The recent International Women’s Day was an opportunity to celebrate and uplift women in the industry. Finance and tech professionals believe this should continue to ensure an enhanced representation of women and other diverse groups in these core markets.
Creating technology for everyone
A good starting point is ensuring the industry can be more inclusive by delivering tech that works for everyone. Inclusion, diversity and equity aren’t just issues for chief people officers but for chief product officers too. One way the industry can improve equity and be more inclusive is to deliver technology products that work for everyone.
Businesses should focus on building technology that focuses on inclusion and fairness. Machines can make decisions without human-based influence, but only if we can create, develop and use them ethically and transparently.
Innovate by hiring the best talent
In a market that continues to be dominated by men, businesses must take one step further to innovate. Technology is evolving rapidly, and we must maintain pace with new technologies. This requires hiring the best talent available and ensuring diversity remains a top priority within this process. The fintech industry has been dominated by men, so there must be a concerted effort to change this because innovation can only happen with a range of people collaborating from various backgrounds.
According to the World Economic Forum, by 2050, nearly 75% of jobs will be associated with STEM, but as an example, women currently only hold 22% of positions in AI. Encouraging more women into tech will generate more creative solutions and support further innovation required.
Encouraging more women into STEM
While women have significantly contributed to science and tech, women remain underrepresented in these sectors. For example, only 18% of computer science undergrad degrees go to women in the US, and only 27% of women work in STEM-related positions. We must continue improving the participation of women in STEM and highlight the need for change.
Promoting female leaders
According to Nadine Pichelot, the senior VP at Anaplan, one of the most successful ways of improving women in finance and tech is to promote female leaders. Equality begins with representation, explains Pichelot, so we must highlight the impressive roles women play in the industry, particularly at the top of organisations. We should encourage young women to pursue leadership opportunities and instil confidence in their skills. Currently, while women make up around a third of all board positions in the FTSE-100, only 15% of finance directors in these companies are women. In the tech industry, women make up a little over 20% of IT professionals and 12.5% of engineers. We must start to learn from historical mistakes in both sectors and ensure these types of statistics improve in the years to come. This requires decisive action and honest communications concerning diversity and accountability from businesses that fail to make progress.
Enhanced outcomes through more diverse teams
Regina Lau, the CFO at Weavr, which provides embedded finance solutions, believes in the last few years, the awareness concerning the issues of equity and inclusion has improved, with the contribution women bring to businesses in finance and tech becoming more recognised. Customers, employees and regulations are driving VCs, investors and companies to consider hiring and funding plans, encouraging businesses to invest their efforts into ESG and diverse recruitment, reinforced by the knowledge that better results are achieved by diverse teams.
Encouraging more women to join the industry
The industry collectively must encourage fintech to deliver structured diversity, equality and inclusion strategies. Internal programs can be a great way to ensure better representation of women and other diverse groups in fintech. Marijke Koninckx, the chief product officer at tech platform Bankifi, believes there must be more access to training for women from a young age. While there’s been progress, there is still a significant discrepancy between men and women in tech roles within all levels of experience and seniority. Koninckx believes it is related to education in schools, the visibility of female role models and the availability of training and access to jobs roles available to women. The more women in leadership positions and additional female skilled talent, the more it will become a clear career option for the younger generation in school today.
