Cook or code? Gender norms continue to nurture the gender gap in tech

The gender gap in tech careers continues due to inhibitive gender norms and the gender gap in tech training.

“My superior at work is a woman. The two best backend engineers on our team are female. So when people talk about gender inequality in the tech ecosystem, I do not see it,” Philip Awotepu, a product supervisor, mentioned to me at a celebration. The celebration was to have a good time the commencement of 18 children who had spent 12 months studying at Semicolon, an ed-tech startup that provides cohort-based coaching in tech abilities like engineering and product administration. This celebration was for its eleventh cohort, with 30 graduates, of whom solely eight had been girls. In the earlier cohort, 36 graduated; once more, solely eight had been girls.

The product supervisor’s assertions in the face of real-life contradiction mirror a cussed perception that gender inequality in tech careers is a pure end result based mostly on divergent pursuits between the sexes or it’s being blown out of proportion. This perception makes folks frown at and typically protest initiatives or insurance policies that completely assist or prioritise girls. For occasion, in 2021, Kuda Bank was accused of discriminating towards males when it marketed internship positions completely for girls. After receiving many destructive reactions to the tweet about the internships, the fintech defined that it was making an attempt to shut the gender gap in its workforce.

Similarly, Semicolon—which trains each men and women—has a separate mentorship programme completely for its feminine trainees: SWiT (Semicolon Women in Tech).  Interestingly, Awotepu was volunteering as a mentor on SWiT. He shared that he initially had no concept it was completely for feminine college students. However, he mentored certainly one of the few women graduating that day who had discovered product administration and landed a paid internship at the in style fintech firm Moniepoint. “During one of our mentorship sessions, she shared concerns about being the only woman on her team. I told her that no one cared about her gender and all she had to do was do great work, and she would be okay,” he recounted. 

She most likely agreed with him on the name, however her expertise earlier than getting into Semicolon begs to differ.  “When I told my parents that I wanted to move to Lagos to train at Semicolon, my father asked me whether I didn’t want to get married,” the mentee mentioned to me in a later dialogue.

If she hadn’t been dedicated and prepared to depart all that was pricey to her—her household and associates—in Kano state and transfer right into a shared condominium in Lagos with the few different women who had been attending Semicolon as nicely, she may not have taken up product administration, a ability that pays inside ₦100,000–₦300,000 in Nigeria. “I knew I wanted to change my life for the better,” she mentioned. 

Her expertise, echoed by many different girls throughout Africa, solutions a weighty query: “What barriers do women face in acquiring tech skills that men don’t?” The first and maybe most vital reply is that many non secular and cultural beliefs counsel {that a} lady’s most helpful function is homemaking and nurturing youngsters.  Nafisa Idris, an information scientist who additionally mentors girls who’re in a tech profession, advised TechCabal, “[After my father died,] our uncle tried to get me married at age 11, but my mother refused because she had promised my dad that she would make sure I was educated as much as possible.”

Even when girls are simply as educated as males, their productiveness is hampered due to the gender roles anticipated of them, particularly by their speedy household. A 2023 analysis paper tried to probe why educated African girls in science and expertise printed fewer papers than their male counterparts, and it found that it was as a result of a better proportion (≥50%) of care work, household commitments, and home tasks in the house are overwhelmingly carried out by girls. Women would make extra contributions in the event that they weren’t so constrained by these obligations.

Nearly 74% of respondents to a survey created by TechCabal commented that the cleansing, cooking, and caretaking chores depart them exhausted and with little to no time to be taught tech abilities, even when their households know they’re enrolled in such programmes. “I’ve had to take lessons with my laptop computer in the kitchen [while cooking], and most occasions as a result of [I am worried about gas explosions, I have to skip classes,” said a respondent who was taking online tech skill training at a popular ed-tech. 

Rachael Onoja, head of operations at AltSchool—an ed-tech like Semicolon—told TechCabal that there have been several instances of female students missing classes because they were helping their siblings get to school or handling some other family matter.  “Several female students have dropped out to care for a sick family member.” Men have dropped out of school, too, but it has mostly been due to financial shortcomings, not caretaking responsibilities. Rachael believes that these gender norms or cultural expectations of women are contributing to the gender gap in the tech ecosystem.

