Digital Her: Supporting women within the tech industry  

By Emma Grant, Head of Programmes at Manchester Digital  

Digital Her is an initiative launched by not-for-profit tech trade body Manchester Digital in 2019 to inspire girls to strive into careers in the tech industry, and support women to thrive in the sector, across Greater Manchester.  

Our mission is to help increase gender representation, diversity and inclusivity in the digital and tech sector. In order to do this, Digital Her works to inspire and encourage girls and women to pursue careers in digital, and support women already working in tech to thrive.  

Manchester Digital recently won an award from the Power Up awards, by She Can Code, for the Best Tech Not-for-Profit, specifically for our work on the extensive Digital Her initiative. On top of that, our Digital Her programme won the Diversity and Inclusion Initiative of the Year award at Computing’s Women in Tech Excellence Awards in 2024.  

Supported by sponsorship from leading tech businesses, Digital Her runs events for schools and colleges to inspire young women to opt for a career in tech, and also offer a glimpse at the range of very varied careers on offer within the fast-moving tech industry.  

It’s also important to stress to young women that there are multiple pathways into the tech industry, such as through T-Levels and apprenticeships - and that getting a degree in Computer Science is not the only route into tech.  

MentorHER  

Part of the Digital Her initiative, MentorHER is a brilliant mentoring programme for women in the tech industry, now launching its fourth cohort of 20 mentors and 20 mentees.  

We have also just announced a new partnership with CGI, which enables us to offer a fully-funded programme for this next cohort of wonderful women. This new cohort will again focus on early careers, and is aimed at mentoring women in their first one to two years of their tech career.  

Our aim is to build a community of mentees who, once they have completed the programme, will then ‘pay it forward’ and give back to the next generation of women joining the industry. We’ve already seen this in action and it’s amazing to hear of the positive experiences of women who go onto become a mentor within our programme.  

Community is a huge part of MentorHER, with participants forging relationships not only with their partner but a whole network of women across Greater Manchester and beyond. 

Anyone interested in becoming a mentor or a mentee, can register with our online form.

InspireHER breakfast 

Earlier this month, Digital Her and Lloyds Banking Group ran an InspireHER Breakfast about the power of storytelling. This was a morning of connection, courage and storytelling with women across Manchester’s digital and tech community.  

From Sam Leonard’s workshop on The Power of Storytelling, to a brilliant panel of women from Lloyds Banking Group reflecting on their proudest moments and squiggly career paths, the morning reminded us that the stories we share shape the communities we build. 

Attendees also heard inspiring lightning talks from Arushi Singh from AJ Bell and Caitlin Bourne from Scale-Ability, which were both powerful reminders to “do the thing anyway” and show up, even when you don’t feel ready. 

Ada Lovelace Day Digital Her Roadshow  

On Ada Lovelace Day this year (October 14), Digital Her ran a roadshow for 70 girls from Manchester schools at the Autotrader offices in Manchester city centre.  

Autotrader is one of the founding sponsors and a continued supporter of Digital Her, so we are pleased to co-host this event with them, which showcased what a technical education pathway looks like to girls currently doing GCSE Computer Science.    

Digital Her Day  

As part of next year’s Digital Skills Festival, Digital Her Day takes place on Tuesday, February 2, 2026 and will also shine a spotlight on the vibrant diversity within our region’s tech sector.  

The day will see a full-day agenda of talks and workshops, so watch out for more details being released very soon.