#BreakTheBias with Kristín Björg Bergþórsdóttir — Data Scientist

We asked the women of Lucinity to share their thoughts and perspectives, for International Women’s Day 2022, on gender equality and inclusiveness.

Kristín Björg Bergþórsdóttir

Kristín is one of the key people at Lucinity responsible for translating legal compliance regulations into data models that can be ingested and used by our AI algorithms.

“My educational background is in applied mathematics, and I did my university studies in Iceland, Denmark, and the Netherlands,” Kristín says. “I’ve always had an interest for mathematics, and nowadays the tech business is a great place for people with math skills, especially if you like working with data! Ever since I decided to specialize in mathematics in high school, a large majority of my classmates have been male. Fortunately, this is slowly changing, but I definitely felt like there was a lack of female role models that took a similar path as I had visioned for myself!”

Kristín’s response highlights the importance of allies in equality and inclusivity. Men play an essential role, as Kristín explains: “I feel like men play an extremely important role in breaking the gender bias, and I’ve experienced positive changes in Iceland with regards to that. Increased participation by the male population in family life and other household chores levels the playing ground and enables both genders to pursue their career.”

Equality and inclusivity mean that all genders need to do their part in reshaping the world to be suitable for all. One way of doing so is sharing knowledge and passion for the fields that gendered gatekeepers have kept under guard.

“I want women with an affinity for mathematics to see that pursuing a career in tech can be a really exciting choice,” Kristín agrees. “For that to hold, people and companies in the technology industry must actively work on creating an environment that is inclusive and lets people advance in their careers independent of gender. That way, we can increase female role models in technology and consequently spark more interest in the field for young women who are about to make a career choice.”

Hear from more women

This portrait of Kristín comes as part of a series for International Women’s Day 2022. To read from more women in Lucinity sharing their thoughts on gender equality, see my introduction.