Equal opportunities and equal pay 

Many women and non-binary people are not given the same opportunities as their male peers. This relates to a wide range of opportunities in professional life, from recruitment to access to promotions and opportunities for development in their roles, and there is still a large gender pay gap. Many of these problems are tied to biases – sometimes unconscious – connected to gender.

Many women and non-binary people want to develop their tech expertise as specialists but are tapped to be the team leads, moving them further away from their specific expertise, and are often expected to be a “mother figure” of sorts for their team. This involves unpaid, unvalued emotional labour such as taking notes, informally counselling others, doing office housework, and more. 

Recruitment

There is a problem of structural discrimination that limits women and non-binary people’s access to the tech industry. Many of these problems are tied to biases – sometimes unconscious – connected to gender, including unequal opportunities in the hiring process itself. Awareness about gender bias and active measures to break the influence of gender bias on decision making are key for a truly equal recruitment process that allows for a diverse team.

  • ◦ Develop a framework for executives and hiring committees

    ◦ Educate on unconscious bias

    ◦ Involve external experts

    ◦ Conduct exit interviews and use the insights for your strategic work on culture, co-worker development, and recruiting

  • ◦ Recruiting for gender equality

Career and promotion

Women and non-binary people tend to only get access to certain positions in the industry if they align with gender-based expectations (gender bias). This results in them having a harder time getting promotions, which is often reflected in a company’s organisational structure. There might be an equal share or even a majority of women and non-binary people working at a company, but this seldom reflects in management positions.

  • ◦ Analyse your company from a gender perspective

    ◦ Collect data and make inequality visible

    ◦ Conduct an employee survey

    ◦ Educate on discrimination grounds and unconscious bias

  • ◦ Invisible office housework

Equal pay

Pay gaps are still a serious problem, affecting not only monthly income for women and non-binary people, but also their lifetime wealth. This has a further negative impact on their ability to build capital and credit-worthiness to pursue careers as entrepreneurs or to receive pensions that enable an equal life after retirement.

  • ◦ Regular employee pay mapping

    ◦ Transparent pay raise criteria

    ◦ Consultation with external experts for unbiased pay structure evaluation

  • ◦ Pay survey

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