At BinHexS, women are growing in all departments. Mariastella Ditrani, one of our veterans, who has been working at BinHexS for seven years, but who is nevertheless very young, wanted to highlight her vision of what it means to be a woman, and which we all share: we need to practice female solidarity and sisterhood in order to be stronger and make our voices heard!
V: What do you deal with in your day at BinHexS? What are the biggest challenges in your role?
M: “I am IT Project Manager Team Coordinator, that is, I am in charge of supporting and coordinating the PM team in managing large projects, I am a hybrid figure in the middle between my manager and the front line. Currently, however, I still have Clients in my management, despite the fact that as a coordinator I should leave the front line to my PM colleagues, because in the last few months there has been a substantial change of people in the team and it is a period of transition and training for new entrants. My role precisely will involve supporting the rest of the team in managing major projects, for example I have been in Rome these days with a PM colleague to give him support for an important rollout on EMEA. I also give support in handling what are the internal and external requests. It is a challenge because I am one of the few historical figures in the team, and I am in charge of transmitting the know-how both downward and upward; in fact, the team manager has also joined the company a few months ago.”
V: What are your professional goals?
M: “About two months ago I got a promotion; in fact, my current role as coordinator was achieved after seven years in the company in which I started from scratch, first in the technical department, and then as PM, working hard, doing on-the-job training and many sacrifices, so at the moment I feel I want to enjoy the achievement and interpret my role by giving my best. Definitely in the future the goal will be to grow and take on bigger and bigger challenges.”
V: What are your greatest passions instead?
M: “My greatest passion, I must say, is shoes: I have a beautiful collection of 84 pairs, of all kinds. I keep them with love and commitment, I know and recognize them all, also because each shoe has its own story and its own why. But not only shoes: I’m passionate about music, although I don’t have a favorite genre and I choose according to my mood-for example, I go from pop to rock-and I tie this passion to dance, which I practiced for many years, from 5 to 21. I used to spend my days in the gym dancing, it was my way of expressing emotions and venting, because normally I’m a person who keeps everything inside.”
V: How do you perceive the role of women today, and what do you think needs to be done to achieve gender equality in Italy?
M: “I think we are part of the change, in the sense that if I look back, certainly the woman had much less value and much less freedom, even at the work level…how many women worked in our grandmothers’ time? They were considered the keepers of the hearth, so that’s why I say we are part of the change, because still there is no gender equality, and women experience and see it every day. Especially those who, like us, are in a predominantly male work environment, like BinHexS and the IT world in general. When I think back to when I was a young girl, I was the only woman in a class of men, IT is a purely male reality, and it is difficult as a woman to integrate into this world. Living in a male reality scared my mom for example, not because she wasn’t sure I could handle it, but because of those shocking things that you still hear today about abuse, feminicide, and as a mom it’s normal that there is concern, unfortunately. This is a reality that is improving, but we haven’t really gotten over it yet, these tragedies still happen, and it’s not easy to enforce being a woman. And I say this for all spheres, not only at the work level, because it is often the man who imposes his person, his authority. We should change the mentality, not the single thought of someone, and we are part of the change for that very reason, because by having awareness and unhinging day by day the small daily injustices, we can change the future and educate the younger generation.
In my opinion, one important thing women should work on is believing in what we do. It would be good to learn to support each other, just as women. There is often rivalry, jealousy, and envy; on the contrary, teaming up would make us stronger as women in general, and we would not act as disjointed fighters. We need to be an inspiration to each other, because only then can we grow.”
M: “I also want to add one small thing, a dedication to my mom. Often women must decide between working and being moms. If they work, the judgment on them is that they are ‘bad’ moms. I believe if you set your children free, giving them what is a guideline and education, you also give them the maturity to deal with life’s situations. I grew up with a working father and a mom who was also a worker. And my sister and I became each other’s sidekicks, which goes back to the talk that women need to practice solidarity and sisterhood. This doesn’t take anything away from my mom, because she was always there despite working; on the contrary, she was thinking about my future and giving me everything she could to make me grow the best I could.”
On International Women’s Day, we gave the floor to some of our female colleagues in a weekly marathon of content and discussion to raise awareness about gender equality and women’s empowerment. Follow us and have your say!