Who Gets to Take Up Space in Tech?

by Charlotte Lynge Rice, Founder & Content Producer, Kreation Media

Drita Memisi’s path into tech didn’t follow a traditional route. Today, as Co-CEO of Women in Tech, she works to challenge narrow definitions of who belongs in the industry, and why diversity is essential to innovation.

Co-CEO of Women in Tech, Drita Memisi. Foto: Charlotte Lynge Rice

For decades, technology has carried an unspoken rulebook: how leaders should look, how careers should unfold, and who is expected to take up space. According to Drita Memisi, those rules are long overdue for a rewrite.

Today, Drita is Co-CEO of Women in Tech, co-host of the podcast Tech Obsession, founder of the tech company Less.fashion, and an advisor to international Fortune 500 companies on innovation and digital transformation. But her path into tech was anything but conventional, and that is precisely the point.

There Is No Single Way Into Tech

Drita did not enter the tech industry through a traditional technical route. Her early career was rooted in media, marketing, and commercial strategy. After more than a decade in that world, she felt a growing urge to challenge herself and move faster, and to work in environments where experimentation and execution mattered more than perfect plans. Technology offered exactly that.

“What attracted me wasn’t the title or the industry label, it was the pace, the mindset, and the possibility to build something new,” she says.

Her transition into tech came through responsibility rather than credentials; taking ownership of emerging digital solutions at a time when mobile commerce was still in its infancy. It was a reminder that tech is not a closed club for engineers, but a space shaped by people with diverse skills, perspectives, and experiences.

Being the Only One in the Room

While Drita thrived in her new field, she also experienced a familiar challenge: Not seeing herself reflected around her.

In leadership teams dominated by men, she often felt that the norms – how decisions were made, how success was communicated, how confidence was expressed – were not designed with women in mind.

“It wasn’t that I lacked competence, it was that I didn’t fit the existing mould,” she says.

Instead of trying to adapt herself to that mould, Drita went looking for community and connection. That search eventually led her to Women in Tech. First as a member seeking belonging, and later as a leader helping shape the organisation’s direction.

Changing the Narrative From the Inside

As Co-CEO of Women in Tech, Drita works to challenge narrow definitions of who belongs in technology and leadership. For her, diversity is not about quotas or optics, but about widening the frame.

“When we only value one type of profile, we limit innovation,” she says. “Technology impacts everyone, so the people building it should reflect that reality.”

Drita is outspoken about the invisible rules that still shape women’s careers; how ambitious they are expected to be, how direct they are “allowed” to sound, and how leadership should look when it comes from them.

“For generations, women have been told to stay within certain boundaries. Those boundaries don’t disappear just because you enter tech,” she says.

Breaking societal norms, in her view, is not just a personal act, but a structural necessity. Especially as technology becomes deeply embedded in every aspect of society, from culture to security, healthcare, and decision-making.

The Cost of a Narrow Tech Industry

At the core of Drita’s work is a pragmatic concern: when tech only makes room for a narrow type of profile, it actively pushes talent away.

People come into technology with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. When the industry only values a narrow type of profile, it doesn’t just leave people out, but it reduces its own potential.

For Drita, diversity isn’t about asking women, or any underrepresented group, to adapt to tech. It’s about expanding the structures around the industry so more people can take part and contribute.

“If the industry doesn’t create space for different ways of being and working, we risk losing skilled people who could have contributed something valuable. And when that happens, innovation suffers,” she says.

Making room for more diversity isn’t a soft ambition, but a necessary condition for building better technology, and for making sure the industry doesn’t narrow its own future.