Addressing the impact of gender norms on women’s tech skill development at the 2022 SheCode Africa conference, Semicolon’s co-founder, Ashley Immanuel,  said that, out of approximately 10,000 applicants to Semicolon, many women excelled and received admission offers. However, many had to reject these opportunities due to parents’ or guardians’ beliefs that it was not a worthwhile use of resources or the woman’s time. “Those who come despite not receiving that permission may do so under the condition that their families do not provide financial support,” she explained. 

Due to this pattern of women lacking access to funding, notable figures, tech professionals, and some organisations set up scholarships to exclusively fund the registration fee or full tuition fee for women interested in participating in tech training. AltSchool, which currently has a school of engineering and products, told TechCabal that such female-focused scholarships have sponsored many of its female students. “We often hear comments asking about male-exclusive scholarships in addition to the gender-agnostic scholarships, but I think that more effort needs to be made to include women if we are ever going to eventually close the gender gap.”

Semicolon’s cohort-based training takes a year and costs about ₦4.3 million. The fee covers training, a laptop, daily lunch, healthcare, learning materials, and internet access. Semicolon partners with Learnspace to make it affordable, which provides a “learn now and pay later” loan option. Participants start repaying the loan at a 20% interest rate per year, three months after they have completed the one-year training and gotten a job. According to Semicolon, 98% find employment or start their startups. Last year, when Immanuel spoke at the conference, the cumulative participation of women in Semicolon’s training was 21%. This year, it increased to 30%.

Eden, an alumna of Semicolon, sat beside me at the graduation party and overheard my discussion with the product manager. She responded with a wry chuckle at his comments. “When you’re not the one being othered, it’s hard for you to see [the patterns of discrimination],” she mentioned.  She, too, confronted resistance when she knowledgeable her mother and father of her plans to depart Port Harcourt to be taught at Semicolon.

During the programme, she had to endure her male colleagues, who took many alternatives to undertaking cultural stereotypes on her and use them to underestimate her work. “I worked my butt off [during the training] but my male classmates often commented, ‘Why are you working so hard? You will still marry a rich man,’” she mentioned.

The expertise has left Eden frightened that her gender will always undermine her work.  At Semicolon, she skilled to develop into a front-end engineer. But for the first six months, she and the others had to take common coaching that entails product administration, backend engineering, and others earlier than specialising in the one they most well-liked. Eden selected to specialise in front-end engineering and was assigned a male tutor. Some of her classmates implied that the teacher “spoon-fed” her throughout the coaching. This displays a standard notion that the bar for girls’s excellence is usually set decrease than that for males in a bid to shut the gender gap. People commented in this vein when Kuda Bank referred to as for feminine interns years in the past,  and ladies like Eden anticipate it to continue all through their careers.

Aside from the cultural norms that completely deter girls from studying tech abilities and subsequently getting tech careers, gender-agnostic challenges and limitations to tech training in Africa considerably have an effect on girls greater than males. For instance, each African women and men have insufficient entry to cellular units and the web companies they want to be taught these abilities. However, girls are  30% much less possible than males to personal a smartphone, and there’s a 37% gender gap in web entry throughout the continent. This skew towards girls in Africa and past is why it might take 131 years to obtain gender parity with males globally. 

Attaining gender parity inside tech training and, consequently, the tech job market calls for recognising the present gender gap and uniting in a shared resolve to confront the gender norms and biases impeding equitable alternatives. Organisations like Semicolon, AltSchool, and non-profit organisations equivalent to She Code Africa, EmpowerHer, Non-Tech in Tech,  HerTechPath, and Tech Girl Magic actively forge a path towards a fairer horizon. Through scholarships, mentorships, and training initiatives targeted on girls, these organisations are enabling girls to get important tech abilities and careers and fostering a gender-inclusive ecosystem.

Have you bought your tickets to TechCabal’s Moonshot Conference? Click right here to accomplish that now!