The tech industry is a hot sector, and it’s exciting to see more women getting involved. Though the blockchain field is still dominated by men, an increasing number of the ‘crypto chicks’ ‘bitcoin babes’ and the ‘blockchain ladies’ are making waves into the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain, a subpart of tech industry while breaking preconceived notions and shattering the glass ceiling.
Although there has been a recent boom of “women in tech” we still have a long way to go before we reach gender equality at the core of the industry. Approximately ninety percent of Bitcoin users are men while only a mere 1.76% of the entire Bitcoin community are women. Although there has been a push to get more women involved in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Initiatives like Mogul’s “Women in Crypto” events and organizations like the Women in Blockchain Foundation have been making a great deal of an effort to get more women involved in the blockchain and crypto space.
Crypto Chicks Who Code and Then Who Don’t
However, it is not just the lower number of women in tech that poses this problem. But rather how they are perceived. For example, merely knowing the gender of the programmer considerably can affect the perception of the work quality and success. This kind of bias is inescapable!
In a study of GitHub users, code written by women was accepted 78.6% of the time i.e. 4% more than code written by men. This, however, worked only when the programmer’s gender was kept anonymous. So, women were perceived as better coders when their gender was left unknown.
Moreover, only a mere 5% to 7% of all cryptocurrency users are women, making the industry a highly male-dominated one. This extends to every part of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, proven by a brief look at related statistics.
At the same time, cryptocurrencies and blockchain are strongly driven by coders, a profession that is often considered to be male-driven. This furthers the existing imbalance in gender equality in the blockchain network.
The perception of only required to ‘coding’ to be in the tech industry is highly misleading. There is a place for non-technical skills too: Experts in online business models, digital marketing, e-commerce, media, social media strategy, gadgets, and IT infrastructure are all essential to the technology ecosystem.
But the fundamental building blocks of tech come from the engineers who write code.
However, inspiring a new generation of women to learn coding empowers female entrepreneurs to come up with unique solutions to new problems. Additionally, as more industries step into the digital age, tech will be imbibed in every part of our economy. Coding is a growing skill, one in which we desperately need more talent. And one in which women can’t be left behind.
The Future Is Female and (Crypto)
Phu Styles, founder of the Women in Blockchain Foundation shares the possible reason for more men than women involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency:
“As with most things tech related, men are the target demographic for crypto, thus due to a lack of exposure, there are fewer women invested/involved in cryptocurrency.”
However, this could change as the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries are looking to create work opportunities in a number of fields.
Blockchain technologies have uses in financial institutions, government, cross-industry applications such as digital identities and smart contracts. Applying blockchain technology to these fields could create a wide number of work opportunities.
With blockchain technology going into business the demand for developers, or, project managers, media persons, lawyers, web designers, and many other careers could emerge from companies needing to fill blockchain-related roles.
Allie Mullen, head of global marketing at the women-focused technology platform Mogul says that for more women to get involved and invested in blockchain and cryptocurrencies it is important to increase awareness and education.
“I think it’s about creating more awareness and educating the industry. Once you understand the general concepts and realize that, even though it’s complex, it’s less complicated than it appears. I wrongly assumed that it was a complicated industry meant for software engineers and those in finance. But after learning more, I realized there is actually a lot of opportunity and potential for everyone to get involved.”
Women Can Start The Crypto Conversation!
If women are interested in getting involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency industries, building a knowledge base in both industries is beneficial. Becoming acquainted and experts could make women well rounded when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency and could put them in a position that leads to job opportunities.
For blockchain and crypto industries to really advance, the women and their ideas could be of great value. More perspectives and angles could be provided by people from various races, backgrounds, and ethnicities, the better a development in the space would turn out. This is why we need more women starting the blockchain and crypto conversations.
Illustration Credit: Freepik
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