#BreakTheBias: International Women's Day 2022

#BreakTheBias: International Women’s Day 2022

#BreakTheBias in the Tech Workforce

This year’s theme to celebrate International Women’s Day is #BreakTheBias, and this call to action is especially necessary in the tech workforce. Around three-quarters of women around the world experience bias at work—bias that prevents them from progressing in their careers and achieving their life-long goals.

The “broken rung” refers to the issue of gender inequality in the workforce where for every 100 men promoted to managerial roles, only 86 women advance to the same level. In the tech scene, the gender gap is even more pronounced. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 52 women experience the same progress. When the first step of the promotional ladder is broken, consequently there’d be less and less women as the ladder goes up—contributing to the lack of female figures in director, VP and C-suite roles. This, in turn, creates the bias that women are not natural leaders. 

In the digital workforce, gender bias persists. Although women have significantly increased their presence in digital roles in administration, operations and analysis,  the numbers are still low for some of the largest positions in tech, such as programming and computer systems management. Women hold just 22.6% of positions in the former and only 25.5% for the latter.

The good news is that tech companies are predicted to keep working on closing the gender gap, with the goal of 33% female representation in their workforce within 2022. This only makes sense as gender representation is reported to affect an organisation’s performance as a whole. Companies where women are fairly represented in leadership roles earn up to 50% higher profits than those with unequal female representation. 

As we step further into the digital age, it’s becoming increasingly important for technology to be inclusive. Dismantling bias in the workplace—and beyond—is important as it willl open up the path to a world of equity and inclusivity. In the rapidly growing digital landscape, where innovation and creativity is valued, diversity and differences should be celebrated just as much.

How do we begin to #BreakTheBias in the digital workforce?

Organisations could benefit from standardizing their promotion processes to ensure fairness and transparency. Criterias for promotion should be clearly communicated for employees to gauge their skills, while the guidance of senior female colleagues could advocate for fair treatment of female employees. Which is why it’s important to fix the “broken rung”—to get more women into leadership roles where they would be able to act as mentors.

To address inequality in the digital employment landscape and the workplace, equal opportunities should be given. To ensure that one can move upwards, it’s vital for the employee to have skills that allow them to continue growing. According to Brookings’ report, women’s digital skills have markedly improved, driven by digital upskilling as well as the high demand for digital skills in large service industries. However, there is always room for growth.

Bootcamps and courses are important in dismantling gender bias in the digital world as they give access to learning new skills. Digital upskilling opportunities given to talents high up in the tech pipeline allows for better chances for promotions into leadership roles, while exposure to entry-level skills will open the door even wider for women wanting to join the digital workforce.

As pioneers of education and career transformation, General Assembly Malaysia continuously advocates for women’s presence in the digital landscape. We’ve organised webinars aimed at raising awareness and sharing sessions between women working in tech and those wishing to embark in the same journey, such as It’s Time to “Tech” Women Seriously, Creative Women Chat: Leading Digital Creatives, Women in Digital Marketing and many other events featuring women leaders. 

We’ve also worked with women empowerment entities for our #FutureTechWomen campaign where we aimed to make digital upskilling in data analytics and digital marketing more accessible to women. As for our courses, the GA Outcomes Report stated that 40.5% of learners in our Immersive programmes were women, with female students making up 61% of learners in our UX Design Immersive programme. 

Now and in the future, we aim to continue empowering women to support their career and life goals through digital upskilling. We believe that through equal opportunities and awareness, we can #BreakTheBias for women in the digital world.

Our UX Design Immersive (UXDI) programme is commencing in July. Learn more about UXDI and find out how you can start your journey in a high-growth, high-paying tech career to #BreakTheBias in the digital workforce.