{"id":786880,"date":"2024-08-15T12:47:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T10:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=786880"},"modified":"2024-08-15T12:47:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T10:47:14","slug":"closing-the-gender-gap-in-south-africas-tech-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/industry-news\/786880\/closing-the-gender-gap-in-south-africas-tech-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing the gender gap in South Africa&#8217;s tech sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Leonie Stanley, Operations Director, Euphoria Telecom<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The telecommunications industry is built on the brilliance of women. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.invent.org\/inductees\/marian-croak?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Dr Marian Croak<\/strong><\/a> invented Voice over IP technology. <a href=\"https:\/\/cst.princeton.edu\/people\/shirley-ann-jackson?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Dr Shirley Jackson<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s work made the touch-tone telephone, caller ID, and call waiting technology possible and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.womenshistory.org\/education-resources\/biographies\/hedy-lamarr?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Hedy Lamar<\/strong><\/a> is responsible for the technology that Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS are based on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But despite these pioneers, the tech industry remains male-dominated. <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.deloitte.com\/us\/en\/insights\/industry\/technology\/women-tech-leadership.html?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Deloitte<\/strong><\/a> estimates that women accounted for less than a third of the total workforce and 25% of technical roles in large tech companies in 2022. In South Africa, World Bank <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.worldbank.org\/en\/digital-development\/she-can-too-upskilling-girls-today-digital-jobs-tomorrow?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>data<\/strong><\/a> shows that 38.43% of tertiary graduates in ICT programmes are women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euphoria.co.za\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here to learn more about Euphoria Telecom.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accenture.com\/ch-en\/about\/corporate-citizenship\/tech-culture-reset?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>report<\/strong><\/a> by Accenture and Girls Who Code found that half of women in tech roles in the USA leave them by the age of 35. Despite this, just 38% of HR leaders identified building a more inclusive culture as a way to retain women in tech roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t have similar data for South Africa, but <a href=\"https:\/\/womenintech.co.za\/blog\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Women in Tech ZA<\/strong><\/a> estimates that just 23% of tech roles in the country are held by women. How can businesses change this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Diversity at the top<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/featured-insights\/diversity-and-inclusion\/women-in-the-workplace?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024#\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>McKinsey<\/strong><\/a> research found that the biggest hurdle women face in their careers is not the glass ceiling but the \u201cbroken rung\u201d. The broken rung refers to women encountering hurdles at the first step up to becoming a manager. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/industries\/technology-media-and-telecommunications\/our-insights\/repairing-the-broken-rung-on-the-career-ladder-for-women-in-technical-roles?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>In 2022<\/strong><\/a>, McKinsey found that across all industries and roles, 86 women were promoted to manager for every 100 men. In tech roles, this number dropped to 52 for every 100 men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diversity in senior leadership not only provides role models and mentors for people coming up the ranks, but it makes business sense. A <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcg.com\/publications\/2018\/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Boston Consulting Group<\/a><\/strong> study found that companies with diverse leadership teams reported average innovation revenue of 19 percentage points higher than those without.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Let women show what they\u2019re capable of<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Giving women opportunities to showcase what they\u2019re capable of helps to create inclusive workplaces and support their career advancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learnerships and internships provide excellent opportunities for young women to get a foot in the door but women should have the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities at every level. Businesses that do this well give women opportunities to lead projects to show their management abilities, let them showcase their skills to upper management, and create space for idea sharing across departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This ensures women feel supported and empowered, plus, businesses might be surprised to discover the level of talent and skill that is flying under the radar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cultural reset<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Company culture is more than pool tables and free pizza. It\u2019s how you create environments that people feel equal and supported in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Understanding bias is the first step towards a more inclusive workplace. Unconscious bias training for everyone in the organisation is an excellent way to uncover hidden attitudes and increase awareness about how people respond to issues around gender, race, age, ability, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.accenture.com\/ch-en\/about\/corporate-citizenship\/tech-culture-reset?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=SponsoredArticle&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Accenture report<\/a><\/strong> shows the impact of specific company culture practices on retaining women in tech roles. One of these practices is simply adjusting the times of networking events to allow everyone to attend, which could help retain 190,000 women in tech by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider business breakfasts for example &#8211; which are often difficult for parents navigating the school run. Shifting events like these by an hour or two could make a world of difference for any team members with children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In South Africa, where our industry is already battling severe talent shortages, we should be doing everything possible to foster inclusivity, create opportunities, and nurture a supportive culture. It\u2019s time to rewrite the narrative and create a tech industry where everyone, regardless of gender, has the opportunity to build the digital future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euphoria.co.za\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=August2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here to learn more about Euphoria Telecom.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The telecommunications industry is built on the brilliance of women &#8211; but it remains a male-dominated sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":786882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[11134,20379],"class_list":["post-786880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-euphoria-telecom","tag-women-in-tech-za"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786880"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786947,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786880\/revisions\/786947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}