Much has changed in the past 100 years since the celebrations that would lead to the annual International Women’s Day were first initiated. Universal suffrage did not include gender parity in most countries, senior leadership in business and industry among women was non-existent, and many privileges women enjoy today, such as the right to own property or to determine their own healthcare, were essentially denied to almost half the human population.
Despite the immense amount of progress modern society has achieved over a century the “pace of change is not enough”, according to Joanna Pamphilis, global head of investments and securities digital products at UniCredit.
Career history
2021: UniCredit, MD, SVP, global head of investments and securities digital products
2018: State Street, MD, COO technology, EMEA
2017: KCG Holdings (formerly Getco), COO
2000: UBS, executive director
Pamphilis says days like International Women’s Day, held on March 8 annually, and International Girls in Information and Communications Technology Day on April 25 this year, “hold importance” as global celebrations of women on a social and economic and cultural level, but also as a call to action.
“Yes, we have come a long way,” she says. “Whereas once women couldn’t vote, women are now leading countries, or while women once faced restrictions on where they work, we’re now running corporations, but I maintain we are not there yet.”
An inspiring role
International Girls in ICT Day, in particular, is an important date in Pamphilis’s calendar. The day aims to raise awareness about the gender gap in the tech industry and to increase the representation of girls and women in technology.
UniCredit is currently planning activities Pamphilis hopes will inspire and embolden girls to pursue careers in technology. Spearheaded last year from the bank’s Milan headquarters, this year UniCredit is looking to expand activities to other countries and offices.
In addition to inspiring girls and closing the gender gap, she says, outreach efforts such as those around International Girls in ICT Day help satisfy the industry’s critical need for tech skills; especially as, increasingly, the need for digital skills talent is no longer isolated in the technology departments, she adds.
Women underestimate the impact of having someone senior at a table, in the organisation, in the room, representing them
“We are seeing an equal demand in risk, in compliance, and in legal,” says Pamphilis: digital skills are needed for presentations, for communication and “for life”.
In addition to acting as a role model for women in the industry and acting as a mentor — both formally and informally — Pamphilis feels one of the most overlooked actions that can help narrow the gender gap in tech is sponsorship.
“While a role model or a mentor is someone who has knowledge and will share it with you, a sponsor for me is someone who has power, let’s say influence, and will use it for you,” she says. “Women underestimate the impact of having someone senior at a table, in the organisation, in the room, representing them, being your voice for a promotion or a strategic opportunity or speaking on your behalf.”
Women tend to be “over-mentored” and “under-sponsored”, she adds. However, reflecting on specific points in her career, sponsorship has been a “game changer”.
Pamphilis is involved with UniCredit’s multi-year cultural and industrial strategic plan, UniCredit Unlocked. When launched, CEO Andrea Orcel said the plan will invest in “digital, data and our businesses, putting clients back at the centre, setting out a new way of working for our employees and pursuing a capital-light model with sustainability embedded throughout”.
Internal network
In addition to this work, Pamphilis is the accountable executive for diversity, equity and inclusion for the group digital function at the bank. It is in this role she prioritises active sponsorship “to create meaningful, sustainable impact” and to champion women.
Actions include co-founding an employee resource group named Pink which connects women in technology and across all the bank’s geographies.
“The mantra we have is about building bonds and fostering success,” says Pamphilis. “We sponsor opportunities and moments that are reinforcing this mantra and then what Pink also provides is connecting the dots with similar employee resource groups and communities across the country to create an even broader impact with a greater critical mass all around the same platform.”
Last year Unicredit’s Pink group supported a Python programming bootcamp, with participants from the Milan area, and then more recently, an internal Python bootcamp across all of the bank.
This work to address gender parity isn’t done “because it’s good” or because “we have to achieve a KPI, because that doesn’t work for me”, says Pamphilis. This work is to show “the concrete impact and relevance”, how this can be a “game changer” and “getting people to think laterally”.
