A social media enthusiast, Megha strives to learn more about how the internet shapes our days, thoughts, and actions today. Interested in cyber security, spam elimination, and other web scams, it is her passion to explore these areas first-hand as a team lead at the Internet 2.0 Conference, where she aims to ensure that every delegate has an unforgettable experience.
Breaking Through The Glass Ceiling: Women In IT
The National Center for Women & Information Technology discovered in 2015 that women hold only a quarter of computing jobs. Statistics like these, unfortunately, remain unsurprising and slow to change.
What is surprising is the tangible business impact a lack of diversity has on businesses. According to experts at tech events in the USA, diverse companies perform better, have more engaged employees, hire better talent, and retain workers better than companies that do not prioritize diversity and inclusion — all of which benefit business growth.
To continue to increase gender diversity in technology, recruiters must target women in tech networks and create career paths for female employees that encourage growth and retention, as reviewed at the Internet 2.0 Conference’s Spring Edition.
Women At All Stages Of The Hiring Process
As discussed at post-COVID technology conferences in the USA, more women are pursuing STEM degrees than any previous generation. Even though STEM degrees are becoming more popular among women, Computer Science degrees have declined recently.
These perceptions can shift if universities and other higher education institutions use existing networks and communities for women in technology to bring role models for young female coders into the classroom.
Networking and mentoring are essential because they connect young women in college to organizations and role models committed to connecting them with female professionals later in their careers. It also brings female perspectives to the typically male-dominated CS classroom, as women make up less than 10% of the CS program's faculty, including tenured and associate professors.
However, removing gender bias from tech career paths is not solely the responsibility of universities. Companies are also held accountable at the other end of the pipeline. Hiring women must be a company-wide goal supported and balanced at all levels. If companies genuinely want to engage women in technology, the first and most crucial step is advertising where women look.
Teams looking for qualified female candidates should make a concerted effort to contact women's organizations and job posting websites. Companies can collaborate with women's colleges to host recruiting events such as sponsored hackathons and panel discussions and even send recruiting teams to career fairs.
Promoting Development
The pursuit of enterprise equity does not end with recruitment. They continue after retention. Women leave tech jobs at 56%. While people leave jobs for various reasons, women entering the tech industry face constant obstacles that limit their opportunities for advancement. In technology, a solid social stereotype of masculinity perpetuates a negative cycle for women and career advancement.
While organizations connect female tech workers with peers in similar situations, companies and coworkers must take a proactive approach to remove women's career barriers. Male peers and managers in technology can use their platform to help bring women up with them. Companies can set up resource groups on a larger scale so that women from all industries can meet and network within the enterprise.
According to research, diverse companies become more creative and innovate faster. Creating opportunities for women to advance within a company positively impacts the bottom line of a company.
Companies that want to make a real difference in the fight for equality must stop going through the motions. Recognizing a lack of gender diversity in the workplace is no longer sufficient. Gender diversity and inclusion must be addressed proactively, from the top down, and, if necessary, through a cultural shift within the organization. Companies that diversify will benefit from new perspectives, creativity, and leadership styles, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation.
The tech industry has a long way to go toward operating more equitably, but hopefully, we will soon see the limitless potential beyond the shattered glass ceiling. Let's explore more on the subject with experts at the upcoming tech event in Vegas, the Internet 2.0 Conference.