Latin America has extra girls in expertise management – but it surely’s nonetheless few

The increase in female entrepreneurship and initiatives that bring women closer to the sector contribute to the region’s good performance, according to a new study by KPMG and Harvey Nash

In the midst of a scenario of socioeconomic regression and amplified professional challenges for women in the current pandemic scenario, some data show signs of ongoing changes. A global survey, published today (22), shows that the Latin America have more women in leadership positions in technology than countries with a much more advanced diversity agenda than countries like Brazil.

According to the annual survey focused on leadership in the technology industry carried out by the consultancy KPMG in partnership with the human resources and technology company Harvey Nashthe participation of women in senior technology positions in Latin America is currently in 16%🇧🇷 The percentage is significantly higher than the 4% of female representation in these functions in countries such as UKand higher than the global average of 11%🇧🇷

The study, which consulted nearly 5,000 decision makers around the world and is considered a reference in technology management trends in companies, attributes the increase in female leadership to two factors. The first is that there is an increase in the region in the number of STEMpreneursthat is, founders of businesses related to science, engineering, mathematics and, mainly, technology-based startups.

In addition, the research associates the rise of female leadership in tech with the emergence of specific programs in the region to bring more women into the world of technology. In Brazil, there are many of these initiatives: Program🇧🇷 MariaLab🇧🇷 Laboratory and Reprogram are among the various projects and social startups that aim to bring women closer to this market.

Reiterating the point of other surveys, which claim that companies with more women on the board and in senior positions tend to be more profitable, the Harvey Nash and KPMG study points out that there are other nuances of the post-Covid-19 emergency world that reinforce the importance to hire women in technology and promote them to leadership roles.

On why having more diverse teams is good for business, the study notes some trends. Two-thirds of executives surveyed by the study said that technology teams that deviate from the stereotype of the middle-class cis white male saw not only increased trust and collaboration among employees, but also increased chances of accessing the expertise the company needs. to attract.

The study shows an advance in Latin America compared to the rest of the world in the representation of women in senior positions in tech. It is a data to be celebrated, but 16% is still very little in relation to the size of the female population in Latin countries like Brazil, where they represent half of the population. Women will surpass men in terms of representation in the workforce in Brazil in the next decade, according to the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea)but to ensure that a reasonable proportion of these occupations are high-level jobs, we have many problems to address.

Women represent only 20% of all technology professionals in Brazil and they do not exist in 21% of technology teams in the country, according to Brazilian Association of Technology Companies (Brasscom)🇧🇷 Brazilian companies still promote women in the technology area three times less often than men, as shown by a survey by Unlocking the Power of Women For Innovation and Transformation🇧🇷 catho and I reveal🇧🇷 And organizations around here pay women 30% less than the wages paid to men in technology, according to the Interunion Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (Dieese)🇧🇷

This set of structural problems, which make women in senior positions a rarity, are not exclusive to Brazil. According to a global study of Talent Innovation Center, of people entering careers related to science, engineering or technology, women are 45% more likely to leave the career than men. Possible reasons include the hostile and sexist culture of the sector, a feeling of isolation from women working in the area and the lack of effective “sponsors”, that is, support from men to promote their development and promotion within the company.

The scarcity of female leaders in technology has to do precisely with these unconscious biases of those who hire and manage teams, as well as the culture of referral, which makes hiring attract more of the same “brogrammers” as well as men in more senior positions. When this mindset is applied to the startup world, it’s easy to see why groups of college friends who founded startups would invite other men to grow their businesses. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor and discuss this type of attitude.

These unconscious prejudices are also related to the lack of women’s participation in operational and strategic decisions that will increasingly involve the use of cutting-edge technologies. The KPMG/Harvey Nash study mentions the impact of culture on the development of advanced technologies by companies: for artificial intelligence is effective and works for everyone, it is important to eliminate organizational biases that include (but are not limited to) gender.

In fact, in addition to thinking about hiring and promoting women, it is necessary to think about intersectionality, considering aspects such as racial representation. In the end, 32.7% of technology teams in Brazil do not have a single black person, according to the survey “Who Codes Brazil?”gives PretaLab and ThoughtWorks🇧🇷 The configuration of work in the pandemic, often performed remotely and in addition to several other tasks in addition to corporate routines, also needs to be considered: it is necessary to avoid that the behaviors of this new world do not make the progress of women in technology unfeasible.

Many elements of the current diversity debate need to be translated into concrete action to ensure that more women from all backgrounds are at the top of organizational pyramids, and that others know that it is possible to get there. The industry must value, fund and give greater visibility to initiatives that help train women to work in technology. Public policies that create access routes and retraining of women for the sector need to be addressed.

Not every woman will have the aptitude or desire to be a programmer, but digital transformation encompasses many functions that will be able to take advantage of expertise from other areas. Considering rising unemployment in the crisis and the return of recruiting programs in the technology sector, providing possibilities for all women to start and develop new careers in the digital economy it is essential so that old mistakes are corrected and no one is left behind.

Source: Forbes