JONATHAN COOK: Shattering the glass slipper for women in the tech sector
Champions in the field are challenging the masculine stereotype of Africa’s IT industry
Worldwide, the dominance of men in the IT sector is startling. In the EU, 84% of workers in IT are men. In Silicon Valley, 82% of venture capital funding goes to male-run firms. Such firms tend to design products with men in mind, creating a sector that exudes maleness. This is true in Africa too. According to Unesco figures, women occupy just 30% of positions in the tech sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.
While society has begun to take cracking the glass ceiling more seriously, Karen Ashcraft has created the term “glass slipper” to describe another process whereby unconscious biases lead to “masculine” traits being associated with particular careers — including leadership and the IT sector. A career derives an identity from the people who are associated with it. These traits are in the vocabulary we use to describe it and job adverts for positions in it, leading women to self-select out by not applying if the picture painted feels alien. When a woman metaphorically tries on the...
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