Iron Software's Biggest Campaign Featured a Woman Engineer-And Drew Sexist Backlash

CHICAGO, IL - When Iron Software https://ironsoftware.com/
featured a female lead engineer in a marketing campaign last year, two things happened simultaneously: it became the company's highest-performing sales campaign of the year, and it drew email responses telling her to "get back in the kitchen."

That contradiction-record-breaking success paired with casual misogyny-captures precisely why the developer tools company is continuing to amplify women's voices in tech rather than retreating from the conversation.

"We could have quietly moved on and featured someone else next time," said Anne Lazarakis, Sales and Marketing Director at Iron Software. "Instead, we're asking: if one campaign can drive our best sales results AND expose how far we still have to go, what happens when we keep pushing?"

The company's answer arrives this week with the latest episode of Lead by Example https://ironsoftware.com/news/company-news/lead-by-example-kate-kirwin/ , Iron Software's podcast series featuring leaders driving meaningful change. The episode spotlights Kate Kirwin, founder of She Codes Australia and the 2024 WA Young Australian of the Year, who has spent a decade working to bring more women into technology careers.

Past guests include Microsoft veteran and developer advocate Scott Hanselman https://ironsoftware.com/news/company-news/lead-by-example-from-ironsoftware/ , a longtime advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech.

The Numbers-And What They Miss

Kirwin's organisation has impacted an estimated 63,000 people over ten years and distributed approximately $2.5 million in coding bootcamp scholarships. She's tracking toward an ambitious goal of reaching 100,000 women by the end of 2025.

But the statistics only tell part of the story. In the episode, Kirwin shares how systemic bias continues to shape women's career trajectories in ways that often go unacknowledged.

"A lot of the time, women feel like they don't get believed-that these things are still happening, or that there's a bias or a gap," Kirwin says. "That's why we create these safe spaces where people can talk and feel like, 'Okay, I'm not the only one. I'm not crazy. I'm not broken.'"

She recounts how one of her alumni was told by a university professor that she was "too chatty and too loud and too outgoing to be in science"-discouragement that delayed her entry into tech by years. That woman is now a software developer.

Why Tech Companies Must Take a Position

Iron Software's experience mirrors what Kirwin describes: visibility for women in technical roles generates both commercial success and hostile pushback.

"There's still a lot of challenges for women, particularly for female founders," Kirwin notes in the episode. "There are lots of crazy questions that get asked by investors-'Are you sure you can do this and not take time off to have family?' The idea that family is still being demonised across all industries is wild."

"We've spent ten years building tools that developers around the world rely on," said Cameron Rimington, CEO and Founder of Iron Software. "The numbers don't lie. Our campaign featuring a woman engineer outperformed everything else we ran that year. The trolls in our inbox were loud, but our customers spoke louder with their wallets. We're following the data."

Lazarakis added: "The backlash told us who isn't our customer. The record sales told us who is. We're building for the developers who saw a talented engineer and thought 'that's someone I trust to build my software'-not the ones who were scandalized by it being a woman."

Shifting the Narrative from Fear to Opportunity

As artificial intelligence reshapes technical careers, Kirwin emphasises the importance of framing change as opportunity rather than threat-particularly for women considering career pivots into technology.

"What I'm really focused on now is not only the practical upskilling and retraining, but how do we shift that narrative away from one of fear to one of opportunity," she says. "You don't need to be scared of AI. There are opportunities available throughout that whole trajectory."

The Lead by Example ( ) episode featuring Kate Kirwin is available now on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0UU8VXxCZ8 . Iron Software will continue the series throughout 2026, featuring leaders across technology, business, and social enterprise.

About Kate Kirwin
Kate Kirwin is the founder and CEO of She Codes Australia and was named the 2024 WA Young Australian of the Year. Her organisation has impacted over 63,000 people and distributed approximately $2.5 million in coding bootcamp scholarships. She is on a mission to positively impact 100,000 women. Learn more at shecodes.com.au.

Iron Software 205 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60601 USA
+1 (312) 500-3060

About Iron Software
Iron Software is a Chicago-based developer tools company celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025. The company builds .NET libraries including IronPDF https://ironpdf.com/ , IronOCR, IronXL, and IronBarcode, serving developers worldwide. Learn more at https://ironsoftware.com/

This release was published on openPR.