TO speak to tech entrepreneur Jessica Butcher is to gain a deep insight into the complexities surrounding the challenges women face in the world of work.
For while big issues such as the discrimination against women in areas like pay and promotion are now widely debated in public – albeit far from resolved – they are far from the only anomalies which require to be addressed.
Ms Butcher co-founded the tech unicorn Blippar, but these days extends much of her energies to her passions – encouraging more women to consider careers in tech, launch their own business and have the confidence to generally aim higher. And she has some very interesting ideas as to how existing culture can be changed around these key areas.
Among her comments that really hit home, though, was the observation that there remains a dearth of female role models for women in business to look up to. That is not to suggest that there is a lack of successful female business people. Rather, what she sees is a shortage of women taking to public platforms to share their journeys.
Ms Butcher is quite obviously someone who does not deal in stereotypes. But she feels it is valid to say women are generally less reluctant to shout about their achievements, believing it is impossible to deny there are differences between the sexes in some areas. Hopefully, through events such as her forthcoming address to the Women’s Enterprise Scotland conference, she can encourage more women to share their experiences publicly – and inspire others to follow in their footsteps.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here