Why Is There a Gender Gap in Tech?

Basically, in every race, country and organization there’s always been gender inequality or should I call it an obvious difference in population genders usually engaged in top industries. An obvious example is the Technology world in which researchers have found women to hold little, going to no positions in the world of tech. For example, some organizations which are popular in science, and engineering, have a wide difference in the number of their male workers and the female workers, let’s say 70 to 30 and that is by far a very wide gap between the genders of the male and female.

To reduce the inequality between both gender, organizations which are focused to improve women’s involvement in technology, engineering, science and some other aspects have been springing up and has yielded abundant results through the help of NGOs which has helped increased the encouragement of women into the tech world.

STEM, with appropriate and right motivations, has been working on how to encourage women to get into the technology industry and also created bodies that have only one purpose, which is to help the female gender in the technological world.

These establishments have not only been working on how to help women get established in technical mastery but they also run specific programs, organize classes, embark on camp projects locally for the female gender to get trained in the knowledge of engineering. Maybe, just maybe they will have a passion for tech and engineering. With the recent researches and the comparison to the last dozen years in the world of technology, only 2% of the wide gap has been successfully breached. This means that the idea behind establishing these organizations is working but it is too small to cover the enormous range of differences that still persist. That’s the main reason there is a need for strategizing and reassessing of our methods and plans but first, we have to redefine our goals and what women representation mean in the tech industry.

What does the current statistic of the female presence in tech mean?

The employment of the female gender in all areas of life, especially in the world of technology is one thing that shouldn’t be overlooked but encouraged, supported and not discriminated against. As a matter of fact, a higher chance of women being better leaders and more competitive in the world if given a chance exists but instead of giving them a chance, society tends to discourage their involvement in various industries and particularly the world of technology. With time, if care is not taken, there will be a drastic reduction in the women that are actually involved in technology and science respectively and it will not be as a result of hiring problems anymore, it will be because of attrition.

For example, facts have revealed that a rough estimation of 40% to 30% of tech companies prioritize and encourage women hiring in their companies which is a low number of women being hired in engineering companies. Therefore, companies are meant to encourage, hire and get women to be involved in the technology like never before and the only way possible to achieve that now is to get women involved at higher levels so that women can support and bring themselves up the ladder which will, in turn, propel their involvement in technology.

Do the differences in payment because of gender still exist?

Discrimination in the technology world affects the hiring, involvement, and pay range of women. A general survey of employee in technology companies was carried out and it was discovered that only a little percentage of all the men complained about their payment scheme as low while more than half of the women consistently complained of being undermined and underpaid. Discrimination and no transparency in payment still exist but are not common in all places, where women are paid less and maybe not counted as important because they are seen to be of the ‘weak’ gender.

A good example is a tech company where the workers complained about being paid low. The total percentage of those who complained was above quarter of the company workers and those that complained were those who were paid lower amounts when likened to their male colleagues.

How many of both gender have experienced gender discrimination at their place of work?

Gender discrimination is seen as favors being granted to a gender unfairly at the expense of the other rather than treating both of them equally. In the workplace, both men and women are facing gender discrimination where one gender is being given a better chance and a better hand over the other. For example, men may face gender discrimination when the management over-favors women or the management love to impress women to get them while the men tend to suffer and get played in the game. Or a gender bias where the management tends not to favor women because they think women aren’t good enough for the job or they just don’t want them at work, other times, it’s the pay that is low compared to the male gender.

The correspondents of about one thousand, two hundred and thirty-three were asked if they had experienced or are currently experiencing discrimination at their workplace. Note; the correspondents are a sandwich of both genders. Their answers gave a measurable difference and brought clarity to the fact that gender discrimination is evident and exists towards women.

In both genders, a varying degree noticed discrimination and others who did not notice. As a matter of fact, the women usually notice gender discrimination being done to another female colleague or other coworkers but when the males were asked whether they noticed their colleagues being a victim of discrimination, some of them confessed that they hadn’t really noticed even when the women had complained of seeing other women get discriminated, and a large number of the men had said they hadn’t seen anything. We can then conclude that men don’t notice when discrimination is happening to the female gender around them or they just turn a blind eye?

