The COVID-19 crisis is a systemic human development crisis, compounding risks to an even great extent on the progress towards gender equality, particularly women in technology. The pandemic and its consequences hit a world wealthier than ever but facing deep divides in human development. Some of the consequences of COVID-19 have had a greater impact on some countries and groups within countries. Across several social, economic, and political dimensions, women and girls are disproportionately affected by the crisis simply because of their sex. The immediate effects of COVID-19 on gender inequality are already showing themselves in health and education, on the burden of unpaid care work and gender-based violence.
How Women in Technology are affected by COVID-19
While the COVID-19 crisis affects everyone, women and girls face specific and often disproportionate economic, health, and social risks due to deeply entrenched inequalities, social norms, and unequal power relations. Only 23% of tech jobs are held by women in South Africa out of 236 000 ICT (tech) roles, women occupy 56 000 of them. Despite decades of progress towards achieving equality in the workplace, we simply are failing our equal counterparts, women remain significantly under-represented in emerging tech and telecommunication companies. The imbalance between men and women in the technology sector is unlikely to be remedied unless organisations, schools and universities work together to change entrenched perceptions about the tech industry, and also educate young people about the dynamics and range of careers in the technology world. We must do more to ensure that this gender parody is corrected.
We need to see more Women in Technology in South Africa
As a sector, we need to hire women to improve diversity in the workplace, and it?s been proven that higher diversity equals higher productivity and profit. Literature examining the impact of women in the workplace, specifically women collaborating on teams and in leadership roles demonstrates the need for and impact of having more women in technology. In short, greater gender diversity in technology can impact businesses? bottom lines. At Fibre Boyz, we will continue to support this and commit to ensuring that our minimum target of 50% employment equity is achieved at all times.
Calls for more female participation in the economy have grown louder, often based on political or cultural arguments founded on fairness. Yet, a persuasive argument for diversity and equality can also be anchored to the bottom line, where ensuring that more women are working and leading in the workplace is simply good business, especially for investors who not only care about the ethics, but also want returns.
The COVID-19 crisis needs a clarion call from us all to commit to gender equality or even superiority bending towards women. Lets make this our call for this.
Our Company commitments are as follows:
50% gender equality
100% pay equality
50% of woman in supervisory and managerial roles
Share your thoughts and ideas about women in technology HERE.
Check out some awesome women in technology at Women in Tech ZA.
What are you doing to help support and empower women in technology?
