The IT Girls

The shortage of women in tech is a problem for both businesses and societies. Here’s what managers need to know
The tech industry suffers from a gender gap the size of an ocean trench. Take the UK, for example, where men hold 85% of all positions in technology, and 95% of leadership roles, according to PwC’s Women in Tech report. That leaves 15% of the entire industry, and a tiny 5% of leadership posts, for women.
And, in a world made up of 49.6% women, we are in danger of designing a future for only one half of the population.
Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Bias?
Writing on the BBC’s website in 2012, Belinda Parmar OBE, founder of consultancy Lady Geek, said: “Diversity is important in any industry, but is especially relevant when it comes to technology. Tech is the way the world talks to each other.”
Parmar, like many other technologists — both male and female — is keen to highlight the issues that arise when technology, which is essentially how the world talks to each other, is designed by and for 50.4% of the population.
Take artificial intelligence (AI), the set of technologies that is designed to imitate human intelligence and can even learn from experience. It is often compared to a child because it learns from what it hears and sees. That includes the bad stuff, too. A shining example of this is Microsoft’s chatbot, Tay, which was trained on Twitter and quickly dismantled after it produced streams of offensive racist and misogynistic remarks in less than 24 hours. Tay learned language, biases and cruelty from the humans who trained it.
So where are the girls who can help to address the innate bias in tech? Why aren’t they entering the industry? There is a plethora of interest from women in STEM — and skill, as it happens. On average, female students test as well as, if not better than, males in STEM subjects at a young age. But casual ‘interest’ is where it seems to stop for most. Rarely is a career in technology seen as attainable or suitable. PwC’s research found that almost two-thirds (64%) of female pre-university students study STEM subjects . Yet just 3% are actually considering a career in tech. Research from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development indicates that this discrepancy occurs because women lack confidence in their individual ability to perform and succeed in the technology industry.
Meanwhile, PwC’s study also highlighted that just 16% of school-aged girls — versus 33% of boys — are advised to embark upon careers in technology. Combatting this could be the first step to bridging the gender gap, but it is going to involve teachers, parents and career counsellors working together.
Fortunately, many corporations around the globe are also keen to inspire and empower young girls to pursue careers in tech and science. A score of ‘coding for girls’ classes have cropped up in the UK in recent years, including Code First and I Can Be. The UK government and more than 150 companies have signed the Tech Talent Charter, which commits them to adopting inclusive recruitment processes and ensuring that wherever possible women are included on the shortlist for interviews. Support communities Girls in Tech and Girl Geeks bring women in tech into schools as role models while companies such as KPMG, PwC and Cruxy & Co have initiatives such as annual surveys, work placements, internships and gender-tailored job advertisements that aim to encourage more young women to go into tech.
Hostile cultures
“When I was a man,” recalled Silicon Valley superstar and trans-community heroine Vivienne Ming at the Human Difference 2017 conference in South Africa, “I was the go-to person for equations and coding problems in my lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After I transitioned into a woman, though, that changed in the space of a day. It was like people thought because I was wearing a skirt, I couldn’t do math.”
Ming’s is a stark example of how women are often treated in the tech sector, which is known for its long hours working environments and hostile male cultures that tend to marginalise women. And then, of course, there is that 10-page memo from Google’s James Damore, which outlined his belief that women are not biologically suitable for tech jobs.
Lily Covington, associate strategist at consultancy Cruxy & Co, confirms that the culture in the tech industry, as it exists today, is off-putting to women. “To be a woman in tech takes relentless energy,” she says. “You must constantly prove yourself. I don’t think a man ever gets asked his age, or whether he is in PR or HR. Men are never placed in a box beforehand, or asked to qualify their reasoning for being in the industry. Women have to make an impact as soon as they enter the room to usurp expectations.”
The seminal 2015 study, The Elephant in the Valley, surveyed 200 senior-level women in Silicon Valley. A large majority (84%) of participants had been told that they were ‘too aggressive’ in the office while 66% had been excluded from important events because of their gender and 60% reported unwanted sexual advances in the workplace. Almost 40% said that they didn’t report the incidents because they feared retaliation.
Some offices are, however, laying solid foundations for a healthier, level playing field.
Initiatives such as dedicated women in technology networks, reverse mentorships and sponsorship programmes for high achievers are becoming more commonplace by the day, as tech and digital consulting firms, in particular, try to close the gender gap. Tech giants Facebook and Google have committed to compulsory courses on bias for all new employees while several other companies offer workshops that focus on bias and stereotyping.
Leadership gap
While female tech leaders are in painfully short supply, some companies are making more progress than others. Videoconferencing hub Polycom boasts no less than four women in its C-suite, including chief executive Mary McDowell.
“Even in 2018, there aren’t many global technology companies with such strong female representation at senior management level,” says Polycom’s senior solution product marketing manager Pat Finlayson. “We are proud to give equal opportunities to everyone, meaning that every c-level position is held by the best person for the job — regardless of their gender. Polycom is proof that companies can, and should, take serious steps towards closing the gender gap. Tech companies need not worry…things won’t fall apart in a company if women are in charge.”
PwC’s report also highlights a number of initiatives for supporting female tech leaders, including gender quotas and peer learning. Naturally, the support of the few women who have already achieved leadership is invaluable, however. “I love that I am now able to make a real difference for women coming into, or returning to, the industry,” says Rachel Skinner, head of engineering at consultancy WSP. “It is fantastic to see continued effort around the creation of a more gender-balanced and diverse industry for the right reasons, linked to future business strength, resilience and creativity.”
This article originally appeared in Edge, official magazine of The Institute of Leadership & Management