Grace Boswood, technology & distribution director at Channel 4, explains how the broadcaster is seeking to accelerate change in the industry
As I reflect on International Women’s Day, I am incredibly proud Channel 4 embeds equity into how we go about our business.
Channel 4’s equity strategy – Equity By Design – aims to promote fair outcomes for everyone and seeks to accelerate change in the industry. It is also a time to reflect on the fact that getting more women into technology at all levels continues to be a challenge.
For Channel 4’s technology department, we’re working hard on ensuring that Channel 4 is a welcoming and supportive environment for women.
In our team we have a Local Equity Plan with these goals:
- We are active equity leaders in our industry
- We nurture and grow our “altogether different” talent
- We work with partners who share our principles and values
- Accessibility is at the heart of our design process
Making these real means making them practical: we actively encourage our staff to support initiatives with Rise, an industry group fostering gender diversity in media technology. And we have women early in their careers joining us through the 4Skills apprenticeship programme.
One of our young women engineering apprentices was highly commended in the 2024 Broadcast Tech Innovation awards. Members of our team also contribute to our 4 Schools programme, to inspire teenagers to consider careers in media technology.
For me, success is driven by different perspectives so it is vital we continue to encourage opportunities for women in technology.
In this way we’ll be able to make the change we need to happen.
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