Belinda Parmar
| Belinda Parmar | |
|---|---|
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| Born | March 12, 1974 |
| Occupation | CEO and Campaigner |
| Website | http://ladygeek.com |
Belinda Parmar, OBE (born 12 March 1974), is an author and activist for the expansion of women's involvement in the world of technology and for a new way companies talk to women in the technology sector.
Parmar is the founder and CEO of "Lady Geek", an advocacy agency, which "embeds empathy into companies" and publishes an annual 'Global Empathy Index' which claims a causal relationship between empathy and commercial performance. The agency also leads the Little Miss Geek campaign, which aims to inspire women to follow careers oriented towards technology.
Parmar has stated that her personal mission is "to end the stereotyping and patronising of women within the technology" and the “pink it & shrink it” approach of selling to women.
"I set up Lady Geek because I was frustrated (and bored) by the way companies design and market products. Despite the fact that women account for 4 out of every 10 tech purchases, technology and gaming companies continue to patronise professional women by 'pinking up' and 'dumbing down' their products and marketing."
""The technology industry is still struggling to shake off the image of the male, pizza-guzzling, antisocial nerd",
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Parmar sees the image of the technology industry as a key reason for the low appeal of such careers to women. She will not speak at women-only events as they tend to exclude the men who can help solve problems of women in technology.
Parmar was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to women in technology.
In 2014 Parmar became a member of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader. She was also named one of Business Insider's "The 100 Most Influential Tech Women on Twitter". In October 2014 she was placed in Fortune's "55 most influential women on Twitter". In June 2015 Parmar was named by The Guardian one of the "One of the UK’s leading campaigners to get more women into tech".
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