Is the Tech World a Man World?

This is an analysis if the Tech Industry suffers “a Women” scarcity and the possible reasons for such status in the World.

It is a fact that we are living in a highly advanced society when speaking technology, however certain behaviours in this market do not seem to evolve with those advancements. It is true that since World War II much has been conquered in terms of moral principles, especially in regards to gender equality in the workplace, but is that a reality, or just utopia?

It is not new that society has always matched the female group as being part of “the home world”, washing dishes, cooking and the rest of chores related. Virtual Games are typically seen as a “toy for boys”, while girls play with clothes and dolls. According to Virginija Langbakk – Director of European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) “Deep-rooted stereotypes are one of the main obstacles for women´s careers in the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector. At an early age, girls learn to consider boys better at learning digital skills. Later in life, they look for career options elsewhere and overlook the benefits of having a job in tech.”

Analysing this issue deeper, the data suggests that in high school it is normal for girls to have better grades than boys. However, in Tech Universities females are outnumbered by males by 82% versus 18%. Another Research (The Belong Research) found out that 50% women engineers quit tech and change to fields such as marketing and consulting after a while and according to Pew Research Women choosing to quit their jobs to be stay at home moms is up on the rise. They stop because they decide to start a family. Obviously these breaks difficult them to go back to work, due to the new challenges that keep arising in the workforce. Times mutate extremely fast, and up-skilling is a must, especially to have a successful career in the tech industry. Once one has a family, the “work at home” seems to never end, making it hard to focus on a tech career that requires great attention. Apart from that, some believe that women are not simply appropriate for a tech job. For example, a senior male software engineer from Google wrote a document stating that women are different biologically from man, “I’m simply stating that the distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don’t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership,” the author writes, according to a version posted by Gizmodo.

Many still believe that women are less suited for leadership and tech roles, making it an obstacle for Women to be taken serious in these specific areas.

Nevertheless, many studies suggest that Women have proven to improve the financial state and performance of companies. There are Women such as Katherine Johnson, whose calculations enabled NASA’s first space exploration, Williamina Fleming, the women who cracket the secrets of the universe with computation, Grace Hoper, the “mother of computing”, and many others that are models of how Women can excel at technological leading roles, challenging the industry to open.

Although the numbers are low when compared to males in tech, conclusions are that The Technological Market is indeed opening up to the acceptance of Women. This is a starting point towards gender equality in this field.