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The rights struggle is not something new to women around the world. Whether it’s the wage gap, reproductive rights, or gender-based discrimination, the world has heard about it, and it continues to sit on its hands.
In the past two decades, our planet has undergone a complete transformation in terms of technology. The integration of computers and the internet has revolutionized the world once known to humans of the 19th century. According to Datareportal’s Digital 2020 Global report, there are 4.54 billion internet users in the world. However, if anything has remained consistent, it is the lack of women in the technology sector.
From Lovelace’s contributions to the first computer, to Katherine Johnson’s efforts to send humans in space, women have faced barriers that do not allow the breaking of a proverbial glass ceiling. While almost half of the population of our world is female, this statistic is not mimicked by women in technology.
In the United States of America, the tech industry has witnessed a 79% growth since 1990. According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), only 25 percent of computing occupations belong to women. Moreover, 88% of information technology patents have male-only teams.
In Pakistan, women face a myriad of economic, social, and political challenges. According to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index 2020, Pakistan ranks 151 out of 153 countries in terms of bridging the gender gap.
Even though the data available for women and technology in Pakistan is scarce, the fact that most women don’t have access to technology is no secret. While the use of the internet is not widespread, only 35% of the total population uses the internet, whereas 75% has mobile phones.
Despite 49% of the Pakistani population being female, their basic literacy rate is as low as 46%, whereas men have a basic literacy rate of 71%. Among women, only 13% have internet access, and they are 28% less likely to have a mobile phone device than men.
The penetration of digital media, whether aimed at learning, recreation, or business, remains far lower still. According to Facebook, the audience for its advertisements in Pakistan consists of only 19.2% women and 80.8% men. A similar statistic by LinkedIn shows that women make up 16.3% of the advertisement audience on LinkedIn, whereas men make up the remaining 83.7%.
Today, the need to address the digital gender gap is constantly increasing, especially as we navigate the newfangled state of affairs in 2020. The burgeoning entrepreneurial atmosphere and growth of tech startups in Pakistan boasts great potential to minimize the digital gap and lay the foundation of a new era.
Significant research suggests that the inclusion of women and other marginalized groups in the business and tech industries produces profitable results. Studying a multitude of teams, researchers also found that those with equal numbers of men and women perform better than any other ratio of gender diversity. They are not only more creative but their innovative skills and teamwork are more likely to reap fruitful results.
Another analysis comprising 20,000 companies in the U.S. showed that successful tech startups have twice as many women in senior positions than unsuccessful ones.
“Digital literacy and awareness of the benefits of technology are spreading across Pakistan in both rural and urban areas,” says Zainab Salim, a senior software engineer.
Working in the Pakistani technology industry herself, she has witnessed a significant change in the past five years. She adds that the number of people from rural areas joining in on the tech revolution, learning digital skills, and participating in the industry is on the rise.
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