8 Reasons We Need More Women in Technology

Kimberly Bryant was introduced to computer programming as a college freshman. In those days, Apple Macintosh was a newbie and FORTRAN and Pascal were the popular languages. She says she “remembers being excited by the prospects” of a rewarding career after college, but that she also felt “culturally isolated.”

Today, Bryant (@6Gems) seeks to empower young women from all backgrounds to enter the tech world through her San Francisco non-profit organization, Black Girls Code, which teaches programming skills.

Growing up, Dessy Daskalov’s parents were constantly showing her cool tech stuff. She recalls the day her father first showed her Google’s search engine, which was at a time when most people were still using Ask Jeeves for answers to life’s questions. “He told me how amazing it was . . .  to have the ability to start from nothing, to build a big company and influence the world with it,” she says.

Today, Dessy is a Toronto-based software developer and the CTO and Co-Founder of Nudge Rewards, which builds mobile software that helps businesses deliver critical information to employees.

Both of these women represent much of what’s right with women in tech. What they don’t reflect is a growing trend or an equal representation of women in the industry. And that’s a crying shame, because experts agree that we need more women in tech and the reason is simple: tech will get better. Today, women still represent just a small fraction of entrepreneurs, coders, engineers, and investors. That needs to change, and here are eight reasons why:

1) Diversity Matters

The tech industry is a global enterprise and needs to understand and represent its entire consumer base. Women’s choices are believed to have an impact on up to 85% of purchasing decisions. When tech companies don’t have enough of a female perspective, they lack accurate input and a crucial female voice to address this strong economic force.

2) The Future Belongs to Everyone

Computing isn’t going anywhere. It’s our present and it most certainly will be our future, as it’s likely it will connect us to every product we own as we delegate more and more of our everyday tasks to machines and algorithms. It’s imperative that women have a voice in the design of that future.

3) Exceptional Entrepreneurs Needed

It’s time to start prioritizing female entrepreneurship. If businesses are to thrive and simultaneously create more jobs, young women and girls need to be encouraged early to view entrepreneurship as a viable career. Britain’s Centre for Entrepreneurs has found that women are better calculated risk-takers, are less prone to overconfidence, more likely to take a long-term view as opposed to fast-term growth, and are overall more ambitious than men. It also found that women achieve success despite facing more obstacles and barriers than their male counterparts.

4) Discrimination and Gender Bias Need Reduction

Washington D.C.-based Women Who Tech (@womenwhotech), found that only 7% of investment cash goes to start-ups led by women, and only 13% of venture-backed companies have at least one founder who is a woman. Women in tech need to be viewed by recruiters and employers as equally capable, and their position and pay need to reflect that. Unfortunately, it is still all too common for women to be offered lower salaries for the exact jobs given to men at higher ones. Women need to be educated on their worth in the tech industry and demand appropriate compensation.

5) Innovation

Technology can only benefit from the fresh, original ideas and perspectives women bring to the table. When tech companies embrace diversity in their workforce, they help boost the rate at which they grow. Women in tech can more effectively address female customer needs, and that means a gain in revenues.

6) Help Wanted

By the year 2020, there will be more than one million tech-related jobs in the United States alone, but only enough graduates around to fill 39% of them. In that same time, it’s estimated that 50 billion devices or more will be connected to the internet, making a push for more women in tech all the more critical.

7) Does it Matter?

Yes it does. Women are severely underrepresented in science and tech. As a result, a multitude of real life problems that directly affect only women don’t get the attention they need and deserve. There needs to be an app for that.

8) Closing the Pay Gap

When you equal out the gender gap, you equal out the pay gap. For years it’s been noted that pink collar jobs tend to pay less than blue or white-collar jobs, even if the education and work required are equal. When more women move into the tech world (and more men move into traditional “women’s jobs”), wages will reflect a worker’s worth regardless of gender.



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How Do We Close The Gender Gap in Technology?

Just about everywhere you look these days there’s another story about the gender gap which exists in the technology industry. News outlets often jump on flavor-of-the month topics, but this story is different in that real change is happening, with most of that change happening in tech start-ups, not only in Silicon Valley, but in other areas where tech is a growing industry.

