Posted by Because there aren’t enough women in tech jobs, women as customers aren’t well-represented. If women use technology often, why do men create most of it?
Having no say at the table or a gender gap makes it harder for products that only meet the needs of women to do as well in the market as products that only meet the needs of men. Fortune says that only 2.2% of venture capital cash went to women-run companies in 2020.
A Harvard Business Review article discusses why we need women in tech and the rest of the workforce. It says that having equal numbers of men and women in the workforce could raise the world GDP by 3–6%. That would add between 2.5 and 5 trillion dollars to the world economy.
The growth of the world economy is affected by the number of women working in technology firms. It improves new apps for businesses and changes how the tech industry moves toward a more gender-equal future that serves all customers.
Here are 6 reasons why we need more women in tech field:
1. Enhanced Profitability
One simple reason we need women in tech jobs is that they help the business. Women have new ways of thinking, leading to new ideas and better ways to solve problems. This means your customers will be happier, making them loyal to your brand.
As more women become leaders, it encourages young women in tech to apply for jobs where they can move up the company ladder. A balanced workplace also improves happiness, safety, and how people treat each other. These things help employees do their jobs better and bring in more money.
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2. Diversification & Creativity
The world we live in is getting better because of new technologies. We need computer engineers in every area, from medicine to planning cities. We must compensate for insufficient women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs.
Technology needs to get better so that it works for everyone, no matter what race or gender they are. When computer science engineers make new technologies, they must consider what buyers want. Companies can only have representation if they have teams with different backgrounds.
Men and women think about things in different ways. Taking a woman’s point of view into account leads to new ideas in businesses where men used to make all the decisions about unisex or women’s products.
In an article, Stanford Medicine discusses how men’s and women’s brains and cognitive processes differ. Women are good at jobs that:
- Verbal ability
- Reading comprehension
- Writing ability
- Fine motor coordination and perceptual speed
- Accessing information from their long-term memory
This doesn’t mean men don’t have skills of their own. The study found that men are better at handling things in their working memory and have better spatial skills than women. When more women work in tech, a company’s skills are more diverse. It gives companies more people to hire and helps them develop new ideas in their field.
If you want to make more money and sell great goods, your products should be made for all kinds of customers. Since women comprise half of consumers, making goods with them in mind is innovative.
3. Improved Problem Solving for Better Outcomes
Problem-solving skills don’t have anything to do with a person’s gender. Problems can be solved by both men and women, no matter what gender they are. But to solve problems better, you need to think outside the box and develop new ideas. Equality between men and women and a diverse workforce would be an easy way to bring new ideas.
The National Centre for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) says that only 19% of computer software engineers and 20% of computer coders were women in 2021. This means that 80% of the problems in the tech business were solved by men.
Women who work in technology often face bias because of their gender, and their ideas and views are often drowned out by those of their many male coworkers. Trustradius says that 78% of women in tech think they have to work harder than their male coworkers to prove their worth and make up for the fact that the odds are against them.
This is why more women are needed in the tech industry. We don’t use our brains to their full potential or listen to ideas that could help us do better.
4. More Significant Mentors & Talent
The ILO Bureau for Employers’ Activities (ACT/EMP) says that “unconscious gender bias remains a significant barrier to women’s career advancement.”
The study found that women thought their chances of becoming leaders were lower because of “stereotypes against women and inherent gender bias in recruitment and promotion.”
STEM jobs are filled mainly by men, and unconscious bias makes people think that managing jobs is for men. As things are now, most people in charge of tech companies are guys.
Since unconscious gender bias is a big part of a man’s job as a hiring manager, men tend to pick other men from job pools because they think that upper management jobs and jobs in the tech field are usually for men.
Some qualified people don’t apply for jobs mostly filled by men because they fear they won’t be able to move up the company ladder. As a company changes the kinds of teachers, role models, and leaders it has, the talent pool grows.
When women have a bigger say at the table, both in terms of their position in the company and the number of seats they have, it affects the tech business as a whole.
People look for meaningful mentors because they want to learn from people they want to be one day. A better pool of talent leads to better ideas and a better result. If your service or product is better, you can charge more for it.
5. More safety in the workplace
The tech business needs more women to make the workplace safer. Now that you’ve seen the study on how women’s and men’s brains are different, you can see how women’s ideas bring a new point of view to the table. Hackers aren’t just men, so having women on your security teams gives you an extra line of defense.
Not only is online security important, but if a company has been sued for sexual harassment, it looks terrible to the public. Whether or not the accusations are true, a company will have to pay a lot of money to defend itself in court.
On the other hand, women’s safety at work must be a top concern everywhere. You want everyone who works there, regardless of age, race, or gender, to feel safe.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research says that sexual harassment and assault are more likely to happen to women who work in male-dominated fields or where men usually do the work. It also found “high levels of harassment of women faculty and staff in academia in science, engineering, and medicine.”
Replacing male-dominated settings with teams with equal numbers of men and women opens the door to genuine conversations, better HR practices, and less gender bias at work. All of this makes work safer and more fun for everyone.
6. Better atmosphere at work
Bringing in a birthday cake isn’t the only way to boost office happiness. It’s about ensuring everyone feels valued, heard, and honored, even if they’re not the vice president or in a position to make decisions.
People want to stay with a company if they have a good boss, can share ideas, and feel safe at work. Training new workers is expensive and takes time for business owners who hire and fire many people. Still, it saves money in the long run to train women workers.
The workplace culture improves when more women are hired in tech and other fields with more men than women. It makes things safer, gives companies a chance to rethink policies more geared toward one gender, and gives team members a wider range of varieties.
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Anisa is a writer who focuses on career and lifestyle topics in an effort to motivate both job searchers and employers towards greater fulfillment in their professional lives.
Reach me at anisa@jobstore.com.