I have been wanting to write this article ever since I had a conversation with my friend about the gender inequality that exists in tech. She is a CS grad and I am an ECE grad, both with a master’s degree and we were talking about how insecure we feel about our mathematical and coding capabilities. I have been so used to being one of the only few and sometimes the only woman in the room that I have to remind myself to look back and realize the quantum of women missing from tech.
Amartya Sen coined the term “Missing Women” which indicates a shortfall in the number of women relative to the expected number of women in a region or country. It is most often measured through male-to-female sex ratios and is theorized to be caused by sex-selective abortions, female infanticide, and inadequate healthcare and nutrition for female children.
The “Missing Women In Tech” are a result of years of resource depravity, unequal access and opportunities, and most importantly, the unwelcoming gestures of the tech community through unequal pay, promotions, and career advancement. All the conversations around gender equality highlight the importance of women in society, culture, and families. It’s high time we start addressing the role and importance of women in the tech industry.
An estimate by the World Economic Forum predicts that it will take 257 years to close the employment gender gap across all industries. Provided the male-dominated culture and inaccessibility of the tech industry, it will be even longer before women in tech achieve parity. There is Occupational Segregation that exists inside the tech industry where roles related to writing, communication, human resource management, etc. typically employ women. In fact, occupation and industry constitute the largest portion of the explained component of the gender wage gap(Source).
It’s an omnipresent problem across industries and countries
I grew up in a male-dominated society where women and their careers were not taken seriously. I grew up with a deep belief system that women are not skilled nor smart enough to work in challenging fields. A big information and resource asymmetry existed between the genders. I got internet access much later than all the boys in my class, I couldn’t spend much time outside or ask random people for help. Yet, we were forced to compete on the same exam and prove ourselves. Needless to say, women are left behind from the first day of starting their careers.
This is not just a problem that exists in India, it’s a challenge that we face worldwide in terms of giving opportunities to women to succeed in technology and even more, giving them what they deserve. To put it in numbers, here is a statistics from United Nations Women
Globally, only 33 per cent of researchers are women, and they are awarded less research funding than men, and are less likely to be promoted. In the private sector too, women are less present in company leadership and in technical roles in tech industries. Women account for just 22 per cent of professionals working in artificial intelligence and 28 per cent of engineering graduates. These glaring underrepresentations limit our ability to find inclusive, sustainable solutions to modern problems and build a better society for all.
UN Women, 2022
In my conversations with many accomplished, smart, and intelligent women working in tech, I have found a lot of resonance. They frequently share feeling like an imposter in the technical world where they have second-guessed their abilities despite having similar (sometimes more) qualifications to males. I remember shutting myself up so many times when a guy would start talking because I could never believe in myself enough. I have this consistent feeling of not being good enough to code, explore data or design ML algorithms.
Before making a career shift in Data Science and ML, I studied mechanical engineering and people still gasp for air when I tell them about my bachelor’s degree. I felt unwanted in that discipline and deprived of opportunities. I interned in a cement plant in 2015 and in the whole plant, there wasn’t a single ladies’ restroom. I had to walk 20 minutes to relieve myself or wait for lunchtime to be able to go office center and use the restroom. Multiple companies who came to recruit at my university outrightly said no to women candidates even before interviewing them. Others who recruited had specific roles for women (like marketing, sales, etc.), usually not related to mechanical engineering.
I am mentioning all these personal experiences to elaborate more on the opportunity, information, and development depravity that women experience on a daily basis.
Workplace harassment is another sad reality where women are often at the receiving end and afraid to report because of fear of retaliation. (Women filed 78.2% of the 27,291 sexual harassment charges received between FY 2018 and FY 2021, Source). Only a quarter to a third of people who have been harassed at work report it to a supervisor or union representative, and 2 percent to 13 percent file a formal complaint, according to a meta-analysis of studies by Lilia Cortina of the University of Michigan and Jennifer Berdahl of the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business.
Bringing it to the notice
I have talked about this with a number of my male friends and their responses include amazement and a stress on the fact that it never came to their consciousness. I remember talking to a Software Engineer friend about this and he suddenly realized that his department has only 1 woman employee out of 30 employees.
I think the first steps in addressing the problem of Missing Women In Tech are to talk about it, actively work on our conscious and unconscious gender bias, and support young girls who want to make a career in STEM.
Incentivizing young girls while working on ensuring equity (not equality) in corporate careers will be a welcome step. The change has to be done at all levels, including schools, universities, and corporates while also improving the social outlook towards women in tech.
Together, we can make a difference.