Understanding the Gender Gap

Today women lead only 3% of tech startups and account for only 4% of senior venture partners. Whether it’s as security specialists, coders, developers, strategists, or writers, the lack of professional women is one of tech’s biggest problems. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up under 20% of software developers, making it a major concern on a number of fronts.

Software developers earn a median salary of over $90,000 per year, and underrepresentation by women in this and other well-paying tech jobs is troubling, given the 78 cents women still earn for every dollar earned by men. In addition, when women avoid tech careers it has an impact on tech companies’ growth, as the labor pool to draw from is smaller.

Funding the Change

The gender gap issue is also an ethnicity issue and an economic issue, and every one of these issues involves every one of us. If you are a woman seeking a job, if you have a daughter or niece who will one day enter the workforce, or if you’re just generally concerned about your area’s economic future, women’s capability to be equal technology partners matters. A study sponsored by workforce diversity leaders Ernst & Young and the Diana Project, resulted in a report by Babson College in 2013 that gender bias reveals itself in the patterns of venture capital investments. So it isn’t just hiring practices that have to change, but funding practices as well.

It’s pretty clear by now this a complicated issue that will not be solved overnight or with a magic wand. While several reports issued this year show that the gender gap in Silicon Valley is actually widening, there are mavericks in the area who are doing their part to set things right.

The Gender Gap Game-changers 

Salesforce, a cloud software company, is one such company. Co-founder and chief executive Marc Benioff one day came to the realization that his company was a part of the problem – the management meetings he was participating in were filled solely with men. He decided to do something about it, and in 2013 started Women’s Surge, with the goal of achieving 100% equality for women and men in pay and promotions. He also wanted to ensure that at least one-third of management meeting participants were women. Benioff knows Salesforce has a long way to go, but believes gender equality should be one of the top priorities for every CEO in the country.

The biggest tech players are finding it more difficult to react quickly to the gender gap dilemma. While tech firms like Google, Twitter and Facebook publicly report their diversity data, this year Pinterest took it one step further by publicly setting diversity goals for 2016. That passes as radical in the tech industry. Pinterest’s short-term goals are to increase non-engineering roles to 12% underrepresented backgrounds (note white or Asian); increase full-time engineering roles to 30% women and 8% underrepresented backgrounds; and ensure at least one woman is interviewed for openings in leadership positions. Small numbers, but a start.

Many in the industry believe greater strides in closing the gender gap will come not from the old tried and true way – rising through the (male-dominated) ranks – but from female entrepreneurs starting their own firms. In the past decade, there’s been a 57% increase in the number of women-owned firms with $10 million or more in revenue. The total number of such companies still hovers at around 20%, but the growth rate is brisk. Venture capitalists also continue to increase their support of women-led companies, albeit nowhere near the rate they fund men.

Another innovative approach that is gathering steam is attempting to automate hiring. Start-ups like Entelo and GapJumpers believe software can do a more effective and efficient job of non-biased hiring than people can, and many established headhunting firms like Korn Ferry are also buying into the idea.

The Key of Cultural Evolution

There are a great number of initiatives out there working to close the gender gap within the tech industry. Engineering schools run programs that enable women to become software engineers in 10-weeks, and networking events and organizations offer girls and women the hand up they need. Closing the gender gap is not a problem that will be solved in a short amount of time, but through tech industry culture changes, proactive initiatives and early encouragement of girls to enter the computer science fields, it’s something that can certainly improve.

It’s Time to Rally Support for Women in Technology

The subject of women in technology, or more precisely, the dearth of women in technology, is everywhere in the news these days. At a certain point, one can become numb to the statistics bandied about – the small percentage of the tech work force made up by women; the dramatic drop in college women who are majoring in computer sciences; and the lack of recognition for women’s contributions to the field. It’s as if an entire gender is walking about with a big dark cloud over its head.

All is not gloom and doom though. There’s a whiff of hope in the air lately, as it appears the industry is beginning to rally around the idea that more women are needed in the tech world, and they need to be encouraged from a very young age to envision a place for themselves in that world. It isn’t just about gender equality, either.

