International Women’s Day 2026 asked us to ‘Give to Gain’, but tech leaders are often giving the wrong thing.
While the industry is obsessed with 1-to-1 mentoring, over 50% of women still quit by mid-career. They aren’t leaving because they lack skills – far from it. They are leaving because they are tired of working two full-time jobs.
“Women leave because society still expects them to do the bulk of unpaid care work – the kids, the house, and the elderly,” says Anna Collard, senior vice-presdient of content strategy and CISO advisor at KnowBe4 Africa.
“This doesn’t fit with leadership roles that demand an 8-to-5 office presence or longer. Globally, women spend three times more hours on care work than men. To keep them, we need a culture shift that recognises that burden.”
Leverage over mentorship
For Collard, the focus on individual mentoring is a capacity trap. Leaders only have so much time, and for every request they accept, they have to turn several down.
“I’m more of a systems thinker than a one-to-one mentor. While I do mentor a small number of young women and men, my capacity is limited and I often have to decline requests, which never feels good. Time is finite,” she says.
“I try to think more in terms of leverage. Instead of focusing only on individual mentorship, I work on initiatives and platforms that create access at scale.”
This means building cyber skills pipelines like the MiDO Cyber Academy, influencing policy, and using speaking platforms to create structural pathways. For the industry to truly ‘gain’, leaders need to open doors for hundreds of women at once through systemic change rather than occasional coffee chats.
Advice for the new generation
For young women just starting out, Collard suggests the real battle is for their time and focus.
- Say yes before you’re ‘ready’: Technology moves too fast for anyone to feel fully prepared. Say yes and learn on the job.
- Protect your attention: In an industry addicted to urgency and AI, the ability to focus deeply is a massive advantage. Develop that discipline early.
- Mind over machine: Train your mind as intentionally as your technical skills. Cognitive flexibility is what will keep humans relevant as machines take over the routine work.
The tech industry doesn’t need more symbolic gestures this March. It needs to give women their time back and fix the structural barriers that make the climb to the top a solo struggle.