International Women’s Day marks a grand celebration of the power of women! Increasing female representation in tech is as important as ever.
Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day! This global day is a triumphant celebration of women’s stories and achievements. While we bask in this day to celebrate the power of women, there is still work to do.
Even in 2022, there’s a long road to eradicate gender inequality, bias, and stereotypes in society. This is as true for the global tech sector despite strides to increase female representation.
A Few More Women in Tech Every Year…
Women in tech have seen an upwards trend, but not a large one. Deloitte Global predicts that large global technology firms will have a 33% female workforce in 2022. This is a 2% increase from 2019, but still quite low.
If you look at the top tech corporations, women are still a minority. At Microsoft, women make up 29% of the workforce. Amazon’s reported American workforce is almost equal, with 45% women. When looking at the tech positions within the two companies, women only take 1 in 4 tech positions.
It remains imperative that tech corporations make it a mission to achieve gender parity. The benefits are immense. Increasing women in tech ensures their perspective is accounted for when creating digital products. The increase of diversity and inclusion also increases revenue and drives innovation.
The biggest benefit of increasing women’s presence in the tech sector is inspiration! More women in senior tech positions will motivate young girls across the world to start rewarding careers in tech.
A Job Role for Every Women
A common misconception of tech is that you need to know how to code. That is far from the truth! The versatility of the tech industry ensures that anyone can find a job-role, no matter his or her strengths and interests.
Have a creative side and pay close attention to detail? The UI/UX Designer and Frontend Developer roles are all about it! Like using numbers and statistics to create solutions? A career as a Data Scientist or Data Analyst may be the right fit. For women that want to create websites and web applications from the ground up, the demand for Software Developer roles is high everywhere in the world.
No matter what you love doing, there’s always a place for you in the tech industry. While companies used to require 4-year academic degrees, the tech skills gap and tech skills shortage are showing the value of experience over a bachelor’s degree and people can reskill and join this sizzling ecosystem. Through the right reskilling program, anyone can get the necessary knowledge and skills needed to find a job and experience success in tech.
Inspirational Women in Tech
More women should be taking on leadership roles within large tech organizations. In Fortune 500 companies, only 22% of leaders are women. This is not to say that there are not some great women in tech. There are just not enough. Let us celebrate the achievements of some extraordinary women in technology leadership roles.
One of the most notable tech leaders is Sheryl Sandberg. Sheryl currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, the world’s most popular social platform. Before, she served executive positions at Google, Apple, and Yahoo! Sheryl consistently appears on Forbes’ list of influential women and has a reported net worth of US$2Bn!
Susan Wojcicki is another tech leader, leading as CEO of Youtube. Her tech endeavors have helped her accumulate a net worth of US$815M. Some advice she has given to women is that “you don’t need to have science or technology degrees to build a career in tech.”
Wawiwa Tech’s VP of Business Development is held by the incredible Leah Mansoor! Prior to this position, Leah previously served as the Senior Vice President of International Digital Learning for Encyclopedia Britannica.
“I was fortunate that my parents pushed me towards technology at an early age, learning coding at the age of 12.” says Leah, “ This early start paved my way into the digital world as a developer, team leader, instructor, and entrepreneur. I was always “blind” to the fact I am surrounded by men. I am grateful to see the change in today’s world!”
Always a Place at the Table
As the fourth industrial revolution takes flight, Wawiwa Tech envisions the next phase to incorporate women from all walks of life.
As Leah best puts it, “In today’s world, there is absolutely no reason for women not to take an equal part in the tech ecosystem. We can do it all – coding, data, system design, cyber, QA – you name it! We can also be at all levels – team leaders, unit managers, VPs, CEOs, founders. We can help raise money for our startups and conduct international business, all while being pregnant, being on maternity leave, and being moms if this is what we choose. I hope to see more women reskill to tech and more girls exposed to technology at an early age!”
