Stepping Up Standards for Women in Tech

Bringing women into tech

For real change to happen, the mandate has to come from the top – but transformation, addressing tech's ground-level diversity problem, will arguably be driven by bringing more women into the industry. Empiric's Next Tech Girl's initiative focuses on precisely this problem. The programme follows a three-pronged approach, helping teenage girls get work experience placements in the tech sector, connecting them with mentors, and championing female role models in the industry.

In combination, these steps show young women that there are people much like them doing well in tech; they can give them access to tech workplaces and the community; and they can set them up to succeed in their careers. At the same time, the programme gives employers access to a wider talent pool, including highly engaged candidates who might never have otherwise applied.

“Tech can be very obscure and covers a lot of jobs and industries so meeting and working with people in tech companies can be really useful to better understand what the possibilities are and to identify what you'd like to do,” comments Pauline Issard, Co-Founder and CEO of Trackener. “It's important to find out early on what interests you and what doesn't so that you can later on better choose what you want to study and then take internships or jobs based on what you really like and want to do in the future.”

Female role models

Pauline also underlines the fact that businesses pursuing diversity have to celebrate women and push female role models forwards.

“[Businesses] should make sure their communications mention as many women working in tech as men; that they offer [the chance] to women to speak at events – as some might love to do so but are not brave enough to ask for it – and that, overall, they put women in the spotlight whenever there is an opportunity,” Pauline comments. “As a result, this will attract more women to work in tech as they will see more examples of women who enjoy their jobs and are successful working in tech. And companies need to make sure they send as many women as men to tech job fairs and talks in schools so that girls and women don't get discouraged from applying by seeing only men working in tech.”

Equal opportunities

That said, Pauline believes equality can only be achieved by putting men and women on an equal footing. “We need to stop separating men from women and offer as many opportunities to female employees as to men,” she says. “I don't think that positive discrimination is a good thing (for example including quotas, special training and grants for women), so this needs to stop in my opinion if we want to create real equality between men and women in the tech industry.”

In the meantime, it would seem that a gradual transformation is taking place. “There is still a long way to go until we get to parity in tech roles,” comments Pauline. “[However], there are more and more women role models, and more and more initiatives to attract girls to tech jobs, which is good.”

And looking ahead, these measures should have a cumulative impact over time – as businesses hire more women, they will foster more diverse corporate cultures and develop more welcoming workplaces.