Where the women at?
Gender equality within the tech industry is a problem. That’s no secret. Day after day we see articles just like this one posted to spread awareness, take responsibility, and to deconstruct this issue further. Sadly, nothing seems to be shifting.
Did you know women make up 50.02% of the population? That’s a lot of brains. That’s a lot of potential strategic thinkers, geniuses, problem solvers, coders, managers and CEO’s currently not contributing to the tech industry.
As one of the fastest-growing industries and one of the primary drivers of the modern economy, the tech industry needs women. At the current rate of growth, the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency projects shortfallsof skilled workers in most ICT occupations by 2025. If women don’t enter the industry, it will be difficult to meet projected demand for tech-based skills.
Beyond simply making up the numbers, the tech industry needs women because gender diversity benefits companies. Researchers at the University of Castilla la Mancha in Spain found that gender diverse research and development teams lead to greater creativity and better decisions. Businesses with a woman on the executive team are more likely to have higher valuations at both first and last funding, and stocks perform better if women are on company boards.
But let’s be clear here. A tech industry without women is bad for women. If changes aren’t made to help recruit more women into tech, women will be left behind economically. If women aren’t given the opportunity to gain skills and experience in tech, they’ll be passed over for some of the most influential positions in business and government. If women don’t get to contribute to tech product development, women’s needs will not be properly represented in the products and services the ICT industry produces.
I’m going to give the industry the benefit of the doubt and say those who are in it do know the statistics, they do know when they look around a room there’s an imbalance, and they realise that less than 30% women in the workplace is not okay. I’m going to assume that when they see headlinesabout the pay gap it concerns them. I’m going to assume they do care about the future of the businesses they work in, the economy of the countries they live in, and most importantly, but often forgotten in these conversations, the women who are limited by this problem.
So why is this happening?
Why? Is it because women just aren’t interested in tech? Or they’re having babies? Or they’re just more creative thinkers? No, no and no!
There’s a multitude of reasons why women aren’t in the industry. It’s a very complex issue. An issue that can’t be solved by simply hiring more women. A few of the many challenges we’re up against include:
- Gender stereotypes: From an early age, the stereotype of ‘boys being better at science and maths’ can discourage girls from studying STEM subjects. According to the OECD, despite similar performances in the OECD’s science test, more boys consider a STEM career than girls.
- Pipeline: As a result of this gender imbalance in study choices, fewer women are choosing to study and pursue careers in computing and other STEM fields, meaning employers have a gender biased talent pool to recruit from.
- In-group favouritism: According to a study in the American Sociological Review, hiring managers tend to recruit those who are culturally similar to themselves (i.e., with the same tastes, hobbies, experiences). When this is applied to the tech world, it’s easy to see how a group of male friends will recruit other males when expanding a tech startup.
- Work culture: According to a survey by the Guardian, 73% of men and women believe the tech industry is sexist, and 52% of people say they’re aware of women being paid less than men for doing the same job. What’s more, a report by the Center for Talent Innovation found that women who do make it into science, engineering or technology are 45% more likely to leave within a year than men. Reasons cited for this include hostile macho workplace cultures, isolation, and a lack of effective mentors.
What can we do about it?
There’s a pipeline problem, yes, but that doesn’t mean we can all dust our hands at the end of the day after throwing it into the too-hard-basket.
Granted, changing the situation is going to involve time and effort. This means resources and ultimately spending money, but there is no risk attached. It’s an investment with a guaranteed return.
There are steps that can be taken now that will contribute to fixing this problem, and if individuals and businesses in the tech industry — and many other industries too — will commit to these steps, then that’s where we’ll see real change.
Some approaches to encouraging gender diversity in the workplace include:
Create a gender strategy
To implement change within any business there needs to be a strategy. Otherwise, it can be challenging to not only track its success or effectiveness over time, but it can also get in the way of implementation.
To guide organisational buy-in a rock-solid case should be presented. This doesn’t have to be time-consuming as there are plenty of resources available online to get you started. A great toolkit has been created by Workplace Gender Equality Agency that steps you through why it’s important to have a strategy, as well as how to create one.
Update your hiring policy
Getting women into our businesses and ultimately the industry is the goal, so it’s important to ensure our hiring policies are designed to support this. This doesn’t have to involve long policy writing committee meetings, just incorporating a few things to be aware of when interacting with potential candidates:
- Ensure that female employees are present in either the first or second interview.
- Ensure the same core questions are asked of each potential candidate to avoid sub-conscious bias in the discussions.
- Ensure that every candidate has the opportunity to have a candid conversation with a team member to ask how your business works in the day-to-day, independent of the corporate dialogue with a particular focus on what it is like to be part of a minority group in the business.
Invest in women outside of your organisation
Find programs you believe in that support young women to explore the tech industry and sponsor events that are already being run by and for women in tech. This might not lead to someone being hired tomorrow but the more women that enter the tech industry at a young age the more talent you will see coming through your doors in the next 5–10 years. Some great groups to check out include:
Actively acknowledge and talk about the existence of gender inequality in your space
Acknowledging our shortfalls as individuals or a businesses can be challenging. But we can only grow and be better by being able to pinpoint our weaknesses.
Be open about your lack of diversity, talk about it with your board, with senior management and with each other. It can only make you stronger, more educated, and better aware of the problem while also providing you with more brains to help find a solution.
Be open to call-outs and criticism
As already mentioned, acknowledging our shortfalls can be challenging, but it’s important if we really want to improve the situation. So when someone takes the time to educate us or our organisations about where we’re lacking in diversity, we need to respect them and the time they have taken to help us be better. If you’re a leader, be open to suggestions from minority groups within your workforce about how they feel the workplace culture affects them, because they’re the only ones who really know what it’s like.
Let’s build a better tech industry, for everyone
Making change is no simple feat. It can be easy to de-prioritise efforts, or be discouraged when we don’t see immediate results.
We do this because we want to look back in 20 years and see that we did everything we can to help women, to help Australia’s economy, to watch our tech sector grow, and most importantly to provide women with more opportunities.
If you would like to discuss this more, suggest other ways in which we can improve, or simply catch up for a coffee and chat about how we can work to drive some serious change, please get in touch. The more humans we have working to make a difference, the better!
