Tech has a role to play when it comes to battling sexism

i’ ve been reading The Power by Naomi Alderman these past two weeks. She’s an interesting author for techies, not least because she also co-created the fitness app Zombies,

Run! In The Power, it isn’t zombies that half the world needs to be afraid of: it’s women, now imbued with the power to zap others with powerful electronic shocks via “skeins”. Cue a major reversal in each sex’s fortunes.

While I was reading, Harvey Weinstein’s reputation hit dirt as dozens of actresses came out in the wake of a New

York Times article to say they had been sexually assaulted by the legendary Hollywood producer. So, you’re probably wondering, what has this got to do with a tech magazine?

A fair question, but bear with me. The obvious first connection is the near certainty that predators such as Weinstein exist in the tech industry too, and we shouldn’t shy away from it by sneering at Hollywood. Do we treat women the same as men? What proportion of women sit on the boards of tech companies? How many are CEOs?

The well-trodden justification is that more men enter at the bottom of the industry and so more rise to the top. And because women often stay at home to raise kids, it’s more often they who have “career breaks” that end up being career full stops.

Both are factors, but they aren’t the only ones. Men treat women differently to other men in the workplace, and often in the subtlest ways possible. I’ve done it myself. In fact, I’d go further than this: I think it’s so ingrained in me, and society, that I habitually do it without realising.

Let me first give an example outside of our industry. I’m captain of one of my tennis club’s mixed doubles teams. I was typing an email to the squad when I realised that I’d put all the men first and the ladies second; this wasn’t deliberate, or a reflection of their talents, but a sign of this lazy sexism. Men first, women second. In our second game, which I can’t play in, my instinct was to hand captaincy to a male player – only on stopping to think about it did I realise our best female player would be a better choice.

This may seem like a trivial example, but when I apply it to my interactions with technology professionals, the same thinking applies. One of my former colleagues was telling me how she had initiated a meeting with a new client, how she had even chaired it, but during the meeting they directed all questions to her junior male colleague.

So what’s my justification for including this “feminist” tirade in a technology magazine? Simply this: to think that Hollywood alone has a problem is wrong. To roast Weinstein on the pitchfork of publicity, and think his hideous behaviour makes our industry’s subtler sexism unimportant, is to miss the point.

The key is to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, to show empathy. We’ve seen how brilliantly virtual reality can do this – by adopting a female persona and walking down a virtual street to see how differently others react to us, for example – but the anonymity of the internet means you can see for yourself. If you’re a man, masquerade as an attractive woman on forums and see the difference in reaction to what you post.

Technology alone won’t solve the problem. But it puts us in an amazing position to influence others, and possibly the strongest thing we can do is to first change ourselves.

Tim Danton

Editor-in-chief