Year after year society makes forecasts on the tech world and what we hope to see for the next year. We see predictions from Bitcoin prices, to Ai development, all the way to Tesla introducing a the bulletproof car. However I must say, this is the first year that there has been a massive push for and from women in the technolgy sector. And I’m all for it.
We hit a breaking point, where tech has infiltrated almost all aspects of our daily lives. How can women not get involved? See but that’s just it, we were always involved, just not to the degree that is being encouraged today.
Technology has become the single most important regularizer of recent times. Technology is and has always been an extremely powerful engine, capable of driving society to new heights. It is vital that we continue to ensure women aren’t left out of this revolution.
It’s not news that the media, around tech topics, have always favoured men. It’s not that female tech founders don’t exist, it’s that the focus has historically not been on them. But as I mentioned, the tide is changing as society has introduced new role models for our young tech innovators to look up to. To encourage them to see beyond what their mothers and sisters were allowed by society to do. As a result we’ve seen a spike in female inspirational films within the last decade, empowering young women. Films like Seeing Allred, Hidden Figures, and She Started It.
What difference will the tech world face when women gain momentum?
Likely what we’ve seen in the past, but on a bigger scale. What I mean to say is, that with women in command, a company is more likely, at the very least, to have a more mission-driven business. So enabling and empowering women to rise will exceedingly change the technology industry, favourably.
We see women like Kristen Green, who is behind Forerunner Ventures that backs female-led startups. An astute investor who has invested in companies like Glossier and Birchbox. She also invested in two e-commerce businesses that have the biggest exits in recent years: Dollar Shave Club and Jet.com. She has seven executives, six of whom are women.
Or Erika Jefferson, who is the President of Black Women in Science and Engineering, an organization that tackles the complexities of being black and female within the STEM industry in the U.S. BWISE focuses on supporting black women venturing into STEM, and guides them to reach the highest level of growth they can achieve, race and gender not being a factor.
At-last it is our time as women. We are necessary components to this engine that will drive our industry to new stature.
This rise of female involvement is not an overthrowing of male power, but a harmonization of the two in their equality, capitalizing on strengths and assisting in weakness. We are here to prove what we knew all along…
We need to work together to accomplish something we cannot do on our own.
