It turns out that gender inequality starts with our pocket money. A study recently found that boys receive around £7 in pocket money whilst girls can expect just under £5. The gender gap then continues, right up to board level where only 19% of women hold directorships in the U.S. and Europe.
But achieving gender equality isn’t just something that’s morally right, the World Economic Forum states that it’s vital to a thriving economy and society. With workplaces changing rapidly thanks to changing workstyles and developing technology, now is the right time to truly reset the balance of genders in the workplace.
Getting digital for gender equality
Indeed, Accenture estimates that we’ll reach gender equality by 2040 - as long as businesses and governments double the current digital skills of women in the workplace.
Therein lies a potential problem. 64% of females study STEM subjects at school, versus 83% of males and that falls further when looking at university students. Just 30% of females choose a STEM subject, compared to 52% of male students. As for the current workforce, men still trump women when it comes to learning digital skills. Accenture's study found that 52% of men continuously learn new digital skills whilst only 45% of women do the same.
Yet, achieving gender equality in the workplace might offer a potential solution for the digital skills gap. Women currently make up less than 40% of the global workforce. Motivating more women to learn digital skills won’t just help us achieve gender equality, but also plug the skills gaps facing many organisations.
Unconscious bias in the future of work
That doesn’t even take into account the unconscious bias that affects many decisions across the workplace. Unconscious bias describes ingrained biases that influence behaviour and decision making. It doesn’t just have to impact females, but also minority groups, people from certain academic backgrounds and even confirmation bias.
A male Google employee offered a good example of unconscious bias in action when he wrote a ‘manifesto’ stating that he saw inherent psychological differences between men and women that led to their different levels of success in the industry. The piece makes clear that this employee view diversity as damaging meritocracy and the level-playing field that he perceives.
Automation is making it worse
Unconscious bias becomes more worrying when automation and artificial intelligence (AI) comes into it. The majority of people creating AI are white males. This brings a whole heap of potential biases that could be programmed into an AI. That spells trouble for gender equality, especially if an AI is used in HR or recruitment.
For example, LinkedIn had an algorithm that unintentionally displayed highly-paid jobs to men more often than women. This occurred because the initial users that the system was trained on were predominantly male for those high-paying roles. The algorithm simply reinforced an existing bias against women.
Then there was a study into how image recognition algorithms displayed predictable gender biases in photos of everyday scenarios. It linked shopping and washing to women, and sports, shooting and coaching to men.
Addressing gender bias in AI
If gender equality is to be achieved, then biases within AI need to be addressed. Part of this could involve removing the ‘black box’ surrounding an AI, where you do not fully understand its decision making processes. Unpicking how AI comes to a decision can help identify where biases exist in its code.
Another solution is to stress test the algorithms for any potential bias. Anupam Datta designed a program that tested whether an AI displayed bias when hiring new employees. In a recruitment programme for removal companies, Datta’s program randomly changed the gender and the weight they stated that they could carry in their application. If there was no change in the number of women who were selected by the software for interviews, then gender wasn’t affecting the hiring process.
Changing generational views
But perspectives around working women are changing. Millennials see achieving gender equality in the workplace as more important than previous generations. They also believe that working mothers can have as strong a relationship with their children as stay-at-home mums.
Eventually the same Millennials will be filling our boardrooms and running our companies - hopefully addressing the gender gaps within those organisations.
Women may be more adapted to the future of work
Ironically, females might be able to better adapt to the future of work than their male counterparts. 35% of men’s jobs are at risk of automation versus only 26% of women’s, due to the high proportion of females hired in sectors requiring social and emotional skills such as education and healthcare.
Emotional intelligence is something that cannot (yet) be coded into an AI. It’s something that will likely ensure some job security in the future and women outperform men across the board.
Plus, changing work styles may be more suited to women. The Accenture research found that 60% of women who are currently unemployed said that having more flexible hours or the ability to work from home will help them find work. The rise of freelancing, remote working and the gig economy will make this more commonplace in the future.
Balancing the future workplace
However, achieving gender equality in the workplace may feel uncomfortable for some. A study discovered that when the population in a room is 20% women, the males in the room see 50%. When it’s 30%, men feel there are 60% women. Another study looked at how teachers called on boys and girls in the classroom. When it was 50/50, the boys felt that the girls were getting all the attention. In other words, we’ve become used to the imbalance. We’ve normalised gender inequality.
Until this, and the many other challenges, are resolved, then true equality will still be a long way off. But it is possible if businesses, academia and governments unite to systematically change unconscious bias in the workplace, improve the digital literacy of females and remove gender inequality in AI. With a bit of legwork, the future is ours for the taking. For all of us - both male and female.
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