When it comes to work, the men get to do the most and get paid normally while women will have to work twice as hard as the men so that they can earn any respect or even the same pay as they do. The correspondents were questioned too about how hard a woman at the same work level as a man will have to work to earn the same respect and salary as the man. More of the women believed that they have to work twice as hard and only some of the men agreed to this concept.

Why are there more men than women in technology?

In this current world, the technology world is booming than ever before and much more profits are coming in compared to before and the difference in the engagement of both genders has not been closed which makes it seem like women are left out of this profitable career. In developed countries, technology is advancing and the industries producing it are fast-growing, there are new job opportunities being created, and new areas are being explored and the problem is women not getting themselves involved in the technology world now more than ever, whereas they ought to. A new survey even stated that in the last ten years, the number of women in technology hasn’t really moved from where it was last seen since then.

The question now is, why? What are the factors causing the drastic reduction in women getting involved in technology?

1. The concept of “men dominate the technology world” is a factor that repels the interest of women: There is this façade of “men should run the tech world”, the “men are the one in anything engineering” perspective that sometimes deter women from embarking on anything engineering, science, and technology. It might be a societally induced perspective and it is so real that it is one of the major factors why there is less engagement of the female gender in the tech world. As a matter of fact, statics have it that more than a quarter of the women in particular research was found to have been raised with this perspective of men owning the technological world.
2. The modern schooling system does not have a proper way of getting or encouraging more women into the world of technology: Both in schools and in Universities, efforts are not made to help more women go into the technology world. The types of career paths that are promoted more than others to women are those ones they think can suit their gender as females and not their personality as individuals which is in fact wrong. Women are always advised to go into something like food and nutrition, music, singing, and other careers that do not involve them exerting physical efforts guising it under the fact that they are not fit for the job as females. The school system should understand that advice should not be given based on gender strength inequality anymore but based on the personality of the individual and passion. A certain percentage which was about 20 to 24% of women who were involved in research about why women don’t go into technology confessed that women will not go into technology if universities they attend don’t make the effort to get more of them into it.
3. The legend of the ‘bro-culture’ and the female gender in the world of technology: There is the talk about how the male gender treats themselves compared to how they treat the female gender. The talk about the way the female gender is not being treated with respect and they are being made to feel like they are not wanted. The male gender tends to give their male colleagues the chance to explore, make mistakes, and they keep ‘bro-ing’ each other up like a team but they don’t do that for women who actually expect to be treated like their male counterpart. The number of women who do not like to be treated like an outsider are many and it is increasing with the steadily reducing involvement of women. Actually, like 23% out of 100% of those who took the interview to collate the statistics of women who thinks the ‘bro-culture’ is a factor to why there are fewer women involved in the world of technology than men, they were said to have felt insecure and like they were outsiders anytime they meet their male colleagues.
4. The difficult and tedious promotional box where women are caged deter them from going deep into the world of technology: Many a time, women have tried to scale the ladder of success in the technology world and a few of them succeeded but the truth is that the ladder of success in the technology world has been made excruciatingly difficult for the female gender. If you ask me how? Here’s the deal. Differences in sexes and sexual attractions from the boss or the top masculine figures tending towards the upcoming female/ lady/ woman is a factor that want to make women run from promotional positions because they fear being sexually noticed and harassed by the male boss. Also, the women don’t see themselves as a worthy contender for a position in the male-dominated world.
5. The recruitment process is much more fashioned to suit the male gender: Men seem to have the upper hand during the process of recruitment in the technology world. The system is built to only favor them and this has always served as an incentive for men to go into engineering and the women/ ladies to tend towards other careers like the people-related careers. About 32% of women think that the process of getting into the technology world (the recruitment process), the promotional method, and the system at large is built to kind of favor only men and not really for the women.

How can we totally erase the gender inequality in the world of technology?

