What are the benefits of having women in tech?

Women’s contribution to technological advancement and innovation is often overlooked and taken for granted. The importance of having women in the workforce cannot be stated enough, but what is sometimes overlooked or not realized are the incredible benefits of having women in leadership and tech roles. Besides filling a quota or taking part in affirmative hiring, women in tech contribute so much more to the success of a business. Studies have shown that it is because of women’s differences to men that make them such a strong and valuable member of any tech company.

So how do women contribute to tech? They contribute through innovation, inclusive design, balance, and diversity.

Innovation

Women are incredible innovators. Whether its business, technology, or both, women have come up with incredible innovations that have become legendary in the tech sector. For example, Sheryl Sandberg helped establish Facebook as a platform for small businesses. Susan Wojcicki, while working at Google, advocated for the successful acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion. Annie Easley developed the first initial code that led to the invention of battery technology that was used for early hybrid vehicles. These are just a few of the many great women innovators. The National Center for Women and Technology released a study that revealed that in the software industry if a diverse filing patent team registered a patent, they were 26% more likely to create patents that were highly cited than teams that were less diverse. In the hardware peripheral market, that number jumped to 42%! Women undeniably help drive innovation, and in a highly competitive sector like the tech industry, companies need every advantage they can get. 

Inclusive Design

Women represent about 50% of the population and use technology just as much as men. Therefore, it is incredibly important to have their input, insights, and contribution to a tech product life cycle from the beginning so that it can be designed for everyone. Women think differently and have different life experiences, therefore they have an advantage of being able to contribute a unique perspective when it comes to problem solving. When the early car airbag was designed by an all-male team of engineers, they only calibrated for the height and weight of the standard male driver. It was discovered much later that airbag deployment was sometimes causing severe to fatal injuries to women and children. The engineers had overlooked that the force of an airbag would have different effects on a female or a child compared to that of an adult male. This oversight caused many unnecessary and tragic fatalities over the years before being addressed. Another more recent example is the Apple Watch that first launched in 2015 which featured apps that could track your heart beat, calorie consumption, and workouts. Yet it was not until four years later, in 2019, that Apple finally introduced a menstrual cycle tracker app of its own for the Apple Watch. Would this delay have happened if there was a woman who had a voice on the development team? This is hard to determine, but perfectly demonstrates the importance of having women on a development team and giving them a voice. Imagine if Apple had introduced this native app in an earlier generation or another if another smart watch competitor had done it earlier?

Balance

Women bring balance to tech teams because their unique experience helps their teams look at problems holistically so that they can be solved for all people. That is not to say teams of all-men do not attempt to do the same, but including women provides expertise and insight men are not usually knowledgeable about. For example, when the early voice recognition system was developed by a team of all men, the system was incapable of recognizing voices other than men because it was calibrated to male voices. The system turned out to not be practical and functional for a wide market, especially when it was trying to be sold primarily to female secretarial and administrative pools. To this day, there still exists disparities in voice recognition systems because of the way data analysis, data bases, and machine learning have been calibrated to predominantly favour male, white voices. This affects the accuracy of the technology, which translates to purchasing decisions being heavily affected and resulting in female consumers heavily disfavouring the technology. Therefore, the question once more arises, what would those early days have looked like if there had been a female developer on the team who had a voice?

Diversity

Diversity creates more revenue. Companies that have a diverse team on average have a higher ROI than companies that do not. An increase in diversity in leadership teams leads to better innovation and improved financial performance. Women think differently. Having a diverse team provides different viewpoints. Diverse teams bring unique ideas to the table. It leads to better problem solving and boosts team and individual performance. The research group Catalyst and Credit Suisse did a study on financial performance that found that companies with the most women in senior leadership positions were more financially successful than companies that had fewer women in senior leadership. This also held true for fortune 500 companies that had female CEO’s who were found to have outperformed the market! It makes sense when you consider that women are responsible for 85% of consumer dollars spent and control 70% of the financial decisions in the house. If you want to know what your audience wants and needs, then your business should reflect your audience. 

In conclusion, when hiring women in tech, consider them as an asset rather than a quota. The benefits they can provide a business are immense and should never be overlooked. Give them a chance, but probably most important of all, give them a voice. Check out our Women In Tech Virtual Hiring Event happening September 21-23, 2021  to find your next all-star team member.