Women in Telecom 

This post is going to offend some people. Largely, it’ll offend those that prioritise compliance with their politics and world view, over critical thinking. However, if we genuinely care about equality and opportunity for the oppressed, we have to be honest about where our industry actually is in 2026.

I have three awesome daughters and I expect them to have the opportunity to do anything they want, in any field, anywhere. If there are glass ceilings to be smashed, I’ll be at the front of the line with the hammer. The same applies in Simwood: some of our strongest colleagues are women, and they have my full backing to go all the way in this industry.

BUT, and here’s the huge but, factions of our industry seem to be banging a drum that I think is outdated and counter-productive. The noise around “Women in Telecom” is something for the 1990s not 2026. Glass ceilings have been long smashed and arguably our industry is already led by women. For example:

This isn’t an exhaustive list, and you’ll note that it is just current holders of senior roles. Those that have previously blazed a trail through glass ceilings, such as Sharon White and Dame Dido Harding, also need remembering. Suffice to say, apologies to those I’ve missed (including my own wife!) but if I did go on, we’d be here all day. And that’s kind of the point. 

Awareness raising campaigns had a place when boards were stuffed with people like me – old white and male – but that just doesn’t represent reality now. 

Women already hold some of the biggest levers of power in the largest offices in our industry, and deservedly so. There are others coming through organisations (including our own) who in time will carry the mantle too. 

I don’t see any good coming from pretending this isn’t the case. In fact, telling aspiring women that this industry is behind others in opportunity for women, or that glass ceilings remain firmly in place, is more likely to make them question their career choice than to encourage them into telecoms. That could only compound any lingering issues around female representation in entry-level roles.

If we want to talk about inherently structural problems in STEM fields, then skin colour matters far more than sex. There is a severe underrepresentation of members of the Black community in our field, far more so than women. That community faces significant structural barriers to entering STEM subjects – from early education access to progression and retention – and is in no way helped by self-congratulatory talking shops formed to address problems that, in large part, have already seen major progress.

This topic also ties in closely with another blog I wrote recently – about doing rather than talking. Instead of paying for another UK talking-shop about women in telecoms, we support ChallengeAid’s Girls’ Club Programme – a practical, high-impact intervention that keeps girls in some of East Africa’s toughest slum communities in school, safe, and building leadership.

The programme operates Girls’ Clubs in 55 “Schools of Hope” across Kenyan and Tanzanian slums. It combines menstrual products and dignity kits, empowerment and rights education, leadership development, and sport-based confidence building. It’s delivered by trained local volunteers, embedded in existing schools to keep costs low and ownership local.

In the last year (Feb 2025–Feb 2026), the programme reached around 2,500 girls per month with sanitary pads, delivered 660 workshops across 55 schools, and engaged roughly 3,000 girls in structured Girls’ Club sessions. The programme cuts period-related absenteeism by up to 60%. Drop-out among participants stays at just 1.4%, well below typical rates in informal settlements. Over half of participants report higher confidence and competence, and teachers consistently see better engagement and academic focus.

That’s not a panel. That’s not a pledge. That’s thousands of Black girls staying in school with dignity, building the confidence and leadership skills they need to shape their own futures – and hopefully, one day, joining the list I started this blog with.

People will still call me every name under the sun for saying all this – I can live with that.