Transformation in tech demands diversity and inclusion

The rise of STEM careers can close the gender gap if we remove predisposed biases and limitations. Learn how to advance gender equity.

In brief: 

• Representing a diverse group of women, including visible minorities and 2SLGTBQ+, is important for the younger generation to be encouraged and inspired.
• Engage young women and girls early to help them explore different STEM opportunities and how they can build a better working world.
• Support and mentor young girls and women when they begin their STEM careers to improve retention. 

Over the last two years, typical activities may have slowed down, but digital adoption has only sped up. As a business consultant, I’m working with business leaders across industries to guide technology-related design, decisions and future innovations, in a way that cultivates both confidence and discipline as technologies evolve. Throughout the pandemic, businesses have quickly accelerated their digital transformation agendas to mobilize solutions to respond to new demands, overcome challenges and keep pace with change. That may be good news for business, but the rapid change of pace also means that facets are getting left behind — gender parity included.

I’ve witnessed firsthand that when girls have women role models to inspire them and help them envision themselves in untraditional roles, they’re more likely to seek out activities and opportunities to participate in the world of STEM. As a mother of two daughters and a son with interests in STEM, I’m proud to play my part by opening more doors for young girls and be part of the answer to advancing gender equity in Canada.

Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum found that we’re still 135 years away from gender parity — that’s 35 years longer than identified last year — and we’re seeing this number play out on job sites, with occupational gender segregation on the rise in sectors that require disruptive technical skills. Women and ethnic minorities in technology fields continue to be excluded from fuelling — and leading — the digital age. Although accelerated automation and digitalization are creating new job opportunities, the majority of these roles are expected to be filled by men, with women falling far behind, representing just 14% of cloud computing professionals and 32% of data and artificial intelligence (AI) professionals globally. The rise of AI and analytics could help close the gender gap, but only if we avoid hardwiring our current biases and limitations. We leave untapped potential when we do not include women in such transformation, and it’s happening already.

What will it take to move the diversity and inclusion agenda forward without waiting 135 years to close the gap? Here are three ways organizations can play their part to expedite the process and encourage more women to participate in STEM.

Enhance the role model effect

Organizations can’t create an equal world overnight, but they can fix the digital divide by encouraging more girls to pursue STEM education and careers, regardless of age. Attracting more girls and women will require a significant effort from a diverse set of stakeholders. The first step is ensuring that the right role models are in place to show women that leadership is attainable and real. But it’s also important to broaden the sphere of influence to include equal representation of minorities, 2SLGBTQ+ and other diverse groups of women.

Invest in education

Businesses can actively work to inspire and incent the next generation through robust programs or initiatives. The EY STEM app that is expected to be launched soon in Canada is a mobile platform that partners with leading organizations around the world - including the UN and World Economic Forum - to prepare and encourage young women to pursue STEM careers and unleash their full leadership potential. The app connects girls with a wide range of topics and learning activities focused on science such as climate change or space exploration; technologies like AI, 3D printing, blockchain and the future skills that may be required for as yet-undefined jobs. Not only does the platform nurture confidence and competence in STEM, but it empowers girls to take real-life action, such as interviewing other role models across Canada and applying design thinking to solve community problems.

What’s unique about the app is its gamified content and incentivized learning — making information accessible, flexible, targeted and appealing to young women. As they complete activities, girls become eligible to receive a range of incentives, including mentoring and work shadowing opportunities with Canadian women leaders who have forged successful careers in STEM fields.

The app is one of many initiatives EY has in place through the EY Ripples corporate responsibility program to support the next generation and positively impact a billion lives by 2030.

Put analytics in action

Encouraging more women to embark on STEM careers through mentorship and education is just the start of the process. Organizations also need to support them once they’re in the door. In recent years, universities have worked hard to invest in mentorship programs that prepare and entice young women and minority groups to gain an education in STEM. But as they graduate and move into the workforce, they often struggle to find similar support as workplace diversity initiatives focus on recruiting — not retaining — diverse talent for long-term success.

Organizations must treat gender diversity as the business-critical issue it is by leveraging analytics and formal metrics to measure the proportion of women at each level of the company and gender pay gaps to inform how unconscious bias influences hiring and promotions. Having the analytics to forecast if certain groups of people are more likely to resign than others empowers HR leaders to proactively develop initiatives that help improve the culture experience of impacted groups to maximize retention.

As more organizations introduce diversity metrics related to recruitment, training, progression and pay, they will have even more useful information to analyze and help guide their planning — data that will yield valuable insights into patterns, trends and discrepancies between how female staff are treated compared to male counterparts. Not only can analytics programs crunch reams of data relating to roles, salaries, bonuses, but they also equip HR teams to identify patterns of bias and devise fair and robust organizational structures that are fit for the future.

As we kick off another year filled with new opportunities, organizations need to take bold actions, both big and small, to drive change and be the answer in advancing gender equity and making success possible for all. By making gender diversity core to their strategy to meet disruptive trends, businesses can help ensure that women and girls in Canada and around the globe are a part of the development and application of new technologies within education, workplaces and the economy. At the end of the day, if half of the population is excluded from STEM, how can we expect real innovation to occur?