International Women’s Day – Meet Zoe Dodds

Can you tell us a little bit about you, your role at Ten10 and what drew you into the tech industry?

Hi, I’m Zoe and I’m a Junior Consultant who has been with Ten10 since December 2019. I’m currently part of a functional testing team and have been with that customer since March last year. I’ve always had an interest in tech but my background at university was in Arts and Humanities, so the past year has been a really exciting journey for me. I enjoy the challenge of developing and learning new skills within testing and the problem-solving aspects that comes with it.

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?

International Women’s Day is an important day to not only celebrate the achievements of women but a day for highlighting areas of injustice and inequality that affect women around the world. Through raising awareness, the aim of International Women’s day is to keep the conversations around gender inequality going with a hope to close this gap for future generations.

What women inspire you and why?

There are many women who inspire me, firstly my own mum. She started her own business from being made redundant in the 2009 recession and now runs her own venue styling business for weddings and events and a bridal shop. With the arrival of the pandemic she, and many others, have been hit hard by the pandemic. I am in awe of her strength and resilience in the face of little government support and with little clarity on when the events industry is likely to return to normal. She has powered through it and been a source of support for all her employees.

I also greatly admire the singer and actress Dolly Parton. Not only is she probably one of the most recognisable country music voices she has done truly amazing work with her charity The Dollywood Foundation. Founded in 1988 she initially established the charity to reduce the drop out rate in her home county which it was successful in doing reducing it from 35% to 6%. Since then the foundation has also launched the Imagination Library which gifts books to children under the age of five that may not have the access to books. She also offers scholarships to help students fund their university studies. She also donated one million dollars to COVID-19 vaccine research in 2020.