Happy International Women’s Day ♀️| Celebrating SaaSy Women in Tech & Tourism

As a BC-based reservation technology company, we’re lucky to call British Columbia—a rich breeding ground for technology and innovation—our home.

Even with the amount of opportunity and home-grown talent, the BC tech sector lags behind when it comes to gender parity and equality.

About 18.3% of the BC tech workforce are women. Safe to say there’s a considerable amount of catching up to do in addressing the representation gap and in creating an equal and balanced sector.

At Zaui, we’re in the unique position of having our feet knee-deep in both technology and tourism. Contrasting the world of tech, the tourism industry is predominantly women making up close to 70% of the workforce but hold less than 40% of managerial positions.

This year, our team renewed our commitment to reaching #EachforEqual, having achieved gender parity in our team and in our leadership as of 2020.

In celebration of International Women’s Day and this year’s campaign theme #EachforEqual, we wanted to spotlight some of our extraordinary, SaaSy women and share their perspectives, values and achievements.

Meghan Watchorn - Head of Global Sales and Marketing

"Sales culture has traditionally been associated with characteristics like assertiveness, aggressiveness and competitiveness and while these workplace biases and stigmas are prevalent - I’m a firm believer in challenging this by actively promoting traits that I’ve found in my experience, make for a successful SaaS sales leader.

As a senior female leader and sales veteran, the biggest wins I’ve achieved required leveraging my emotional intelligence to successfully approach and close.

Acquisitions are far more than 'closing deals', it’s about tapping into what’s been deemed stereotypically 'feminine characteristics' like empathy and intuitiveness to understand prospects' needs, build trust and long-term relationships. By leveraging these two traits, I’m able to understand the customer better and humanize B2B technology services.

I’m constantly inspired by collectives like Girls Who Code, Girl Gang, Girls Club and W.O.R.T.H that have created safe spaces for representation and community building. This past year, I became a mentor for the W.O.R.T.H association, a community of women in recreation, tourism and hospitality committed to educating, elevating and empowering.

A goal I’m continuously working towards is championing an empathy-driven sales culture, and empowering a diverse and inclusive team to score big wins while making an impact in our community."

Brittany Precious - Product Manager, Zaui

"It’s great to be given the opportunity to build out product management at Zaui. It’s even better to do this as part of a diverse and growing engineering team that values equal representation.

As a woman in product, a large part of my role requires openness, creativity, persistence and confidence in order to navigate through complex conversations around technical requirements, and also in shaping the product’s roadmap and vision."

Grace Wong - Marketing Specialist, Zaui

“Equality in the workplace is a value I look for when joining any team, and from my perspective, it really goes beyond having a gender-balanced headcount. It’s about having equal treatment, equal opportunities for growth and equal pay in a supportive and respectful workplace.

Coming from a background in marketing and communications, my work and school environments were predominantly female spaces. Upon joining the Zaui team, it was definitely a bit of a readjustment but so far the experience has truly reinforced the necessity of having a heterogeneous team to bring fresh perspectives for driving the business and our society forward. Having strong women in leadership roles has also made the experience inspiring and relatable.

And lastly, pushing equality forward can only happen when we all rally to get on board and a large part of that is getting our supportive male allies involved in this collective conversation."

Meghan Walters - Human Resources, Zaui

“Gender parity in the workplace is something that has always been important at Zaui. While tech has been notoriously known for being male-dominated, our client base in the tourism sector is incredibly diverse. It’s been a privilege to work with some of the brightest, most accomplished female leaders in the tourism industry.

4 years ago, when I first started in Human Resources at Zaui, I didn’t see many applications come in for female engineering roles - and not because there weren’t qualified female engineers! Fast forward to today, our most recent co-op posting with the UBC Computer Science Program had an intake of 50/50 male to female applications.

Representation on a company level alone isn’t enough. It’s important to focus on gender parity and equality within all departments, leadership, and opportunity for career advancement.

Equality and parity were two of my most deeply ingrained values when I came to Zaui, and since working here these values have only grown and been supported through the incredible team of women and men.

I’m excited to be contributing to a culture where women’s voices are heard, valued and respected, and I look forward to driving these conversations further.”