• Christina Walls, Chief Marketing Officer at intelliflo


• 04.03.2022 03:00 pm
#Financial #Technology

Looking in our ‘rear-view mirror’, Ada Lovelace is a great example of a woman who would have thrived in today's society. She was a 19^th century English mathematician whose work with Charles Babbage is credited as creating the world’s first computer algorithm. But while many will immediately associate Babbage’s name with modern computing, Lovelace’s achievements are less well-known. She is one of many women who have played a key role in global technological advances, but despite their successes, they have been largely overlooked in the historic record.

International Women’s Day is helping to raise awareness of Ada, and others like her, who contributed so much to our knowledge today but received little or no recognition during their lifetime. It reflects the progress we’ve made in both celebrating women’s achievements through history and the work individuals, businesses, industry and society are doing across all aspects of creating equality – not just for women, but as a platform for all other under-represented groups.

But while there’s much to celebrate, it is also important to acknowledge that there is more work to do, particularly in encouraging women into financial technology. According to The World Bank, women currently make up 46% of the global workforce[i], however, PwC’s Women in Tech report found that only 15% of tech workers and 5% of leadership roles in the sector are held by women[ii].

So why don’t more women want to work in fintech? Well, it’s complicated.

The PWC report found that a quarter (26%) of women are put off a career in the sector because they believe it’s too male-dominated. In a list of the 15 most influential and inspiring modern tech leaders put together by Forbes, just two are women^[iii]. The continued lack of visibility of today’s female leaders is helping to perpetuate the imbalance of men in technology. We need to do more to raise the profile of the women who are leading the charge in our industry today. Women like Dr Tarika Barrett who set up Girls Who Code to close the global gender gap in technology, Eileen Burbidge MBE, tech venture capitalist, UK Treasury Special Envoy for Fintech and Executive Director of Fertifa, which is leading the way in providing fertility and menopause benefits to UK companies, and Viola Llewellyn, who is driving financial inclusion as President of African FinTech company, Ovamba.

Another issue is how the demands of working in technology fit into women’s lives. A Deloitte survey of women in the global technology, media, and telecommunications workforce, found that more than half (52%) rated their work/life balance as extremely poor[iv]. It also highlighted that companies it classed as ‘gender equality leaders’, where women believe they are fully supported and respected by management and their peers, report higher levels of mental well-being and are more motivated and productive than those who work for less inclusive organisations.

Creating an inclusive culture might look different from company to company; it’s important to listen to employee needs. Among other things, make sure discriminatory behaviours can be called out without fear, offer opportunities for progression through formal mentoring programmes to under-represented groups as necessary and support employees with work/life pressure points, like managing caring responsibilities or dealing with issues around physical and mental health.

Organisations have a role to play in improving female representation at senior levels and talking openly about the contributions of their female staff and the benefits of a more gender-balanced workforce. A Women in Tech survey found that nearly nine out of ten women (88%) would be drawn to work for a company that speaks openly about diversity[v].

Encouraging more women into financial technology isn’t just important for equality, it’s good for business too. A report by Nominet estimated that the UK economy would benefit by an extra £2.6 billion each year if the number of women working in tech increased to fill the IT skills shortage[vi]. Its research found that three fifths (59%) of UK businesses believed their IT team would benefit from hiring more women, citing better communication, new ideas and improved morale as the core advantages of a more equal gender balance.

At intelliflo, we’re working to improve our diversity, but recognise there is still more work to do. The quest for equality needs to be ongoing, driven from the top and the responsibility of the whole organisation. Men and women need to champion female inclusion in the workplace and support colleagues in achieving their full potential – I think one of the most poignant communications on days like IWD is the non-female posts supporting women in leadership and equality.

There’s much to celebrate, but also more progress to be made. Demonstrating the value of women in fintech and our important contribution to the field will deliver the role models we need to encourage more women into the sector, creating a virtuous circle from which we will all benefit.