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SPECIAL FEATURE: MBEOTYA 18
Malta Business Review
Elena Roslavitskiy:
"I Don't Think Gender is Relevant in the Tech Industry"
CEO Elena Roslavitskiy does not think the issue of gender in the workplace is very
relevant to the technology industry. MBR interviewed Elena following her joint success
with her partner Oleg Roslavitskiy, both Directors at Multimaxx Ltd, after winning
Malta’s Best Entertainment Entrepreneur of the Year 2018
Here is what she said to MBR’s Martin Vella
in reference to why the gender of a CEO in
entertainment did not matter: “The moment
you play into that, it's an issue... In technology
entertainment we live at a rare, fast-moving
pace. There are probably industries where
gender is more of an issue, but our industry is
not one where I think that's relevant.”
The controversy as to whether men and
women are treated equally in the tech
entertainment workspace is ongoing, which
is what makes Elena's take so interesting.
While Roslavitskiy says the sex of a CEO in
the tech industry is not "relevant," the media
has not been able to stop talking about how
sexist the tech industry can be.
The Guardian, for instance, polled tech
industry workers and learned that 73% of
male and female respondents believed
the industry to be sexist. Wired ran a story
in July that described the experiences of
female entrepreneurs that had been caught
in uncomfortable situations because of their
gender. There are dozens of stories like these.
"We need to kind of break down these myths
of a woman's approach is the wrong one, and
she should be acting more like a man," Elena
told us. "Success! How I Did It." "We should
think about how do we as business leaders
embrace the differences of all people and
advance the careers of all." That's not to say
all women in the tech industry feel this way,
but it has been a controversial topic.
At the same time, there is a noticeable
discrepancy in the number of male versus
female tech employees at major Silicon Valley
companies. Only 37% of Yahoo employees
are female, for example, and only 30% of
Google's workforce is composed of women.
“I guess I was always destined to be an
accountant. And I really loved that. But
through the years, watching their business
grow, and watching them succeed and how
they were so focused on their customer, on
their employees, and, it just taught me a lot
about business, although it wasn't like they
sat me down and said, "Here's how you do
this." It was just watching them because it
was such a part of our family practice. MBR
All rights reserved - Copyright 2018
Elena & Oleg Roslavitskiy, Directors at Multimaxx Ltd receiving Malta’s Best Entertainment Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Philip
Farrugia, Dpro Ltd & Domos
www.maltabusinessreview.net
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