Why there are fewer women in the workforce

DataScience LTD
Jul 24, 2017 · 4 min read

Being in the technology space, I am always confronted with the question of, “Why are there very few women in technology?” In my college class of Computer Science, out of 44 of us that were admitted, only 8 were women. An interesting thing to note on this is that at the end of the 4th year, during our graduation, out of the 27 that graduated, 8 were women! None of the girls dropped out.

As I have grown to interact with more professionals, I have been constantly faced by the same question in different fields; in media, in medicine, in politics, in law, you name it. The only place there seems to be no shortage of women is in the home. Having let Sheryl Sandberg drum her ideologies of Lean In to my head, and looking at how many women really need to lean in, these question got to me, why are there very few women in the workforce?

I watched a Robert Reich document called Inequality For All and being a data nerd this was interesting. The documentary showed that in America, one of the most progressive countries in the world, Women started getting into the workforce in the 1800 to 1850 and although in very small numbers, there were very many great contributions by women in innovation, politics and technology. The feminist movement started in the 1960 and during the turn of the economy when the cost of living was going very high but the family income (mostly to the men) remained the same, women joined the workforce in masses to be able to complement income from their husbands. It is also around this time of 1980 that Dolly Parton released the song 9 to 5. This started a culture of working women. A lot of women in America still have the option of go to work or stay at home until the kids are able to go to school.

In Africa, however, our mothers have always been working. The African labor force did not become very formal until mostly after independence but following the history very carefully, women have not always stayed at home to wait for the men to bring home food (although some do). Women were working along side the men during colonialism, as the men fought, the women gathered food. After colonialism, as the men were seeking formal jobs, the women were helping make their clothes etc. There was not a real option of stay at home and take care of the family, most of us were really raised by the village and our age mates as the mothers went out to the fields to till and grow/harvest food. All the mothers I know of, from my childhood to now, have always been working (although in informal sectors) and if not, not by choice.

Maybe we need to document and/or formalize some of the sectors that women in Africa work in or redefine what the formal sector is..(beyond having to wear a suit to work..) 80 percent of Kenya’s jobs and 60 percent of income are in the agricultural sector and women hold up to 60 percent of these. Historically, women have always been in the agricultural sector and men have been in the mechanical, engineering, policy and technology fields. So, mathematically, the number of women in these STEM sector is expected to be low, just as the number of women in agriculture is expected to be high.

Men have been working as engineers for a very long time, the women just joined in recently. There has been a culture around the world that anything that looks complicated — a computer, a printing machine, a car, a cooker, a mobile phone etc must be operated by a man. With the feminist revolution that had women drive cars, make their own living and take care of themselves, we have seen an increase in the number of women joining the formal workforce that is rumored to pay better. Although it be that women started off as secretaries and nurses, at the entry point, we must appreciate that there was a time when offices were filled with just men, there still are.

An unlikely headline the other day was that for the first time in history, women outnumbered men in Berkley’s Introduction to computer science class. I am almost certain this is the first in many parts of the world and in my class where women were 1/6 of the class’s population, there really is hope. This shows that once there is an entry point, the future is most certain set to change.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not a big fan of “what a man can do a woman can do it even better” phrase that we use to push our way in, what I am saying is, historically, since the formation of the “formal sector” we must appreciate that a lot of the things were run by the men and moving forward, the question should stop being why there are very few women in the professional workforce to how can we bring in more women to the professional workforce. History already beat us to the why and that really cannot be changed.

Hell, in the movie Jobs, 2013 (a documentary of Steve Jobs), the biggest role played by a woman was that of his mother who always brought him food and encouraged him! Well, there is also his ex- girlfriend.

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