Traditionally, coding has been associated with competences considered masculine, linked to the size of the amygdala, or the left side of the brain, such as logical-mathematical reasoning, focusing on results, etc., etc.
It is difficult to know if a concept with a pseudoscientific base generated a whole cultural theory on the division of tasks by gender, or it was the other way around, but computer science and engineering ended up wrongfully endorsing a cultural prejudice.
Whatever the origin is, the current issue is that IT companies lack the female talent to fill their jobs, since, for one reason or another, an immense majority of women refrain from considering a career in IT as a suitable course for their talent.
On the other hand, it is expected that in the forthcoming years, there will be a significant gap to fill between supply and demand of workforce in the IT sector, and because of the way the market is set, it will need many more professionals than those projected to be available.
Therefore, wasting the talent of half the population is absurd, purely from a utilitarian point of view.
Men are considered more competitive, more aggressive, and are believed to be more linear thinkers. Women are believed to be better at learning new languages, better at multi-tasking, better listeners, more abstract thinkers, more in tune with social issues, and tend to work more collaboratively. A lot of studies and articles reveal that these traits make women better programmers and their code has a higher acceptance rate. When there are more women in top-level positions, companies tend to be more successful, but most of the companies are still led by men. Moreover, consumer electronic products are used more by women than men, but they are designed almost entirely by men.
The IT sector is very masculine in terms of the number of men working in it. Also, in terms of stereotypes, from an early age, girls and boys tend to identify technology as something masculine. We, at IBORN, try to 'hack' these stereotypes and empower the girls to transform from being “consumer princesses”, and become “creative queens” instead.
Regarding the gender gap in companies within the sector, reducing it goes beyond being a declaration of good intention, and becoming a necessity. In practice, it is shown that diverse companies have better results.
When you approach a problem from different perspectives, everyone contributes. Therefore, companies are interested in promoting this diversity. And gender diversity is the most obvious one.
The role of women in the world of technology is changing rapidly. This has to do with the fact that the leaders in the technological world are realizing that technology is for everyone and not just men. So, if you are going to develop a product that will be used by both genders, it is logical to have representatives from both genders in your team.
Even though diversity initiatives usually arise in Western European countries and the USA much earlier than in the Balkan Region, we believe that nowadays important steps are being taken here as well, and Macedonia is continuously improving on this issue.
For example, at IBORN 47% of all of our employees are women and most of them are Software Engineers or Software QA Engineers, and this figure continues to grow, year in, year out.