When Katia Fisher was 10 years old, his teacher gave him a book of advanced mathematics, because the manuals for your age you were short. The effect was the opposite of the expected. Katia felt displaced, in particular by their companions. Today is an advisor to IBM and head of the Privacy Office of Greenspoon Marder. Since that episode, the fight to reclaim the space of the woman in the technological world. According to data from the ministry of Education, women only occupy 12% of the disciplines informatics, 28% of engineering and 49% of the racing science. Linda Babcock, an economist and psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University, highlights five areas in which to work to avoid the gap: recruitment, leadership, task assignment, evaluation and promotion.
The sense of Fisher when they were recognized for their high math skills, and perceived rejection from their peers has lessened with time. He finished High school two years before the rest of his class, and went on, but still believes that is still a rarity. In the field of technologies, as highlighted Babcock, three out of every four workers are men.
The advisor, IBM relies on a progressive cultural change that will facilitate the access of women to the field of technology, but while advancing in this transformation, the professor of Carnegie Mellon believes that there are ways to speed it up. Both have participated in a meeting on this issue organized by the computer security company Acronis, the entity that invited THE COUNTRY to participate along with other media.
The economist, which is part of one of the most prominent research centers in the united STATES in computer science and robotics, believes the first area, in which you can reduce the gender gap is in the contract. “Employers have prejudices,” he admits. In this sense, he advocates by applying a formula to ensure that companies are approaching the selection process without bias.
“The bias does not cease to be shortcuts mental health because our brain needs to take decisions very fast. We work with women, men, different generations and cultures and ways of thinking different, so that we are aware of the value of diversity and that the biases may impact them in a negative way. Now, before you make a decision important to always think about if it might or not be biased,” says Silvia Lázaro, director of Internal Communication, Commitment, and Diversity of Ferrovial to explain how they have resorted to SHE, an interactive solution developed by Aiwin to detect and avoid biases.
Katya Fisher and Linda Babcock. Acronis
Babcock also believes that the woman does not take advantage of the opportunities of professional networks as men so that the race for the leadership is done without the same tools. Furthermore, observed bias in the assignment of tasks on the part of the companies and the assumption of the same by the women. There are certain actions of the companies that are attributed to women because of prejudice. “They are generally tasks that do not involve promotion, and women tend to accept them without demur while men reject. Nothing happens by telling the management that there is a man that could make it better,” says the economist.
Both Babcock as Fisher share the feeling that there is also a self-limitation of women with complex actions. “Do not be afraid. We can do any task for very complicated than seem,” advises the consultant of IBM.
some of the Other areas in which to generate the gender gap is in the evaluation, which according to the research of Carnegie Mellon, is performed with subjective criteria that minimize the achievements of women.
The last of the areas of action is the promotion from the scope of the address of the company. And not just limited to the consideration of candidates for positions of responsibility but also the attitude in environments where women are in the minority. In those meetings where nine out of ten attendees are men, Babcock recommends that the responsible of the meeting provided that you listen to and take into account the opinion of the technologists.
