This International Women’s Day, Aero Commerce is launching a fundraising initiative in support of UK charity Tech She Can, reinforcing the need for sustained action to address the gender participation gap in technology.
Women remain significantly underrepresented in the technology sector. Globally, women make up approximately 28% of the tech workforce, with leadership representation considerably lower. In the UK, women account for around 23% of core STEM roles, and female participation in engineering and technology education pathways remain disproportionately small.
In fact, despite efforts to increase diversity, the number of women in tech roles has declined in recent years. Amongst the leading causes for underrepresentation of women in tech were lack of entry into STEM education, gender bias in the recruitment process, and low retention of women in the tech sector - often due to lower salaries and fewer promotion opportunities.
For an industry as digitally driven as ecommerce, this gap is more than “just a social issue”. It is a structural and economic one.
From recognition to action
International Women’s Day often centres around celebration. While recognition matters, meaningful progress requires sustained investment in education, access and representation.
Aero Commerce has chosen to support Tech She Can, a UK charity dedicated to inspiring and educating girls, women, and other underrepresented groups, to pursue careers in technology.
Working alongside more than 240 organisations across the UK, Tech She Can delivers educational programmes, resources, and career pathway initiatives designed to tackle long-term underrepresentation in tech.
Why this matters for ecommerce
Ecommerce relies on technology at every level, whether that’s development, infrastructure, logistics, payments, data science, or digital marketing.
A limited and uneven talent pipeline restricts innovation and growth across the sector. McKinsey research consistently shows that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are more likely to outperform on profitability than those in the bottom quartile.
Diverse teams have also been shown to make better, more balanced decisions and demonstrate stronger innovation performance.
Greater representation in technology is not just socially responsible. It also:
Expands access to talent in a skills-constrained market
Drives innovation through broader perspectives and lived experience
Strengthens organisational resilience through diverse leadership
Improves product design and accessibility by reflecting real user needs
For businesses operating in competitive digital markets, diversity is not symbolic. It’s strategic infrastructure.
Aero’s commitment
To support the initiative, Aero Commerce has launched a dedicated fundraising page via JustGiving and will match the total amount raised pound for pound, up to a maximum of £500.
The fundraiser will run until the end of April, with the aim to extend the impact beyond International Women’s Day itself.
By matching donations, we hope to amplify community contributions and encourage collective participation across our network of agency partners and retailers.
Building a more inclusive future
Addressing underrepresentation in technology requires long-term commitment across education, industry, and policy.
Initiatives like Tech She Can demonstrate that early exposure, role modelling, and structured support significantly improve confidence and career participation among girls and young women considering technology pathways.
Sofia Furtado, Marketing Coordinator at Aero Commerce, commented:
Ecommerce is built on technology, and technology is built and used by real people. If we want a stronger, more innovative digital economy, we need to widen the talent pipeline and make it genuinely accessible.
The gender gap in tech isn’t just an abstract diversity metric. It’s a constraint on potential. When an industry limits who participates, it limits the ideas, perspectives and solutions it can produce. Diverse teams build better products, make stronger decisions and better reflect the customers they serve.
But this goes beyond commercial outcomes. Representation shapes confidence and contribution. When people feel genuinely seen and valued in their professions and communities, they participate more fully and contribute more meaningfully. The economic and societal value of that is immeasurable.
At Aero, we recognise that meaningful progress is built over time. It requires sustained effort, investment and collective responsibility across education, industry and policy. Our support for Tech She Can is a modest but intentional contribution — one small way we can help widen access, increase visibility and play our part in long-term change.
Innovation thrives on diversity. The future of ecommerce should be built by everyone, for everyone.
To support the fundraising alternative, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/page/aero-commerce-for-tech-she-can
