suggested companies’ hiring policies should always consider gender equality as a ‘must’, not a ‘better to have’ option. For example, our thinking and action should improve from ‘should we give women flexibility during their pregnancy or for other matters?’ to ‘how we can better facilitate flexibility for women?’. She also encouraged governments, the private sector and universities to cooperate to boost women’s participation.

She brought about Huawei's flagship CSR program Seeds for the Future, which also gained traction among the audience of the webinar. Seeds for the Future program offers students a chance to know more about Chinese culture and cutting-edge technologies.

Hu established the first MSG (MindSpore Study Group) Women in Tech community in Huawei in which young women both inside and outside Huawei come to seek advice from more senior programmers and tech leaders, and the experienced also learn from the novices.

Huawei also published our IWD 2022 video to show various aspects of Huawei’s female employees. The video aims to encourage women to pursue their possibilities and become anything they want.

The video can be accessed here.

Hu Xiaoman spoke at THE-Women in Tech Webinar 2022