The plan to make gender bias go away has been in place for years and ongoing until recently when the research was carried about gender bias in tech and its organizations, statistics then revealed that not much progress has been made in the last ten years. In fact, it was stated that roughly 2% difference has been made in the last ten years and still reducing because of the strong effects of the factors going against the female gender in the tech world. Seeing the turn of events and the possible drastic reduction of women who are already in tech in the coming years, some of the already established women initiatives are beginning to come up with preventive measures which may also serve as a permanent solution to women being left out of the tech world/ entrepreneurship/ workplace.

Some of the solutions are stated below:

1. Establishment of training and job opportunities for the female gender: Establishing or creating a chance for women to be able to get trained and work without opposition from the male gender will help them concentrate on the work and not the fear of getting kicked out of the race. Opportunities like this which are created only for women do out really exist and are not many. When asked if their companies offer women opportunities to learn, grow, and work, most of the women estimated to about 32% of them made a positive affirmation of opportunities like this at their place of work and almost 68% of them didn’t positively affirm this.
2. Both gender should together close the gender inequality gap: There have been arguments about who is responsible for the gender inequality gap and in essence, what we should be looking for is how can both gender be responsible for the closing of the gap? In addition, 67% and 63% of women and men respectively believed that all genders are supposed to have their hands-on deck to solve this problem of gender inequality and gap.
3. Transparency and fairness in payment: despite the fact that many companies don’t want to do this, it is necessary to keep women in the tech world. They need to know that they are valued and wanted and not only that, they want to be paid for their hard work.
4. Investing in girl child science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs to help their passion burn for tech better than before: We most of the time say that women are not interested in tech, science, or engineering because we think they might not have the passion for it but in truth, the passion is there but they are never trained or given a chance to go to tech schools or attend tech programs, only the boy child gets to do all of these. The big solution to help women get into tech better is to train them from childhood and fan their passion to flame when they are young. Young women can be experts too.

If all this is done properly and effectively, let’s say in 32 years, according to the estimation that was done through the respondents, the gender gap will be closed perfectly and both genders will be on the same page and footing in the tech world.

Are there immediate solutions to gender discrimination rather than waiting?

Since it will take time to get gender discrimination out of the technology world, and the female gender is still experiencing discrimination in the tech industry, there may be things that can be implemented right now at the moment to reduce the risk of women going extinct in the tech world.

1. Changing cultural perspectives about the female gender: One of the main problems that can be addressed now is the cultural perspectives of the male gender about the other gender. Sometimes, the other gender sees the female gender as weak and not capable of being in the tech world. Also, everybody needs a cultural shift, every culture contains a gender bias, one way or the other.
2. Fashioning the recruitment process to suit both genders: Most times, the gendered languages in the job postings make the woman lose interest in the job. The process of taking workers that only favors the male gender should be eliminated and the recruiters should be trained to not imply gender inequalities and biases in the use of their languages and words.
3. Women should learn to not tolerate gender biases at their workplace or anywhere: The fear of being fired or insecurity may have at one time or the other stopped the women from talking back or taking actions against those who are making the workplace toxic for them but now that there are organizations who are in support of the female gender in tech, every woman should learn to stand up for themselves and go against biases and toxicity in their place of work.
4. Mentoring opportunities for women in tech: The women that are already in the tech industry should give those who are upcoming a chance to get trained ad mentored by them. It will give them the opportunity to grow, look up to someone and have someone before them to learn from.
5. Incentives for more women to join the industry: women should be given access to specialized medical care, the ability to work from home, and other incentives to draw more of the female gender into the tech world.

How WeHireGbobally will help

WeHireGbobally, WeHG, is a global PEO with an outstanding employer of record solutions that helps companies attract and retain skilled talents from anywhere around the world irrespective of their gender. We ensure that we bridge the gender gap of organizations with our EOR services while maintaining 100% compliance and risk mitigation. We manage the company’s payroll and taxes while the employer takes care of other HR and quality assurance responsibilities.