You're a girl? And you work in technology? Mr Site Bea's answers

More from our 'Women in Technology' mini-series, and this time, we're quizzing Bea Hatherley, the brains behind the DIY website builder, Mr Site. Find out how CSI might be the answer to getting more girls into tech, how her love of music has affected her view on technology and more of her lovely wisdom onwards. You can read my review of the Mr Site software here.

1. Could you explain your role at Mr Site, as well as the structure of the team you work with?

I am co-director of Mr Site, a DIY website builder, which was founded by myself and Stuart Spice. I had been trying to set up a website and found it incredibly technical, complicated and expensive. Web designers were quoting me a fortune, and on top of that, they wanted to charge a huge amount for any changes that needed to be made in the future. I was really frustrated and one night, in Stuart's kitchen in South East London, we decided that we were going to make it easy and inexpensive for people to set up their own website and crucially, that they would be the ones that would control it.

Stuart is a bit of a techie but I really wanted to translate this jargon into something that everyone could use and understand. We didn't want this technology to be exclusive to only programmers and web designers. I forced Stuart to get rid of all his jargon to make creating a website accessible for all.

We're really lucky here at Mr Site as we're really evenly balanced in terms of the ratio of
girls:boys with a 50:50 split. However, I realise this not so typical in the male-dominated world of technology even nowadays!

2. Did you find it difficult to break into what has traditionally been a male-dominated industry?

I didn't find it hard but in the early days of Mr Site, it was frustrating to be in meetings and find that people would address Stuart and not me. It bothered me to start with but then I decided not to let it. I just made sure I had my say and was heard. They couldn't ignore me then!

Also, in Mr Site, Stuart and I had created a product that everyone wanted to know about so once people knew about the product, they were all ears. In fact, Mr Site products have always been as popular with the girls as with boys.

3. Have you always had an interest in gadgets? Where do you think it stemmed from?

I do love my gadgets. I am also a musician so I am sure this is where my love of gadgets stems from. I make music on computers, and love my ipod and sound system. Also technology has thankfully changed the musical landscape forever. In the past, if you weren't classically trained, some people would look down their noses at you. But now, thanks to apps such as Cubase, Abelton and Myspace, anyone can now create music and share it with the world, without even needing a record deal! Of course, there will always be superstar producers and DJ's but now anyone with talent has the means to at least get it heard.

4. Is there a crisis in the industry, with less women entering it? Why do you think that is? What can be done to fix it?

I think if a woman is passionate enough about what she does (which I certainly am) and she has the courage of her convictions, she can do anything! Passion is everything.

It's taking ages but I do think things are gradually improving and thankfully more women are starting to see IT/technology as attractive career choices. 10 years ago, it was a different story and our industry was 99% male-dominated. I did a straw-poll in my office today about the percentage of women:men on their IT courses and somewhat surprisingly, the ratio of men:women was 6:1 whereas even 10 years back, I think you would have been hard-pushed to find any women studying for careers in technology.

To change these attitudes overnight and make IT suddenly attractive to young women, you need to do for IT what CSI has done for forensic science or even better still launch, an 'Apprentice'-style TV show featuring female techie entrepreneurs. We could call it 'Sisters Are Doing IT For Themselves' put them in loads of different scenarios and the winner would get to spend a year working for someone like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

Of course more and more websites such as Shiny Shiny will also help ;-)

5. What's your advice for someone at school considering entering the tech world?

Go for it, have tunnel vision and passion and you will succeed. Technology is evolving at such a rapid pace that issues this year will not even be the same next year so you'll never, ever stand still. It's the one industry where you will always have work, therefore so long as you specialise in an area that's in demand. For instance, if programming is your thing, stick to a tried and trusted language such as C rather than Java. Happy days!

6. What gadgets can't you live without? Why?

My music software! Making music makes me happy. And my laptop for both creating music and running Mr Site. It means I can get my work done from wherever I am in the world. However, laptops are still way too heavy though. I guess until Apple bring down the price of the Macbook Air, I'll struggle on I suppose.....

7. Any plugs?

Mr Site's new product, the Takeaway Website Pro, is currently hitting the high street. In addition to the Standard Mr Site features, Pro includes SEO, a business stationary creator, site visitor statistics, Express Checkout and heaps more features too numerous to list here... for more info, please click here.