Two of the most important facts that support a push for more women in technology are that women make up a larger section of the tech user base than men, and that gender diversity in teams leads to more successful firms. While it’s still an uphill battle, a number of trailblazers are coming forth to lead the charge. Here’s a look at some of the areas of action they feel are top priority.

MAKE THE CASE FOR WOMEN IN TECH

When more women are hired in design, management and leadership positions, a healthier workplace results. Corporations need to be educated on how to shift their male-dominated cultures, as it’s well-established that a diverse workplace not only achieves better results, but more accurately reflects a company’s customer/client base. A good example of this is the City of Sacramento partnering with Microsoft to encourage girls to get into the technology fields.

IMPROVE EDUCATION

One of the biggest challenges remains in getting young girls to see technology careers being worth pursuing. That’s tough, when most of the attention and focus tends to be on the men in the industry. The media does cover women in tech who head up big companies, but it rarely gives space to women who are starting up their own tech companies, writing code and creating software.

Pink-collar occupations, such as teaching and nursing, are not to be dismissed, but girls need to be encouraged to pursue the higher incomes that engineering and computer science can offer. Organizations like CodeEd, a Boston-based non-profit that teaches various aspects of computing to girls, are leading the charge. Another innovator is Code First: Girls, a London initiative that offers free coding courses to female graduates. If it’s change we’re looking for, it’s imperative to raise girls’ awareness of the opportunities that exist for them and to reverse the negative perception they have of the tech field.

CHAMPION ROLE MODELS

The technology field is certainly not lacking in role models – it’s just that those role models have traditionally been left out of the public narrative. That is changing and as more positive narratives are presented to both girls and, importantly, their parents, we will hopefully see a shift in attitudes and career choices made by young women as they enter college or university.

Nora Poggi’s documentary, She Started It, tells the stories of female tech entrepreneurs and offers young women a look at what a career in technology can mean for them. Poggi hopes the film empowers young girls by exposing them to inspirational women in technology who look just like them.

FUND WOMEN’S START-UPS

In 1981, the first multi-million dollar Silicon Valley startup went public. The company, ASK Computers, was unable to raise funding from venture capitalists, so the founder self-invested. That founder was a woman, Sandra Kurtzig, who started out as a home-based, part-time software programmer and a few years later launched her technology company’s IPO. Not much has changed in the 30-plus years since, as women continue to find it nearly impossible to attract financial backing. Female entrepreneurs need to be encouraged into startups, and that encouragement needs to come in the form of the same money that is invested in men.

A step in the right direction are events like Lady’s Pitch Night, a partnership between Girls in Tech, Go Daddy and YouNoodle that hopes to level the playing field. The San Francisco gathering brings together innovative female business leaders, engineers, designers and investors to explore the best in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

While all of these steps forwards are promising, they are still not enough. If we want to see more young girls and women embrace technology as a career path, we’ll need to stay focused on some core principles, including becoming more accepting of women in the tech workplace. The best way to do this is through encouragement, opportunity, and continued support.

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Why is the U.S. behind when it comes to Women in Tech?

I agree with the reports that represent the US as one of the most progressive democratic nations in the world and its significant headway into championing for gender equality. However, the country still lags behind other progressive countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East relation to women and their input towards the development of its technology industry. The US technology industry has always been male dominated and as much as one would expect this to change given its advocacy for women’s rights and gender equality, I believe that the situation has yet to exhibit any signs of improvement.

The National Center for Women in Technology provides that in 2013, less than 20% of bachelor’s degree recipients for computer and information sciences courses were women. This represented a decline of nearly 20% in comparison to the female bachelor’s degree recipients in the same courses in the year 1985. The unfortunate fact about these statistics is that in other industrialized nations and in developing economies of the Middle East and Asia, the representation of women in the technologies industry has been on a progressive increase. For instance, I have come across credible news sources such as The Economist, which provide that in 2014, about a quarter of technology related start-ups in the Middle East were owned by women.

On the same note, I have read reports indicating that women in European universities tend to be better represented compared with those of the US. For example, in 2012, nearly 50% of university and college students in 17 countries in Europe were women studying courses related to mathematics, engineering, computer science, the sciences and manufacturing. More so, the European workforce the share of women working in technology intensive service and production industries stood at 25 % of the total technology oriented workforce according to data from 2008 to 2010. Unfortunately, for women working in similar industries in the US, less than 10% work in engineering related roles and about 26% of the workforce in the computer and information systems related fields.

