Only 14% of those who reach the highest academic level (postgraduates and doctorates) are women.
The world is experiencing an unprecedented digital revolution, but the presence of women in this movement, despite being vital, is still not reflected as it should be in companies in the IT (information technology) sector.
According to the most recent data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), worldwide, of people starting careers in the STEM field (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), 56 % are women, but only 14% of those who reach the highest academic level (postgraduates and doctorates) correspond to the female population, so the universe of choice for the world of work continues to be dominated by male professionals.
According to the study “Cracking the code: The education of girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)”, this marked inequality is determined, among other factors, by less access to technological means, such as computers .
In this regard, Unesco reported last March that in Latin America “40% of women are not connected or cannot pay for internet access”, so it is a priority to make technology more accessible and teach how it can be used for social and occupational progression.
The reality seen from the world of work
It is true that there may be barriers for women at the educational levels, but that should not be an impediment for them to equalize their participation to that of men or even overcome it, Jacqueline Samira, CEO of the Howdy company, maintains in an interview with EFE. (formerly Austin Software).
“The irruption of women in leadership positions within the corporate world has been increasing in recent years, but this trend seems to have a certain lethargy within the technological universe, specifically in engineering, development and systems programming roles”, admits Samira , founder of this company specialized in recruiting Latin American IT talent for Silicon Valley firms.
“Although historically the technology sector has been characterized by a large majority of men, we do not see barriers for women to have a much greater participation. It’s a matter of continuing to work hard and pave the way,” she adds.
A gap that can be closed
According to data from the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2022, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean managed to close 72.6% of their gender gap last year, which places the region in third place worldwide, after North America and Europe. According to estimates made by experts, the gap could be completely closed in the next 67 years.
“At Howdy we are proud to say that we have more than 200 teammates and that more than 50% of our engineering managers are women,” says Samira, an honors graduate of the University of California, Irvine and a former consultant at Chatfuel, a company specializing in engineering. creation of artificial intelligence chatbots.
Few Latin Americans in Silicon Valley
In a document published in February 2023, Howdy herself claimed that of 2,500 Latin American applications for companies in Silicon Valley in 2022, only 170 corresponded to women, 7%. But there is an asterisk in this item.
“We have done a lot of research to find out why and there are several factors that explain it. When we receive female applications for Howdy, we look at her language, technical, cultural skills and don’t see a difference from her male counterparts. We do not see any discrepancy in terms of technical or communication levels, which is surprising, but what we do see is that women are more loyal to their current companies, something that is not so common among men”, says Samira.
So it’s not that there are few women in the IT ecosystem, but that many don’t apply, because they already have jobs. «The possibility of applying to other companies because they are not happy is very low. We do not receive applications from women who are already working. That’s the big difference compared to men », she adds.
Argentina and Colombia lead the applications
According to the aforementioned survey, the countries that contribute the most women to the selection process in Silicon Valley companies are Argentina (43%), Colombia (23%), Mexico (13%), Chile (7.6%), Uruguay (7 %) and Peru (6.4%).
Why do Argentina and Colombia lead the list? There are many similarities: their access to education and training about the ability to have an IT start-up industry.”
“Colombia has been very strong in that sense for decades, it is not something new and they have some of the largest development poles in the world. I would say the same thing happens in Argentina, where the authorities already saw the IT potential thirty years ago. It is not a thing of now”, concludes Jacqueline Samira.
EFE
