How Women are pioneering success at Tyche Softwares
Tyche Softwares is a WordPress agency based in Mumbai, India. They develop plugins for WordPress & WooCommerce.
Wait, what does this have to do with WWCode? The only other post about WordPress on this site is about WordCamp US 2016. But Tyche Softwares has something different about them.
At Tyche Softwares, they are a team of 12 people, 9 of whom are dynamic women. Many of those 9 women have been associated with the company right since it’s inception in January 2012.
The Founder & Technical Lead, Vishal Kothari heard about Women Who Code & expressed his desire to let our readers know about how they are innovating & creating some of the best products for ecommerce businesses using WooCommerce.
Unlike some other countries, in India, women often face problems sometimes when it comes to working in a professional environment. ILO (International Labour Organization) data shows that only 30% of the Indian workforce is women, which is very low.
If female employment rates were to match male rates, the GDP of India would increase by 27%.
- International Labour Organization
There are a variety of problems they are faced with. Mostly they are either to do with the parents having reservation about their daughters working, or sometimes the in-laws having reservation about it. Vishal’s mother, who studied B.Sc in Microbiology, had to leave her studies after marriage when she was on the brink of finishing it.
At Tyche Softwares, they are changing that perspective. With 75% of their core team being women, they are setting an example for other companies in India.
Since Tyche Softwares is a product-based company, their work roles are largely based on coding, providing technical support & product testing.
Let’s look at some of their team members & hear out their stories.
The development of one of their highest selling product is led by Pinal Shah from their team. She is one of their most experienced developers. Being a mother, she has been working remotely for them & chipping in 5 to 6 hours of work days consistently. We asked her about her first encounter with coding. And she said I first programmed a micro-controller when in college for a project. That’s what got me interested. The ability to program a small chip and make it do things was what got me further into this..
Pinal Shah
Moxa Jain, is leading another product of the company. After completing her B.Sc IT, she joined at Tyche Softwares. When we asked her about her biggest challenge, she told Being a newly married woman, the biggest fear for me was whether I will be able to work after marriage or not. As you all know being an Indian girl, everyone expects that you take care of your husband and in-laws. That is the only job a woman need to do after marriage. But, for me it is different!
Each and every person in my new family including my husband is encouraging and supporting me to continue with my coding job and continue building my career into it.
Moxa Jain
Their testing team is comprised of 2 women. Led by Khyati Gala, she gets her hands onto code while writing automated unit tests. When we asked her about what’s the most exciting part of her job, she replied As a plugin tester, the opportunity of getting to dig into the plugin and detect all the bugs present in the plugin makes my job an exciting journey. I get to be a part of the plugin with an outsider’s point of view while being a part of the company..
Khyati Gala
Chetna Bhutka from their team probably resonates with most women across the world. Chetna comes from a remote village & has joined us 1.5 years ago. After completing her studies, she had joined an institute to learn coding. And for that, she traveled 50 km distance from her home everyday.
She handles the Technical Support for one of Tyche’s products. We asked her as to what is the one thing that she has changed her mind about ever since she started working. She answered Before joining the job, my thought was that I need a job because of money. So I can spend my earnings to fulfill my dreams and desires. At that time, I did not have any idea, what is the career and why it is important in our life?
Now, I have realized that it is not important only for money. Growing career is important for respect of girls.”
Chetna Bhutka
More then the money, it is the respect which is equally important.
How does Tyche Softwares allow Women to excel in any role in their company?
- They give them the option to work remotely. Be it Developer, Technical Support, Testing or Content Writing — there is an option to do remote work.
- They allow them to work with flexible timings. During school vacations, some of their working moms want to work as early as 6 AM so they can have their evenings to spend with their kids.
- During usual school days, some working moms want to take a break to pick their kids from school & then they join back after a couple of hours.
All these things allow them to fulfill their dream & also support their kids & family at the same time.
Komal Maru
Chaitali Mehta
Kinjal Paleja
Priyanka Jagtap
Apeksha Shah
You can see the entire women staff of Tyche Softwares in the pictures above.
Vishal has an interesting thought. He intends to conduct an Information Technology course for all the kids in their family & extended family. This is so as to nurture the next generation and make them technically savvy. This is to make them ready for the Coding battleground, should they choose to pursue that path when they grow up.
For Vishal, Coding is like a gateway to the world of endless possibilities. It is a means to build what you dare to dream. Due to this passion, he intends to empower more women to do the same.
Originally published at www.womenwhocode.com.
