At the WomenTech Network, we’re fortunate to have a wonderful, global community of ambassadors who help us spread the word about our work and who helped us make the WomenTech Global Conference 2020 a success and continue helping us on or mission to unite women in tech. We would like you to meet these wonderful people as well; therefore, we’re going to be introducing you to some of our most active members.

Today, get to know Mihaela-Eugenia Dragomirescu:

Mihaela-Eugenia Dragomirescu is a Romanian business professional with a dual degree in Law & Economics, experienced practitioner in International Business, Associated Lecturer in Marketing & International Relations,Trainer,Trilingual Translator & Interdisciplinary Researcher now towards a PhD, with a focus on Global Business & Law Development Enhanced by Technology.

Since 2016, she is the Founder & Social Media Manager of Professional Pages ”Law Challenges-Digital Economy & New Technologies", "Comparative Arbitration","European Universe”, revealing the rapid
changes and the fast-forward digitalization of global society. Mihaela is involved also in Entrepreneurship &  Innovation, and she co-authored the first Romanian Handbook for Business Incubators Centers.

In Mihaela's Own Words:

• What is the best part of being a woman in the tech industry?

Being in this field gives you the opportunity to be in front of the global society (R)evolution, joining the effort of advancing the development & efficiency in areas like education, health, trade, law and driving change,which are big advantages of working in the Tech industry.

• Do you notice a lack of women in technology? If so, why do you think that’s the case?

I recently read the U.E and W.B Reports on the Tech industry expressing concern of the low involvment of women in tech, especially on the management level. One may think that explanations could be found in the traditional misconceptions that girls are less tech-oriented or that the Tech industry is only a “men’s world”.

More answers are found in these studies' data reflecting same discrimination flaws in employment & HR systems as in other societal areas, unfortunately. One is represented by salary gaps between men and women, 20% for example in Romania, even if women have similar or higher skills.

So, women are not rewarded as men for their work and skills and this is an important reason to find other nondiscriminatory and rewarding work field, if possible. Same situation is for promotion and leadership positions even if the percentage of women with specialist IT skills are higher in Romania (~45%) than the European average.

I read the 2012 European Commission DG Innovation Report on “Structural change in research
institutions: Enhancing excellence, gender equality and efficiency in research and innovations”
reflecting the need for structural changes to meet the need for more women in science, where in spite of the increasing number of women with degree in science, not the same number is retrieved in employment in these sectors.

When it comes to Romanian women, I can say they are very Tech-oriented and we have a long
tradition of Romanian women scientists, along with important Tech educational centers were women are studying. We had and we have women innovators, Women CEOs in the Tech industry. But this is still not enough and the role of Tech women in Romania, in Europe, in the US and globally must be increased. In this respect, the new EU Digital Agenda, as one of the main pillars of EU's next Commission Development Programme, envisages a higher rate of contribution of women in the tech industry in Tech Research.

So, the adequate, nondiscriminatory employment environment, the favorable legal environment for motherhood and work/ life balance, incentives for innovation and entrepreneurship, the courage to start a Tech business, even the interest to learn continuously about tech advancement and to be part of the changing world are the main ingredients for women success in the tech industry to which women can add more empathy, emotional intelligence and intuition specific to women.

• What advice would you give to a woman considering a career in the tech industry? What
  do you wish you had known?

My best advice is the saying: "Follow your dream!"

If you want to study, work or innovate in this sectors, pursue your ideas and fight for this. The Tech industry is taking a major, predominant role in more & more fields, so Tech job & research opportunities will flourish.

Innovation with tech empowerment is one of the main trends of global development. Improvement of our life with the help of science and technology is, hopefully, leading our way to more progress and the relation between development in various societal areas and the Tech industry is becoming more and more relevant.

I would have liked to have studied Computer Science earlier at the academic level; Cybernetics as a second / third degree along with Law, to be much more prepared for the new Industrial High Tech revolution. 

• Do you think we need to be writing code to be in the tech industry?

Coding is useful and in my opinion is developing in tech begginers the logic of process framework, of flowcharts along with programming skills, but no-code platforms are increasing and the Tech industry is offering multiple professional areas of involvement not strictly related to coding skills, so I think is not compulsory...but is very interesting to know to code, to see transformed the human language and processes in computer language.

Meet more of our most active Global Ambassadors here.