The first thing that comes to mind when most people think of the tech field is men. For the most part, IT has been synonymous with men. Today, we are still struggling to include women in this male-dominated world.
In recent times, women have come a long way in the workplace in terms of the roles they are involved in. Stereotypical men’s jobs like mechanical works, lawyering, or working as a pilot have been slowly penetrated by women.
However, it is worth noting that women are still underrepresented in the tech industry.
According to Statista, although the percentage of employed women across all job sectors in the US has grown to 47%, the five largest tech companies on the planet (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft) only have a workforce of about 34.4% women.
In terms of leadership roles, women only hold 26.5 percent of executive, senior-level, and management positions in S&P 500 companies.
There are two reasons why women lack presence in the IT world. One of which is that most people tend to think that men are generally better at science or maths. In addition, women are typically discouraged to pursue a career in the tech world due to the pervasiveness of the Bro culture.
Another reason is the lack of women in the talent pipeline. Studies show that only fewer women study technology-based subjects at schools. In fact, only 20% of computer science professionals are women. Some women also put tech jobs their last option for career choices. This ultimately boils down to the lack of female role models in the tech industry for the younger generation to follow in their footsteps.
The perspectives that women provide are game-changer in the tech world. Imagine developing an app that only centers around the male and dismissing almost 50% of the world population. This could easily be the case if the app is developed by a homogeneous organization. But can quickly be addressed if there are women involved in the process.
The evident gender disparity is serious and should not be taken lightly. We must raise enough awareness of this issue so organizations will step up their game and be more eager to add women to their workforce.
Offering benefits like maternity leaves is one way of enticing women to the tech field. While this may not immediately trigger an influx of women to the usual man’s world, it is a great start and will encourage other industries as well to be more creative in their campaign to include women in their organizations.
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