Gender equality as a driver for economic gains in the technology sector

Abstract

Bridging the gender gap has been well-researched in mainstream workforce industries such as health, retail, telecommunications and education. The science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sectors have been particularly short on research addressing gender equality and whether gender equality could be a driver for economic gains, particularly in the technology sector. The technology sector still faces significant challenges regarding gender equality and opportunities for women representation in leadership. Women participation in the labour force in developing countries is still under-researched, and women are underrepresented in the technology sector. Research pertaining to whether gender equality could result in economic gains in the technology sector and the drivers for this are still limited. Through this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants in the technology sector to obtain their views or insights on whether gender equality can be a driver for economic gains in the technology sector. Their perspectives were analysed through a lens of the relationship between gender and employment opportunities for women, gender mainstreaming efforts and how these can drive supply side benefits and assist in the implementation of enabling ICT policies, a systems thinking and contextual psychology perspective to implement gender equality at the macro, meso and micro levels; and whether “doing and undoing gender” are some strategies firms use to drive gender equality. The study found that there does seem to be an inverse relationship between gender and employment opportunities for women in the technology sector. The use of enabling policies for gender equality exists at the macro level but is still lacking at the meso and micro levels, especially within the technology sector. A systems thinking approach that addresses a “whole of society” paradigm as far as practical implementation of gender equality issues is required. Doing and undoing gender is used to drive gender equality issues and middle managers also play a part in it. This study contributes to the literature by combining the gender equality drivers, economic growth and technology sectoral outcomes into a single study. As a result, a framework is proposed that identifies the key levers of addressing gender equality at all levels.