Immersive Learning
How Supportive Inclusion Techniques Impact Educational Gender Parity
And why #choosetochallenge matters
This year’s theme for International Womens’ Day is #choosetochallenge. But what do we need to challenge? Why does it need challenging? And importantly how will ‘challenge’ create better outcomes?
Everyone is unique. They have their own interests, talents and personal drives. So you would expect that on the whole there would be a fairly even split between men and women at every level of business.
However, if you look at the statistics there are a number of fields where women are disproportionally represented. Across the spectrum from board execs to engineers and from accountants to barristers — there is a well-documented lack of women.
The historic factors that cause this issue are complex and many. From traditional gender stereotypes in childhood to a lack of modernisation of some employment laws around maternity and flexible working. However, the one issue that I want to dig into is educational equality.
Dropouts matter
One of the broadest areas where the gender gap exists is within IT roles. In the UK, half of all GCSE students are women but when you look at university graduates in computer science only 15–16% are women.
But why? A career in IT isn’t inaccessible, doesn’t require an expensive and lengthy stint at university like medicine or law, and it grants access to jobs that are relatively in-demand, with high earning potential. These roles can also be extremely flexible and come with additional benefits (which range from a good working environment with decent coffee and beanbags, to travel opportunities, healthcare plans, or amazing training or wellbeing options).
Seeing is believing
Having positive female role models is an important factor that drives women towards being able to see themselves succeeding in a particular field. It helps them to have a goal to work towards and is proof that they can have an impactful career.
This means having female representation as conference speakers. It means having women present at senior and board-level within businesses. It means supporting initiatives that raise the profile of women working within tech.
It is also not just good enough for them to be visible, being a role model means having prominent and impactful women that are seen to be successful, and for their peers to see them being treated equally.
This last bit is important because even when women are in a visible role, recent history shows that they must perform to a much higher standard because every action they make will be under more intense scrutiny. They must prove unequivocally that they are competent and without fault before they will be listened to.
Why visibility matters
It is said you can tell someone's character by the way they treat those providing them with a service. So, maybe you can tell how an industry will treat you by the way it treats its spokespeople. Here we find a real problem.
To illustrate, let’s explore an example from the world of Esports. One of the few female Esports players is a player called Geguri who is notable for specifically this reason.
Despite being signed to a professional team, she was accused by professionals she defeated of cheating because they could not believe her more highly skilled than them. Gender wasn’t explicitly mentioned but the key thing was her accusers did not have any proof other than she better than them on the field.
On one hand, the initial complaint of cheating is a valid one. This cannot and should not viably exist within any level of sports, Esports included. However, in comparison, good male players are celebrated and cheered on. The assumption of cheating is not made until proof is shown.
So already the treatment of a female player is not equal to that of her male teammates. Accusations of cheating could destroy a blossoming career and everything Geguri had worked hard towards.
When time after time you are forced to defend your abilities, judgement or credentials instead of being trusted to do your job properly can be frustrating. To which I’ll add Geguri did eventually prove her innocence by submitting herself to a series of matches monitored by high-performance cameras and anti-cheat software.
But this isn’t an argument for positive discrimination, it is the opposite, any need for proof of ability should be universal across all individuals. Not just asked for when the individual is a woman.
Outside Esports, if you look further or talk to any conference speaker in engineering or tech then you’ll find this isn’t an isolated case. When the treatment of women who succeed can be so appalling, why would any woman choose to put themselves in this position? Even if you do, how long does it take before you give up fighting the critics?
Supporting through inclusion
To be good at something takes a lot of time and dedication. This means that unless an individual can summon the self-motivation to continue learning, or can receive the right support to facilitate their learning, they will be quickly become frustrated and give up.
Understanding what can ‘ignite the passion’ that aids the decision about what subjects you pursue and what you give up is complex. However cultural expectations, stereotypes and role models, all play a big part along with one final aspect — belonging.
It is this feeling of inclusion that makes you work harder, forge friendships and share common goals. All important factors that encourage the motivation to continue the path of learning.
Creating a sense of belonging is also one of the easiest elements for anyone to make a real impact. This might be auditing any learning resources and make sure the language and examples that are used are inclusive to men and women of a range of backgrounds. Not all leaders are men in the same way that not all nurses are women.
Seeing normalised examples of the range of careers available across any subject really opens up students eyes to how relevant it is to their future dreams, but also impacts how each individual sees others within those roles.
Once, back in school, I remember an old physics teacher who for nearly every example would use the internal combustion engine. He clearly had a passion for cars, but I didn’t (and still don’t) and I didn’t learn anything useful because I could never see the relevance to me specifically.
Thankfully, they were soon followed by a better teacher who explained the principles of physics using examples like why the sky was blue and why blue tack was good at sticking to things. He had stories of women discovering new stars in astronomy and men developing new materials with exciting properties. For me this was far more fascinating, not only could I now understand how this might apply to real life, it helped me understand the value of curiosity. A curiosity that ultimately led 17 year old me to attempt a physics A-level exam.
Placing subjects within a real-world context and using a range of learning styles and practical scenarios is key for inclusion. Combining this with an open door policy that encourages questions and feedback, especially if the feedback is ‘I don’t understand’ or ‘can you show me another way’ is really important to build an empathetic and supportive environment that pulls people in rather than pushing them away.
The importance of belonging doesn’t just apply to students. Inclusion is needed at every level of business. Whether it is having an understanding approach to staff who require remote or flexible working, or whether it is having socials that are designed to discourage cliques forming or adopt a ‘family friendly’ approach. It might be making sure that even the quietest members of the team who always keep their head down and hands work in on time, have regular check-in sessions to prevent them from feeling isolated.
So on reflection this year I think #choosetochallenge is a great motto to use. How we treat people really matters. If everyone challenges the biases that exclude others and instead chooses to be part of creating a culture that is supportive and fair to everyone, then the world of work might just manage to prevent more female talent from walking on by and giving management, IT and engineering a miss.
So let’s inspire the women of the present and the girls of the future to feel they can succeed at whatever inspires them and just maybe, they’ll do great things from which we will all benefit ❤
Emma Bentley designs, develops and delivers Immersive Learning solutions for chronyko. To find out more about Immersive Learning, check out the Immersive Learning publication or sign up to the chronyko newsletter.
