PLANET | DIVERSITY
“ Apprenticeship programs and fellowships are examples of strategies that bring the additional benefits of decreasing the tokenism effect of bringing an isolated woman into an all-male environment ”
While women make up nearly half ( 47 %) of all employed adults in the US , they hold just 25 % of computing roles , according to the latest statistics by NCWIT ; and of this percentage , just 5 % and 3 % are Asian and Black , respectively . And since the pandemic , from 2020 to 2021 , women in tech-related roles have decreased by 2.1 %.
All this despite the growth of STEM jobs having outpaced the growth of overall employment in the US , and the fact more women than ever are earning STEM degrees . women four times more likely than men to consider gender bias as an obstacle to promotion .
“ The fact there is a discrepancy in the perceptions of bias between men and women signifies the problem ,” she says . “ Until those who have been traditionally centered understand and accept that their centering is a problem , we will continue to have the problem . Yes , more women leaders will help make progress towards solving the image problem , but those leaders will pay a high price from the pushback that will exist , as long as the men feel the existent imbalance represents what is ‘ normal ’.”
It is thanks to this resistance and pushback by female leaders that diversity in tech has improved , but there is still much work to be done . AnitaB . org ’ s 2021 Technical Equity Experience Survey ( TechEES ) report found that since 2019 and 2020 , tech experiences have in fact worsened for all marginalised genders and are increasingly worse when the data is disaggregated by intersectional identities .
“ We still see and feel the impact of intentional marginalisation of ‘ others ’, including women , LGBTQIA + people , people of colour , disabled , people and more people whose identities and backgrounds do not fit into neat boxes ,” says Brenda .
This is leading to a continued rise in attrition rates among women in tech . Despite incremental progress in diversity numbers by big name tech firms like Google , Facebook ,
Unconscious bias as a barrier to gender balance Brenda points to unconscious bias as playing a large role in shifting gender balance , and more specifically to affinity bias , especially prevalent in the VC tech investment space .
According to data from Boston Consulting Group , just 3 % of investor funding goes to women-led tech startups , something Brenda attributes to affinity bias , as the majority of venture capitalists are men . “ Men tend to relate to men and understand and support men ’ s products ,” she says .
“ There ’ s a habit of leaders in tech – who are predominantly men – being trapped in the stereotype that STEM-related roles are men ’ s roles . Because of that , the talent women bring into this field is overlooked and / or passed over in favour of men , which tends to be the default setting in tech .”
What ’ s worse is the lack of recognition by many men that the problems exist , with
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