Time to hit refresh?
Now that technology is more important than ever, Grazia grills the experts on how to shake up this male-dominated industry
from work meetings taking place in a video conference room, to your mum talking about Tiktok, technology has never been more important in our lives. As an industry, it’s thriving, but still only 26% of graduates of STEM (science, tech, engineering, maths) degrees are women and only 22% of the STEM workforce is female. Why? ‘It’s social norms and stereotyping permeating everything from the educational system to recruitment processes,’ says Dr Anne-marie Imafidon MBE, founder of Stemettes, an award-winning social enterprise working to get young women into STEM careers. ‘Women are more likely to feel imposter syndrome in that space.’
It’s vital that women are represented, because that world is shaping our world. ‘Tech has a real hero syndrome,’ says Rachel Coldicutt OBE, a technology strategist specialising in the social impact of new and emerging technologies. ‘It’s run by men who are quite nerdy, maybe girls didn’t speak to them at school, and now they’re billionaires with all this power. What happens is you get this idea that launching a rocket to Mars is more important than childcare. But, without childcare, the economy falls apart. It’s all about values.’ And, while not all men have different values to all women, no one can deny that a bit of oestrogen in a maleled environment is a good thing. ‘Look at the countries that have responded best to Covid: New Zealand, Germany, Norway,’ adds Rachel. ‘They have women leaders.’
But women leaders in tech are ‘rarer than hen’s teeth’, explains Pip Jamieson, founder of The Dots, a professional network known as ‘Linkedin for creatives’. ‘Only 9% of angel funding goes to female founders and, at my level and anyone who’s raised over £5m, it’s 2.5%,’ she says. ‘I’ve had experiences where the investors would only speak to a male colleague and not myself. There is no silver bullet. We have to build teams that reflect society.’
As the world changes, resilience is vital, explains Anne-marie. ‘Lifelong learning is not part of our culture, but we should be learning and building resilience all the time.’ This is particularly important for women now. ‘The highest percentage of those that have lost their jobs in this pandemic are young women,’ she continues. ‘We’re rebuilding society, so have a chance to ensure that everyone has good work, with flexibility and policies like care leave.’ Because we’re not going back to how things were. ‘A lot of things happening this year are practice for the next 30 years,’ says Rachel, who says there will be ‘more working from home, more intergenerational living’. And women have been bearing the brunt of this crisis because we do extra work, are flexible and take on care roles. ‘It’s important that we go into the future with our eyes open, not willing to absorb that,’ insists Rachel. ‘We have to be organised, and not busy doing the drudge work.’
If you want to help, there are plenty of ways. ‘Come and work with Stemettes,’ grins Anne-marie. ‘Whether it’s mentoring young people, or making a donation to help them access a laptop.’ ‘There’s power in numbers,’ says Pip, ‘in women coming together: being conscious of when a person is being talked over or not being heard, and standing up for them.’
And don’t think that a career in tech is not for you. ‘There is this perception that you have to code to work in tech, but everyone has transferable skills to get into the industry,’ says Pip. With more women in tech, who knows what we can achieve? Anne-marie has seen the positive force of socially-aware young women first-hand. ‘For a lot of girls, wanting to solve problems and help people is something that’s driving them,’ she says. ‘Of course, if you want to be an evil genius, STEM is great for that, too!’ For more information, visit stemettes.org. This conversation took place as part of a Grazia Onboard event for UBS