While some progress has been made towards increasing gender diversity in the ICT industry, much is left to be done, with the telecom industry being no exception 1. In fact, to ensure that the mobile industry continues to create innovation and to achieve growth, we must match the requirements of our workforce with the opportunities ahead. Gender diversity means business – companies with gender-diverse workforces innovate better and outperform their competition, and this has been well documented. Studies reveal that gender-diverse companies are 45% more likely to improve market share, achieve 53% higher returns on equity, and are 70% more likely to report successfully capturing new market 2. It is therefore time for the technology and telecommunications sectors to take a proactive approach to gender diversity, by attracting and retaining more women to the industry.
One of the reasons why the tech and telecom industries don’t have a gender-diverse workforce and leadership, is because less girls than boys choose to study STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). In OECD countries, female students now account for fewer than 20 per cent of tertiary ICT enrolments; down from nearly 40 per cent in the 1980s, when computer science courses first appeared on university curricula. Only around 3 per cent of total female graduates study ICT fields, compared with around 10 per cent of male graduates. This academic gender gap is reflected in the number of female ICT professionals, now estimated at just 20 per cent across the
OECD 3.
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are often regarded as something for ‘geeks’, resulting in young girls being increasingly less willing to study such subjects and undertake a career in the ICT field.
The GSMA tried to debunk the ‘STEM is for geeks’ myth and inspire young girls to pursue a career in ICT, by joining forces with FabLab London, a purpose-built digital fabrication and prototyping workspace in the heart of the City, and hosting a Girls in ICT day on Thursday, April 23 4. A class of Year 8 (12-13 year-old) schoolgirls from east London school, The Bridge Academy, visited FabLab London to gain hands-on experience and insights from successful leaders in technology.
The GSMA Chief Strategy Officer Hyunmi Yang opened the event and shared her experience as a woman in a leadership position at the biggest mobile network association in the world. “App developers, coders, computer scientists and engineers don’t all wear white coats and work all day in a lab! A lot of these people work in cool and nice places, and can help make a difference in people’s lives” said Ms Yang, who prior to joining the GSMA was the first female executive in the history of the Korean mobile industry, adding that coding and maths were her favourite subjects in school.
Ms Yang was joined by other inspirational women working in the ICT sector, such as Laura Paterson, Senior Consultant at ThoughtWorks and Francesca Rosella, Chief Creative Director of Cute Circuit. Paterson, who’s been programming for the past 15 years, well conveyed the message that ICT is a really fun place to work: “Working in ICT doesn’t mean you sit alone in a basement and eat pizza in front of a computer. It’s creative and involves working with a lot of other people, and I really want to make that clear to teenage girls in particular” 5.
This was endorsed by Francesca Rosella, who also added that “technologies designed by women end up being more appealing not only to female consumers, but to male consumers as well”.
The interventions by these inspiring female ICT professionals were then followed by an interactive workshop led by the FabLab London staff, to put theory into real practice. The girls engaged in hands-on activities such as 3D designing and printing, laser cutting and engraving, and dismantling of mobile to recycle and reuse its parts.
While most companies tend to target women as users, few effectively leverage female talent to identify what these end users want and need 6. Hyunmi Yang affirmed that “half of the technology consumers are women so in order to understand their needs, provide them with the right services, and to add the emotional and human touch to technology and mobile, we need more women in the workforce”.
1. For more information about gender diversity in the telecom industry, please see https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-for-development/bridging-gender-gap
2. How Women Drive Innovation and Growth”, Harvard Business Review, 2013.
3. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50670#.VT9qA5OI5UV
4. Girls in ICT day is an initiative of the ITU, the telecommunications branch of the United Nations, and aims to inspire young girls to pursue a career in ICT and/or study STEM subjects.
5. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/girls-ict-day-gsma-wants-girls-be-interested-stem-subjects-computing-young-age-1498057
6. “The Rise of the Female Economy in B2B”, A.T. Kearney in association with the Confederation of British Industry, 2014