Belinda Parmar (Founder)

We help technology companies understand and sell to women.

I really believe there is so much brands can do to empower women to feel inspired by technology and games rather than daunted and intimidated which is what thousands of women I spoke to currently feel. My vision is that women dream about their 37inch HDTV before they go to bed. That technology makes a women’s heart beat faster….in a good way, not gradually sends them into the depths of despair because either the retail experience is so dire or the products and marketing are so Barbiefied.

To paraphrase Jean Paul Sartre, for many women, hell on earth is shopping for a HDTV or a new digital camera. And when you think about what you are buying, something that is going to transform your living room or capture images or those dearest to you, why should it be so god damn awful?

Mmh…the choice between some Jimmy Choos at £200 or the Xbox 360. At the moment, women are not swapping their Choos for the Xbox. Lady Geeks want to change that.

It’s clear that there are very few companies within the tech space who are effectively targeting women. Those that do fall in to the clichés and stereotypes and end up pinking up and dumbing down their products and end up as one woman said, ‘treating them like a special needs case.’ Those that don’t even have any communication strategy targeted at women are missing our on £0.6 billion that is just going begging for the taking.

In balance with our commercial activity, I am just as passionate as our not-for-profit activities. We are working with a government agency to help re-define how the next generation of Lady Geeks use their technology and reform ICT education in secondary schools to make technology more socially and gender inclusive.

Belinda is a Consultant Professor and the Founder of Lady Geek and Lady Geek TV.  Belinda has a column in Company Magazine, has written for WIRED, is a regular contributor to Woman's Hour and appears as a pundit on BBC, Channel 4.

Start a conversation today, drop me an email: belinda@ladygeek.com and join our community on Facebook.