Here at Market Street Talent, we’ve asked the question before: Can More Women & Girls in Tech Help Solve The Tech Skills Gap? When it comes to coding, we should all be speaking the same language. But the fact remains, women are still underrepresented in the tech industry.
We’re revisiting the topic to add a couple of recent developments to the conversation. Did you know that some leading experts are recommending hiring more women for some pretty important reasons? New studies are finding that women add profit and value in the workplace, and up the intelligence quotient of your team – findings which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
According to a recent article published in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Cindy Padnos – an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author of a white paper recently published on the subject – has done research that found that women-operated, venture-backed high tech companies average 12 percent higher annual revenues and use on average one-third less capital than male counterparts’ startups.
Roughly translated, that amounts to the finding that an investment in women tech professionals is profitable! You can read more about Padnos’ research and findings here.
A second compelling reason came from a recent study, as reported in the Harvard Business Review. MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Thomas Malone and Carnegie Mellon University Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory Anita Woolley performed a research study that found that having women on a team increased the “collective intelligence” of the group – regardless of individual IQ or other factors.
You can read more about the study and results in an interview with Professors Woolley and Malone here.
What you need to know is that you’ll want to attract the best IT talent – including women – by creating a professional atmosphere. This article, written by Cristina Cordova for Business Insider, offers some fresh insights on the “7 Ways Companies Deter Women In Tech Jobs” and gives some great advice on how to up the game of your tech team, regardless of gender, in the workplace.
In the article, Cordova suggests you find more women by encouraging them to apply with a proactive approach. “Take the situation into your own hands and search Github, LinkedIn, Facebook or whatever other networks your frequent,” she says, adding that in just about two hours she was able to put together a list of 50 prospective female IT candidates.
To bridge the gap, you might also want to have women involved in the process to interview new female candidates. This signals to prospective candidates that women will fit in on your team – and demonstrates that your workplace doesn’t buy into the pervasive negative stereotypes still attached to women in IT.
And if you’re a woman with the skills for the right IT job, start at Market Street Talent. Share your experiences and start your search here!