This has to be a great moment in the history of humanity. It hasn’t been but a few decades since the mass entry of women in the labor market, away from their traditional roles as mothers and caretakers. Women now have the ability to stand on their own and discover their identity away from the typical maternity predestination.
But what is the reality exactly? The news media says so, Hollywood says so, business outlets feature “trailblazing” women, “stunning and brave” women, “first” women doing this and “first” women doing that.
And on top of that, even at the highest level of discourse, when the subject is female, the discussion veers into stereotypical “feminine” themes – emotionality, compassion, emphasis on soft skills, along with the mandatory admiration of how a woman manages to do the same things as men!
Harmful stereotypes persist
To better understand the problem, just take a look at this video – I have asked to Dell Technologies CEE leaders the same type of questions that are usually addressed to businesswomen and entrepreneurs, and guess what… the result is quite surprising from the lens I just described.
My purpose was to underline the results of a recent research done by SISTA and Mirova Forward. They raise questions about the media’s treatment of women leaders and entrepreneurs. Not without humor, they cleverly identified the inequalities of treatment suffered by women even where they are in a position of power. Life balance, vitality secret, morning routine, beautiful outfits and being an exception … The video illustrates how some remarks seem absurd when they are addressed to men.
Do not fall into the trap of presenting women having a brilliant career as exceptional and atypical. You might be surprised.
The stark reality of women in tech sector
I don’t know in what degree stereotypical behaviors affect women’s career decisions, but numbers don’t lie: Today, in Central and Eastern Europe, according to a study from McKinsey regarding the narrowing of the gender gap in CEE, women make up more than 60% of college graduates. Despite this fact, the same study shows that transitioning to working life, women make up just 45% of the labor force.
This drop is even worse in the ICT sector: according to the European Institute for Gender Equality, women represent merely 17% of the tech industry employees.
Those persistent, unconscious biases hold women back. The notions of “glass ceiling” or “imposter syndrome” need to be addressed early in women’s career to stop the erosion of female confidence and impulse.
Let’s not forget that we foresee fantastic job opportunities for more women in the IT sector, especially when we desperately need talented people to fill the expected gap of approximately 4.3 million tech workers by 2030.
Less talk – more action
There is an urgent need to “walk the talk” here. To lead in this culture change, at Dell Technologies we have implemented concrete actions, from mentoring to sponsorship, and coaching.
I want to highlight here as an example among many the program “Be the Change”, for both men and women: workshop dedicated to raising awareness of unconscious bias, the same kind I just mentioned above. Understanding gender-bias impact contributes to change behavior and overcome gender stereotypes.
Another important rolling program at Dell Technologies aims at supporting women as they develop and grow in their career. Last year we had 34 talented women from the CEE region participating in “Release Your Potential” – dedicated to equipping high-performing, mid-career women with concrete tools to accelerate their personal and professional development.
And more recently, we launched another robust initiative that is addressing this talent gap at its source, targeting students. We started this year in CEE with a new mentorship program in Slovakia called “STEM Aspire” that connects women STEM students to Dell Technologies role-models. We started with 12 students and our objective is to encourage and empower them to graduate and have successful and rewarding careers in the tech sector.
This is just the beginning of a long series of actions that, I hope, will support our community’s progress. To achieve our objectives, companies need to set concrete goals around diversity and inclusion and be hold accountable for publicly sharing their progress.
And because EACH one of us can cultivate inclusion in the tech sector, I encourage you to speak up and share your initiatives to inspire others.
Let me invite you to join our LinkedIn group of Dell Technologies CEE – Women In Technology. Be part of the conversation with a community of more than 1.300 members, both men and women, working for various companies, of different ages, responsibilities, and roles.
So, share your actions and visions with us by joining the conversation on our LinkedIn Group!
I’ll see you there!
Peggy Rouffiac
CEE Marketing Director & Women in Tech Group lead
