Why Does Gender Diversity in Tech Matter?
In a speech at Cornell Tech, back in 2016, Judith Spitz gave four reasons as to why improving gender diversity matters in the technology industry. These were:
- Return on Investment – Diverse teams have a better return on Investment
- A Numbers Game – Available job roles in the tech industry are continuing to rise, which means we can’t meet those demands half of the talent pool
- Economic Fairness – Tech positions are the best paying jobs, providing women with the opportunity to lift themselves financially
- Business Leadership – There is a need for more women in leadership positions in order for businesses to grow
Spritz highlights that, as of 2016, technology is the only industry where the participation of women has gone down over a twenty-year period. Even in 2020, it is acknowledged that gender diversity in the workplace is still an issue, despite the IT and Tech industry being one of the fastest-growing industries in the US. Therefore, there is a need to keep raising this issue and to inspire the next generation of female tech leaders.
Why do we need more Female Leaders and Workers in the IT and Tech industry?
To Develop Diverse Teams
It is noted by Morgan Stanley that in technology, financial, retail, and leisure and business services there is a correlation between gender diversity within organizations and employee engagement. It seems clear from this research that ‘higher gender diversity teams not only enjoyed better returns, but lower volatility’.
Furthermore, researchers have found that more diverse groups have a better ‘general collective intelligence’, meaning that these groups have a better ability to perform well across a wide variety of tasks.
If you’d like to learn more about how Diversity can benefit the workplace, click here.
To Successfully Lead Teams
It has been discovered in a number of studies that women are often thought to be better leaders than their male counterparts. Research has also found that in organizations with a higher percentage of women in top management positions, there was a significant improvement in returns on equity, higher payouts in dividends, as well as better stock performance. Conclusively, this means that female leaders can provide effective leadership for their teams and ultimately benefiting the business as a whole.
If you’d like to find out more about what it means to be an effective business leader, click here.
Provide More Role Models
It is clear that at a young age young girls are interested in a career in STEM fields, however, TechJury.com shows that ‘18% of Computer Science bachelors at major universities in 2016 were women’. This highlights a problem in that, at some stage between those two points, young women and girls are changing their minds about pursuing a career in the Technology Industry for some reason. A way to reduce that gap is by presenting them with female role models who are celebrated for their success as female leaders in STEM fields. In turn, this widens the talent pool for organizations to fill their ever-rising number of tech vacancies.
To Conclude
The IT and Tech industry needs more women in their ranks, as workers and leaders, for a number of key reasons. By having more women, an organization will be better at inspiring young women to seek out a career in STEM, successfully leading teams to new levels of achievement, and diversifying the workforce, providing a culture of curiosity and innovation. The benefits go beyond these though, by ROE, employee engagement, and more.