How technology helps gender equality

Women have experienced inequality and discrimination for a very long time, both in India and around the world. Even today, only about thirty in three thousand patents are filed by women in India. However, circumstances are evening out, especially in the fields of industry.

Of course, gender equality varies from field to field, and some industries have a higher rate of woman dropouts than other industries.

However, the industry is becoming far more gender-equal overall, and it is expected to become even more equal within the next two decades. Yet experts have said that gender equality should be especially focused on in certain industry fields.

Experts especially emphasize that gender equality should be focused on in the field of technology. Since technology work is entirely based on talent and merit, there should be no gender discrimination in technological fields. Currently, there is one to nine ratio of women to men in the technology industry, so there is still a long way to go.

Additionally, experts have said that the sports industry should be more gender-equal as well since sports like cricket, hockey, and badminton have many talented professional woman players. They have enough talent to bring them into international competitions such as the Olympics, but these women only seem to get national recognition once they compete internationally.

PwC has recently done a study on gender diversity in the industry and gave a list of gender equality pointers for companies to follow. One of their largest emphases was on the importance of women at senior levels, who can mentor newcomer women.

These mentors can help give these women a feeling of safety and confidence. This means that more women will choose to stay in the company, and more new women can be encouraged to join the company as well.

However, the eventual goal is to extend equality focus beyond gender and to focus on demographics that have an even greater level of discrimination, such as the disabled.

There is still a long way to go, but if the industry continues to become more gender-equal, then gender itself may no longer be an issue.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash (Free for commercial use)

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