Although it has previously been believed that technology (Tech) is a man’s domain, this is no longer true.
Women continued to contribute to the evolution of tech.
In today’s post, we’ll see the difference and improvements made on gender equality most especially in tech careers and job opportunities. So let’s get started.
What was Gender Inequality Like in the Past?
For countless years, gender inequality has been a problem throughout the world. Thankfully, more and more women are standing up and achieving parity with men in the workplace, the home, and society. However, in the IT sector, especially in the twenty-first century, significant advancements have been made in the direction of equality and termination of the gender gap.
Although it has previously been believed that technology is a man’s domain, this is no longer true. It took some time for the rest of the world to catch up with the fact that there are millions of women interested in technology.
Since the beginning of the tech sector, women have worked there. Women continued to contribute to the evolution of technology even hundreds of years ago when it was still in its infancy.
Nicole-Reine Lepautre, a French astronomer and mathematician, utilized the date of the solar eclipse to almost precisely predict the return of Halley’s comet past Earth in the 1700s. Women were also there when electrical technology was popularized.
In the 1950s, a lot of women worked in software development, but this field was considered to be menial, and men were more likely to work in hardware development. Software became the name of the game when men recognized in the 1980s how advances in software development may revolutionize technology.
However, the perception that women were better suited to perform what were considered to be more fundamental professions said much about the gender inequalities in the sector at the time.
Meanwhile, in the years that followed, the notion that technology was something only males should use persisted.
An investigation of segregation and inequality was carried out in the 1990s by Jane Margolis, who spoke with a large number of computer science students at Carnegie Mellon University. According to the survey, families were much more inclined to purchase computers for boys than for girls, demonstrating that many still believed women weren’t cut out for careers in technology.
Why Does 67% of European Women feel Underpaid in Tech Jobs and Career compared to Men Today?
The International Labor Organization (ILO) announced on International Equal Pay Day that women are often paid 20% less than males worldwide. Black and Latin women experience a wage difference that is over 63% greater than that of white males, and Hispanic or Latina women experience a pay discrepancy that is over 57.3% greater.
Therefore, this overt sexism in the technology sector has been repeatedly demonstrated, and a recent survey has offered yet another depressing look at how women are treated.
A fresh survey by Web Summit has given us another depressing look at how women are treated. According to the report, nearly 67% of women believe their pay has been unfairly compared to that of men over the past 12 months. In 2019, 46.4% of respondents said they were paid properly, but by 2022, only 33.1% did. Additionally, 49.5% of respondents had encountered workplace misogyny.
Over a quarter of female students say they’ve been put off a career in technology as it’s too male dominated.
Moreover, it was shown that 70% of respondents believed they needed to work harder to prove themselves to others due to their gender and that over 62% felt pressure to choose between profession and family at least occasionally.
Even though 92% of respondents felt confident in their ability to perform their jobs, 70% of respondents said they have been made to feel as though they must work harder to prove themselves in their roles due to their gender.
However, 2019 hardly saw any change in the belief that their company is adequately addressing gender inequality, with more than 53% holding that opinion. Only 44% of respondents to a 2019 study indicated they felt pushed to justify their value in comparison to their male counterparts.
There seems to be a reverse trend in the gender ratio in the technology sector. Compared to 42% three years ago, only 24% of respondents believed the gender ratio in the industry had improved over the previous 12 months.
This left people thinking: “Was this a result of the pandemic’s effects on hiring?”
Well, I believe maybe more research could be done on this for accuracy.
Technically, the survey which was sent by email to the Web Summit Women in Tech group, did not meet the criteria for typical scientific polling because only 340 people responded to it. Despite this, the majority (70.4%) of respondents were between the ages of 25 and 44, and more than 78% were from Europe.
Therefore, the survey comes in the wake of a European Women in VC report that found that in 2021 and 2022, all-female firms received just 2% of total funding, down from 3% in 2020.
