What is the real reasons why women seem more reluctant to enter the tech industry? And what should change to reduce the lack of women in tech?
Lisa Stähli from Girls in Tech Switzerland asked herself this questions in her latest article on Medium. In this article, Lisa helps us to understand the lack of women in tech and the root cause of it. Above all, she helps us to understand the motivational factors for women entering tech. She exposes four categories of job motivation:
- intrinsic
- identified
- introjected
- extrinsic
As a result, these four categories help the reader understand, why tech might not seem like a great fit for women.
A tech job can potentially offer a purposeful career (intrinsic). However, career development is a bit unclear (identified). The public reputation is definitely weakened by recent events (introjected), and high salaries might not be the main driver to attract women (extrinsic).
How to get more women into tech
To attract more women into tech, Lisa describes four strategies that have been applied with success:
- Promote Women (intrinsic and identified)
- Create Career Perspectives (intrinsic and identified)
- Change the Public Perception (introjected)
- Erase the Gender Pay Gap (extrinsic and intrinsic)
Following, she talks about the application of these approaches. Different countries all over the world have successfully implemented these. For example New Zealand, where half of the tech companies are paying equal salary. On the other hand, UK only 8% of companies pay officially equal salary.
To sum up her article, Lisa tells you why she is extremely hopeful and excited about working in tech. There are so many opportunities for all of us in Tech. This article is not only helping you to understand why there are so few women in tech, but also how to support bring more women to tech!
Check out her article here.