With Women’s March on Washington and World Economic Forum in Davos behind, there is no better time to address the upsetting decline of women in tech.
Reminiscing how I got myself into technology field or entrepreneurship, I would have to acknowledge it was partially accidental. Constant hunt for opportunities, sleepless nights and consistent drive to learn were definitely among my success factors. Yet, the reason why I call my career choice to be rather accidental is the stereotypical assumption is that it is exceptionally difficult to excel in such a male-dominated industry as technology. Indeed, after 118 years of women enjoying equal rights with men, females hold 26 percent of existing jobs in technology sector. Those numbers made me doubt that I can equally contribute to the success in the fields of engineering, IT and programming as my male counterparts do.
When you are in the classroom with future graduates in Physics and women represent only a quarter of the class, you assume that being a woman makes it somewhat uncomfortable at times. I knew I had the skills and the mindset to create my own space in the field where, unfortunately, half of its talent is overlooked. The question is whether educational systems fail to encourage women to pursue degrees in tech industry or it can be even down to stereotypical upbringing standards. I was lucky enough to have a supportive family and inspiring network of mentors, teachers and organizations I managed to be part of. Progress would have been much slower without such encouragement that makes me humbly state that my career was shaped by good willing people who saw the need of supporting women in science and technology.
As it can be seen from the diagram below, women are underrepresented in both tech and leadership jobs. Kamile Kaselyte, fashion entrepreneur and member of Global Shapers Vilnius Hub, claims that it can be the consequence not only due to inadequate corporations' HR and management decisions, but also because of the lack of integral mission inside big corporations to employ, empower and consider women to represent executive positions. In S&P 500 companies females make up 25 percent of senior, executive and management positions, demonstrating the lack of parity in the industry. But on the other hand, Lithuania’s manager at Wix Monika Laukaite contradicts that women are neglected in tech jobs, on the contrary, because women are the minority they are appreciated more.
The negative state of women in tech has deep roots and it can be attributed to numerous social attitudes and perceptions. They are outlined below and make it clear that there is stigma that women are not capable to cope with challenges and obstacles faced when being at top leadership positions.
That is exactly the reason why I feel entitled to give back young women encouragement I wish I had when I was starting out. Technology industry is our future opportunity – robotics, virtual and augmented reality, blockchain, ‘Big Data’ – these are only a few of the things that we will be dependent on in the nearest decade. While US tech employment industry hit the mark of 6.7 million people working in the sector back in 2016, making the strongest growth rate, the timing is right for women to stand up.
Zydrune Vitaite, Managing Director at MAINSEC, which is a solution provider in telecommunications and IT industries, believes that there are many talented women in Lithuania, who need a little bit of support and encouragement in order to conquer the fields of technologies and engineering; successfully develop their own or contribute to an existing business: "I cannot allow stereotypes, unified education system, or society pressure to take place and define our choices in life and career. It was not an easy shift for me personally, but was definitely worth it”. Perhaps her experience and such viewpoint made her the main person behind “Women Go Tech” mentorship program that connects, inspires and guides women to speed up their career in tech sector.
While many steps can be taken to overcome stereotypes and encourage women to take measures to become a dominant part in the industry, the previously mentioned initiative called Women Go Tech empowers women through intensive 5 - month mentorship scheme. Organized by leading Lithuanian organizations INFOBALT, TEO/Omnitel and Global Shapers Vilnius Hub who are young and inspiring leaders willing to make positive changes in their communities, mentorship scheme was launched this year to spread the message of alarming data of women leadership in tech industry. Rytis Valunas, one of the founders of Vilnius Hub of Global Shapers, comments how mentorship programme for women was born: Since the beginning of activities in 2013 Vilnius Global Shapers Hub has been dedicated to empowering the youth in their professional fields. Thanks to our female shapers’ success stories in tech and deep knowledge of obstacles and barriers women face, naturally we have decided to take steps to address this specific issue.
To date, Women Go Tech mentorship initiative has earned endorsement from the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite who is the country’s first female President and has received an extensive interest from applicants. This reveals a great potential of gender equality in the tech industry in the nearest future.