Lack of inclusion of women and higher gender gaps in technology is not something new but the fact that it still continues to this day is very alarming. This is not just a phenomenon in the developing countries but even the developed countries like the US and UK face this problem.
Gender equality remains a significant issue in the corporate world, as women remain essentially underrepresented in the corporate pipeline, against all promises of meritocracy.
Despite a whole variety of exploration affirming that organizations are more beneficial when they have more women in the C-suite, the world still faces a wide gender gap in many organizations.
Issues like diversity and inclusion require continuous work that needs to be developed, maintained and cultivated. Information technology is one of the fastest growing industries, and technical innovation will play an important part in pretty much every area of our country’s economy.
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According to data from Accenture, there is a larger number of occupations in software engineering than graduates accessible to fill those positions, and the quantity of ladies in the registering labor force will shrink in the following 10 years except if we do not take action right now.
Investigation by ‘Accenture and Girls who Code’ showed that 50 per cent of women abandon their careers in the technology sector by the age of 35 and that women are leaving tech jobs at a 45% higher rate than men.
Just 21% of ladies in the study said they accepted the innovation business as a spot they could flourish; tragically, that number is even lower at 8% for women of color.
All tech companies are tackling with lack of gender parity issues and it's understood that unless we build a pipeline of women in tech, the gender gap will not be narrowed or closed. @IntelAI exec @humaabidi breaks down the need for diversity & inclusion…https://t.co/wlNaZnfuyN pic.twitter.com/NYvVcGCwI7
— Tech Manitoba (@TechManitoba) July 13, 2021
A worldwide pandemic where working women are bearing a greater amount of the weight of shuffling their profession, remote learning, and really focusing on kids and elderly parents is just making things worse. In August and September of 2020, 865,000 women left their jobs compared to 216,000 men.
Pakistan has been known as a South Asian region that has been unable to tackle the digital divide, with women 28% less likely than men to own a mobile phone and 58% less likely to use mobile internet.
Pakistan is, unfortunately, worse than other countries in the region where there is a 33% gender gap in mobile usage and only 13% of women have internet access, in comparison to 29% in India.
This translates into poorer financial inclusion outcomes, with only 7% of women owning an account at a bank in Pakistan, compared to about 36% in Bangladesh and 76% in India.
This will require the government to take a lead role in skilling, re-skilling and upskilling women for greater inclusion and to offset technology-induced inequality and job losses.
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Flexibility in work hours and work-from-home, review of commerce-related policies to remove roadblocks for e-commerce and tax-based incentives for start-ups, are some ways of encouraging women’s participation in technology-based work.
It will require a thorough review of government plans for technical and technological skills development, to ensure their relevance and alignment with the future of work.