It's 2022 - Where are the Women in Tech?

In the early days of information technology, women were amongst the pioneers.

Many ascribe the first computational thinking to Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the poet Byron in the first half of the 19th century, and the programming language ADA is named after her for that reason.

I’m not sure I fully understand the details of the spanning-tree protocol invented by Radia Perlman but I do know that it is an important part of the seamless Internet experience we now enjoy. As far as I know, she didn’t get anything named after her, and she doesn’t like being referred to as the Mother of the Internet.

Those innovators had to operate in a male-dominated world, and it remains the case today that just 23% of the technology workforce are women, despite a steady increase in that number over the years.

We’re lucky to have brilliant minds to lead the way. NZ’s own Lillian Grace pops into my mind immediately as a positive role model for young women in STEM today. You may have heard of her epic website Figure.NZ where you can look up stats on anything – yes, anything. From the price of avocados to data on women studying in the IT sector, it’s there. She makes data a “language in which everyone can be fluent.”

Women like Lillian are vital to growing our representation in the tech workforce. When we see one woman do it, it doesn’t seem so hard to do it ourselves. Be on a board of a major digital innovation network? No problem! Want to be a CEO someday? I think I can!

Why is that important? It’s now well established that gender diversity (that means more women are involved in making decisions) is essential at the Board of Directors level in any company. Companies with gender-balanced boards perform better.

One study showed that for companies in the top quartile in relation to women on their boards, return on equity was 53% higher and return on sales 42% higher than those in the bottom quartile. And when it comes to wellbeing and soft skills, women scored higher in a recent McKinsey survey where employees rated their managers in areas such as “provided emotional support” and “helped navigate work-life challenges.”

The same effect may be even more profound in the technology itself. A quick search for “gender bias in tech” will yield a slew of articles documenting how gender bias affects everything from Artificial Intelligence to the way in which we describe plugs and sockets. Since technology is a key enabler of all strategies, be aware of gender bias popping up in the early stages of development and getting locked in later in your transformations.

Women simply see the world in a different way. They have answers to questions that males might not even be asking. It’s OK to acknowledge that different genders think differently, and that is what inclusivity is about. We want to be invited to the table and provide our opinions.

After that, we can work on the other issues women face in the industry such as wage gaps.

For businesses that need to innovate and provide digital experiences with the broadest possible appeal to the whole population, this should be a major consideration when developing a digital transformation strategy, too.

Without a properly balanced perspective on your business, you may end up with problems you don’t even know about. I would recommend taking a look at your policies and seeing if there is room for improvement in your next digital project to increase diversity in order to give yourself the best chance for success.

Adding more women into the mix will be good for your business, employees, and clients. Give it a shot – you may just hire the next Lillian Grace.

Resources for companies and NZ women:

Women on Boards

TechWomen

Ministry for Women

Danika Ciullo is the Marketing Manager at CIO Studio. For a more in-depth strategic approach to your business processes and digital strategy, you can visit our contact page and choose the option that works best for you.

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