Women & ICT: innovation can overcome the gender gap

The #WomensEqualityDay is celebrated in the United States and is a national day tied to the remembrance of the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states and the federal government from denying U.S. citizens the right to vote on the basis of their gender. (Source Wikipedia)

Its celebration takes place on August 26th every year, however we decided to take up this very significant issue to examine the different points of view in which it can be interpreted, namely, the gender gap related to the presence of women in the Italian and European ICT landscape.

Women & ICT: What’s the Right Way?

Well, the space in terms of female employment in companies specialized in Information Technology is still too little. According to the data of the Women in Digital (WiD) Scoreboard 2020 of the European Commission, the percentage of women occupying roles in ICT at European level is 17.7% with a 14.8% relative to Italy.

A decrease that seems not to have stopped for about 10 years and that is linked to a mix of issues, including STEM education, prejudice, discrimination, fewer opportunities for growth, unequal economic treatment. Elements that cannot remain valid if we look at digital, organizational, management skills and the set of hard and soft skills in the various areas of IT and digital, which, if matured and grown in the right context and environment, lead women to give the best of themselves. If they want to.

It remains to be wondered, given the irrefutable objectivity of the data (you’ll forgive the pun), if the companies operating within this sector don’t talk too easily about “innovation”, “digital transformation” and everything else that today our minds easily associate with the idea of progress, technological or not.

The direction in which companies, belonging to any field, that can truly be defined as “innovative”, are moving towards a great care and attention to all those issues that eliminate any kind of social and discriminatory barrier, including the one related to gender difference. And yes, this aspect inevitably reflects on that mental elasticity, that heterogeneity that allows the development of products and services able to make the difference.

In Trueblue the percentage of women is 46.6%; a percentage that makes us proud if compared to the national average and that is destined to grow. Women who, together, like their male colleagues, cooperate to pursue a common goal: because if it is true that a company must believe in a value, then ours lies in People, beyond any possible gender difference.

The Creative Side of Technology

The other side of the coin on this issue, in fact, is linked to the way women themselves perceive technology. It’s as if there were an aura of mystery that instead of intriguing us, frightens us, appears hostile when in fact it would be enough to go further, risk and throw our heart over the obstacle to understand that:

Technology, a bit like literature, has a not indifferent creative element that allows us to discover, deepen but above all to find and create solutions, face and manage problems, with dynamism, curiosity and with the elegance that characterize us as such.

On the other hand, in order to conceive, develop and implement technological solutions capable of satisfying the needs of users, it is necessary to balance the innovative technical component with the creative one, just like painting a picture requires a canvas, brushes, an in-depth study of artistic techniques but also creative flair.

AiDEA – Trueblue’s AI-driven Smart Customer Engagement solution – fits in with this philosophy, going to support the company’s business activities at 360°, thanks to the use of Intelligent Insight and a simple and intuitive interface, built according to the needs of the end user.

So, if it’s Digital Transformation and innovation that we want to, and must, talk about, it’s anachronistic to think of doing so by leaving out such a large slice of the market, population and potential skills. And in a world where the #WomenEqualityDay is rightly celebrated, the need to run from this point of view is more and more urgent, because Italy, Europe and the whole world need Women Who Code.

Martina Fiore – Marketing Manager

Elisa Valentino – Content Marketing & Social Media Executive