We shall overcome - gender gap in tech

Keynote at PyCon India 2019, Chennai

Transcript

1. We Shall Overcome! Gender gap in tech Devi A S L PyCon India 2019 @ Chennai
2. A Small Story…
3. Guess Who?
4. Guess Who? “Looking around me, it is so obvious that women don’t get equal opportunities in tech and there are so many things that lead to that. The statistics are very clear. If I look around in the café at work there are tons of women. But if I look around me in my little engineering team there is only one woman. And I think it is a shame that so few women choose tech and those that do, have so many things to fight.” [1] - Guido Van Rossum, 2014
5. Guess Who? “Looking around me, it is so obvious that women don’t get equal opportunities in tech and there are so many things that lead to that. The statistics are very clear. If I look around in the café at work there are tons of women. But if I look around me in my little engineering team there is only one woman. And I think it is a shame that so few women choose tech and those that do, have so many things to fight.” [1] - Guido Van Rossum, 2014
6. Guess Who? “Looking around me, it is so obvious that women don’t get equal opportunities in tech and there are so many things that lead to that. The statistics are very clear. If I look around in the café at work there are tons of women. But if I look around me in my little engineering team there is only one woman. And I think it is a shame that so few women choose tech and those that do, have so many things to fight.” [1] - Guido Van Rossum, 2014
7. Guess Who? “Looking around me, it is so obvious that women don’t get equal opportunities in tech and there are so many things that lead to that. The statistics are very clear. If I look around in the café at work there are tons of women. But if I look around me in my little engineering team there is only one woman. And I think it is a shame that so few women choose tech and those that do, have so many things to fight.” [1] - Guido Van Rossum, 2014
9. We Shall Overcome! Gender gap in tech
10. About Me • Devi A S L • ~10 years of building software with Python and sharing love for it • associated with @pyconindia since inception • WTM of Google, @pyladies • mother of 2 daughters • software engineer at Razorpay
11. My Journey
12. Gender Gap in Tech
13. A Small Survey…
14. Women in Tech - Why? • Because they deserve • Because they’re far fewer
15. Diversity and Inclusion - Why? • diverse ideas • creative solutions • better processes and products All these hold good with gender diversity as well.
16. Why Does Gender Gap Exist? “If you are unable to understand the cause of a problem, it is impossible to solve it.” — Naoto Kan
17. Is Education a Factor? • No, 31% of students are women in engineering colleges[2] • still a long way to go
18. Lets Play a Game… • Teacher • Engineer • Pilot • Sports Person • Entrepreneur
19. Stereotype stereotype |ˈstɛrɪə(ʊ)tʌɪp, ˈstɪərɪə(ʊ)tʌɪp| noun a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
20. Stereotype stereotype |ˈstɛrɪə(ʊ)tʌɪp, ˈstɪərɪə(ʊ)tʌɪp| noun a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
21. What’s Wrong With That? Which of these is more common? To login, user must enter his email and password To login, user must enter her email and password
22. Reinforced Learning
23. The Unconscious Bias
24. The Unconscious Bias (Contd…)
25. The Unconscious Bias (Contd…)
26. And Subtle Ones…
27. Inclusion at Workplace When are you more productive and creative ? • Your voice is heard • Your work is valued • you’re understood
28. Reasons to stay! [4]
29. Psychological Safety Within a team • ideas flow • ability to take risks One of the most important attribute of highly successful teams
30. Not for ME! • Meetings that run into late evenings • “Uncomfortable” offsites • Inflexible hours
31. Leadership • Socialising/Networking • Mentoring • Promotions and performance reviews
32. Motherhood
33. Challenges • Leave policies ? • Kids’ growth and safety after I’m back ? • Child care at work ? • A longer break ? • Return back ? • Catching up ? Answers are NOT supportive!
34. Would you give up a better oppurtunity? [4]
35. What would help you to continue your career after maternity? [4]
36. Challenges after long break [4]
37. The Future is Bright!
38. Community Efforts • GirlsWhoCode, PyLadies, DjangoGirls, AdaInitiative* • AnitaBorg Institute, GraceHopper • Travel incentives for woman speakers • Child care initiatives at conferences and many more
39. Corporate Efforts • Diversity initiatives, return-to-work programs, child-care at work places • Remote jobs • Flexible jobs
40. This is just a starting
41. We all have a role to play!
42. A Woman • Share your opinions and concerns openly and frequently • Make use of community support • Seek and offer mentorship • Take time to learn • Show up • Don’t give up
43. An Individual • Share • Mentor and encourage • Provide critical feedback • Beware of unconscious biases
44. Corporate • Parental leave, quality child care - basic needs, not nice-to-haves • Unconscious bias training to recruitment personnels • Flexible hours • Work from home options • No late evening meetings • Design workplaces for transparency and openness Think about women as well while framing every policy !
46. Thank you!
47. Credits • Anand Chitipothu • Anant Srivatsava • Anwesha Das • Lakshya Sivaramakrishnan • Leena S N • Leela Vadlamudi • Milena Berry • Neelu Tripathy • Pooja Bhatt • Razorpay - Khuzema, Amit, Kartik • Usha Ramani • Vandana Verma • Zainab Bawa • Zoe Braiterman
48. Sources 1.https://adainitiative.org/2014/09/22/why-guido-van-rossum-supports- the-ada-initiative-wears-a-python-is-for-girls-shirt-and-answered- questions-from-only-women-at-pycon-2014/ 2.AISHE final report 2018-19.pdf by Ministry of human resource development (page 167) 3. Interventions that affect gender bias in hiring: A systematic review 4. Survey results of “What makes women happy and successful at work?”
49. References • https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversity matters • https://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2018/11/20/by-welcoming-women-pythons- founder-overcomes-closed-minds-in-open-source/#37aaa18c4a73 • http://blog.indeed.com/2018/11/06/women-in-tech-report/ • https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified • https://anitab.org/blog/indian-women-in-technology-barriers/ • https://www.elephantinthevalley.com/ • https://projectinclude.org/
50. References (contd…) • http://opendiversitydata.org/ • https://womenintheworkplace.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2018.pdf • https://www.nasscom.in/knowledge-center/publications/women-and-it-scorecard- india-2018 • https://www.nasscom.in/knowledge-center/publications/moving-towards-gender- parity • https://anitab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2019-Top-Companies-Insights- Report.pdf • http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/1740/2015_COL_Gender-Bias-Quiz.pdf? sequence=3&isAllowed=y
51. Thank you!