Personally, I perceive this disparity as having more to do with the American culture as opposed to women lacking a show of interest in tech fields. In essence, the US technologies industry can be considered as a mature one. As much as women tend to show great interest in science and technologies related fields, their aptitude to take up these fields as careers has been waning over the last few years. The main reasons as to why they are rejecting these lucrative careers has according to the 2008 Center for Work-Life Policy report, been attributed to excessive job pressures and hostile work environments. According to the report, more than 50% of professionally qualified women working with SET organizations quit employment citing the need to commit to their families or opt for more pleasant working environments. As such, women with great technology and science credentials have exhibited a greater inclination towards dropping out of lucrative employment contracts in comparison to men working in the same industry.

I perceive that another issue negatively impacting the involvement of American women in the technology industry is that sexism and gender discrimination in technology industries is quite rife. Most women decry the fact that technology firms show little commitment to having women work within their organizations. I have heard of reports indicating that women employees in tech firms are looked over, pushed aside and even put down while their male peers continue to accord support to each other despite exhibiting shoddy performance and below average output levels.

The mass exodus of professionally trained women from the technology industry has to be stemmed to ensure that technology firms are able to conform to calls towards inclusion and diversity in the workplace. You will agree with me that diversity, inclusion is a very important factor towards innovation, and new product development in today’s globalized markets. I champion for the elimination of sexism within technology firms and the removal of barriers that limit women’s commitment to their families while working in these fields. As such, the American society should reassess its perception of women in the technologies industry. The technology industry should also strive towards giving women due credit for phenomenal scientific abilities exhibited by women. More so, technology oriented industries should offer women competitive economic incentives that mirror those of their male counterparts in an effort to retain more women as professional tech employees.

It is however important that I point out that gender discrimination is not only limited to the tech industry in the US. It is rather rampant all over the world. There is therefore the need for the US society to champion for a cultural shift towards greater gender equality to stem this issue.

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Women in Technology: Damsels With Digital Dreams

I am of the perception that the technology industry is predominately male dominated. For instance, a great number of successful technology firms such as Google, Microsoft and Apple, were founded and are run by men. As much, there are not nearly as many success stories with regard to female entrepreneurs such as that of Marissa Mayer. Women in this innovation-oriented industry have to overcome myriads of challenges. Some women in the technology industry have indeed shared their experiences with me and these personal accounts suggest that the industry presents a rather ruthless environment for women.

Swim, Never Sink

Some women provide that it is always a constant fight to stay in the game. From my own personal experiences, there is always an aura of unconscious bias ridden with misogynistic tendencies, arrogance and sexism. It is therefore rather challenging for women to realize the professional respect that they deserve to keep afloat, much less find great success in the industry and as such, many do drown.

I am a passionate technology enthusiast and professional. Success stories such as the one of Marissa Mayer should only serve to empower women to take a stronger stand towards professional growth in the technology industry. It is also important to note that gender parity in the technology industry plays an integral part in spurring creative innovations and developments more so in relation to products tailored for women. As greater consumer segmentation takes place, more companies are seeking to have their production lines meet the expectations of different sets of customers. As such, gender diversity in the workplace is now perceived as an asset. This is mainly based on the fact that it improves on creativity in the workplace. By looking back to the Mayer success story, I believe that the creative power of this CEO has served to improve on the further development of the technology industry as a whole.

Sheer determination, character and a work smart attitude is critical to move more women into the technology sector and to achieve more success stories for women in the field . Mayer has worked with a similar attitude and as such, has enabled the many talented women who have dreamed of starting a business, rising up in their company, or entering the tech field to grow into their full potential.

Technology Needs Wonder Women

Being a hub for media and entertainment, my business in Los Angeles has tapped into a market with massive potential, though operating in a rather competitive environment. I therefore pull from my own personal experience, and champion for greater women involvement in the technology industry. I challenge women in the technology industry to work harder and smarter to avoid the negativity that may tend to limit their creative talents from being fully exploited to their benefit, and ultimately the growth and profitability of the technology sector.

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