Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

More women are in tech than before, but its 'bro-gamer' culture is still alive

The tech sector has long come under scrutiny for inequality. Image: Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

Tom Finn
Reporter, Reuters

Technology firms are hiring more women and narrowing the gender gap, a poll by Europe's largest technology conference found on Wednesday, but female leaders said the multi-trillion dollar industry was still failing to put them in its boardrooms.

A poll of 600 women in tech by the Web Summit showed nearly half, or 42%, believed gender ratios had improved in the last year. One in three were "unsure" if representation was better.

The findings from the conference suggest the sector is starting to respond to allegations last year of sexism at tech firms such as Facebook and walkouts by Google employees in response to claims of inequality and sexual misconduct.

"It's great to hear that women in tech feel that they are becoming better represented," said Winnie Lee, chief operating officer of Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) startup Appier.

Lee said both men and women needed to be involved in AI to make sure the technology is "applied in the most creative ways to benefit society".

Have you read?

About 70,000 people from 163 nations attended the conference, whose organisers said the number of women attendees had risen to about 46 percent from 25 percent in 2013, boosted by ticket discounts.

Other women tech leaders, though, were less sanguine.

"Yes there are more women in tech, but until women are around the table making decisions, it really doesn't matter that there are more of us," said Laurel Touby, who runs a New York-based venture capital fund, Supernode.

"When you have 30% representation by women, women start to feel comfortable enough to make themselves heard and to express their opinions. In tech we definitely haven't hit that percentage yet."

Lacking in leadership

The tech sector has long come under scrutiny for inequality and for its "bro-gamer" culture, referring to men who play video games.

Global organisations including the United Nations have spoken out about under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

A 2016 report by the global consultancy McKinsey found women made up 37 percent of entry-level roles in technology, but only one in four senior management roles.

About half the women polled at the Web Summit believed their salaries were in line with those of their male counterparts, up from 37% in a similar study last year.

Nonetheless, four in 10 respondents agreed with the statement: "Many women are offered leadership roles just to fill quotas".

Boosting gender equality was a key theme at this year's Web Summit in Portugal, where company representatives spoke of training staff in unconscious bias, deleting sex from CVs, having women on all shortlists and improving maternity rights.

Even the resident robot was on message.

Asked by a journalist if she would like to inspire women in AI, Sonia, a social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong based company Hanson Robotics, said:

"Girls are one of the most valuable natural resources this planet has to offer being so full of potential, thinking brilliantly. And yet they are mistreated all over the world. There is definitely an apartheid of gender."

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Education, Gender and Work

Related topics:
Equity, Diversity and InclusionEmerging Technologies
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Education, Gender and Work is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Why businesses must take action on disability inclusion by 2025

Katy Talikowska

December 6, 2024

Closing the AI equity gap: Trust and safety for sustainable development

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum