#BreakTheBias: Changing times, changing minds – Levelling the tech playing field

While the technology industry prides itself on being revolutionary, it still has a ways to go in improving the participation of women in its ranks. — 123rf.com

In support of the 2022 International Women’s Day global collective against discrimination and gender bias, The Star, as chair of the World Editors Forum (Asia Chapter), and in collaboration with its regional media partners, will embark on a year-long initiative to highlight stories that celebrate and promote equality. Go to thestar.com.my for more #breakthebias stories.

The tech industry was once a male dominated field associated with gender stereotyping.

“When I called clients to schedule an appointment, they assumed I was part of the admin staff and were surprised to find out I was the technical lead!” says Koh Ee Laine, recalling her early days at IBM nearly two decades ago.

And when she attended a meeting with a male colleague from the marketing department, the automatic assumption was that she was the marketer and he was the engineer, says Koh, now a Commvault principal consultant.

Alicia Joseph, a co-worker at Commvault, a company that makes data protection and management software, says that even after advancing to a leadership position, male bosses questioned her.

“They’d go, ‘Oh, are you sure, do you think this is the right choice?’, but you have to stand firm,” she says.

Even while in a leadership position, Alicia encountered resistance from male co-workers, but she is a firm believer in standing her ground.

Such bias doesn’t faze her. Alicia is all too familiar with neighbours, aunts, and uncles implying that women were not cut out for corporate success and were better suited to the home.

“But my father instilled in me and my sisters – yes, three girls, no boys in my family – the mindset that we are ‘born to win’. So, I’ve always been competitive!” she says.

Her sisters, too, have gone on to enter professional fields, one working as a pharmacist and the other as a banker.

“You have to be persistent, be persuasive until you resolve a customer’s issue and deliver a good experience.

“Don’t assume, always ask and don’t feel embarrassed to ask questions that you need to get the job done. That’s what breaks the bias,” she says.

Koh emphasises the need to speak up, reminding women that their opinions matter. — Photos: Commvault

Koh joins in by saying: “Customers follow you, not the company. You need to speak up and not be afraid to voice your opinion. Your opinions matter.”

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “Break the Bias”, highlighting the need to address bias, stereotypes and discrimination in order to forge a world that is more equitable and inclusive for women.

To address women’s representation in technology, one of the seven missions is to make sure that women have equal opportunities in an industry that is often thought of as a boy’s club.

A recent survey by Comparably, a platform where workers review employers, found that six of the 10 top companies in the United States for women to work at are in the tech sector, with tech giant IBM coming out on top, followed by Adobe in third place, HubSpot in fourth, Medallia in fifth, Microsoft in ninth and The Knot Worldwide in tenth.

The survey, based on ratings made by female users between November 2020 and November 2021, also pointed out that employees faced more hurdles during the pandemic, with the brunt of the complications due to the closures of schools and childcare facilities.

A separate report by global consulting firm Deloitte, TMT Predictions 2022, found that efforts are still lacking: only 38% of women in tech felt that their organisation’s commitment to supporting them during the pandemic was sufficient, while 30% said their employer made work more flexible.

A report by global consulting firm Deloitte, TMT Predictions 2022, found that only 38% of women in tech felt that their organisation’s commitment to supporting them during the pandemic was sufficient, while 30% said their employer made work more flexible. — Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Meanwhile, 51% of women felt less optimistic about career prospects now than before the pandemic, while 57% expected to leave their employer within two years, primarily for the lack of work-life balance.

Stand up and be counted

Fara Abdullah, managing director at Bitsmedia, an app developer with offices in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, says female representation in the tech world has improved significantly since she began her career 16 years ago.

Fara believes that the greater representation of women in managerial positions will serve as an encouragement for others aspiring to the top. — Bitsmedia

She highlights that many prominent companies now have women in leadership roles, citing YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, and closer to home, former Twitter global strategy and operations vice president, Maya Hari, who is now a non-executive board director at Singlife with Aviva and is based in Singapore.

Quoting the Deloitte report, she points out that global tech firms have, on average, reached 33% female representation in 2022, up 2% from 2019.

According to the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), women made up 35% of the tech workforce as of last year.

This is lower than the percentage of women in the general workforce, which stood at 55.1% as of 2019, according to the Malaysian Statistics Department.

“A slight increase still represents notable progress. While this progress is a step in the right direction, tech companies will need to work even harder to improve these numbers.

“Despite global conversations about diversity in tech, certain groups continue to be underrepresented,” says Fara.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “Break the Bias”, highlighting the need to address bias, stereotypes and discrimination in order to forge a world that is more equitable and inclusive for women. — Unsplash

Her personal goal is to increase female participation in technology, as many have unknowingly acclimated to a lack of representation, normalising the bias.

“We have to challenge the norm and advocate for change. Those who have ‘made it’ need to raise their voices and be the voice for other women,” she says, urging them to share their experiences through industry panels and online communities.

Alicia says women must encourage and elevate one another to succeed in the workforce. She lauded Pikom’s Women in Tech initiative, saying it had helped her connect with the next generation as a mentor.

She got involved after being invited by Pikom to give a talk, and ended up dragging Koh along too.

“We must take the lead in closing the gender gap and improving the treatment of women,” she says.

However, Fara is of the opinion that gender parity cannot be viewed as a zero-sum game between women and men, as all parties are required to bring about meaningful change.

“At the stage we are at in Asia, it is important to have a top-down approach that is actively driven and supported by the government and corporations.

To address women’s representation in technology, one of the seven missions is to make sure that women have equal opportunities in an industry that is often thought of as a boy’s club. — Unsplash

“Given the slow progress, the government is stepping in to focus on specific impact areas such as laws, policies and regulations to close the gender gap and further women’s equality,” she adds.

In Budget 2022, the Finance Minister announced that Malaysia’s publicly traded firms must have at least one woman director on their boards beginning Sept 1 this year for companies with a market capitalisation of more than RM2bil, and June 1, 2023 for other listed firms.

As of Oct 1 last year, women held 17.7% of board positions across all listed companies and 25.5% in the top 100 listed companies, according to the Securities Commission.

Driving change

Datin Lim Bee Wah, general manager of Microsoft Malaysia’s Small, Medium, and Corporate group, also believes that gender parity has improved since she entered the workforce 33 years ago, when women preferred accounting or teaching careers and were worried about competing in the male-dominated technology industry.

Lim says the misconception that women are less committed to their work than males has historically hampered their careers. — Microsoft

“When I was first starting out, there was a strong notion that women should be homemakers.

“As a result, there was a misconception that women were less committed to their careers than men. Some may have missed out on promotions for career development,” she says.

When asked what could help drive change, she responds that companies must adopt “diversity metrics” as part of organisational culture growth to increase female representation.

As tech giants court the younger generation, it’s important that they embrace diversity when hiring, she says.

Microsoft, she says, has established a community called Women at Microsoft, which organises leadership workshops aimed at empowering female staff by showcasing their talents and helping them advance in their careers.

According to her colleague at Microsoft Malaysia, chief marketing and operations officer Azizah Ali, such efforts help boost workplace equity and engagement by highlighting female role models in the industry.

Azizah says greater workplace flexibility is vital to retain employees, particularly working mothers. — Microsoft

Organisations, she argues, require a talent-driven strategy for increasing workplace diversity, and the human resource department is crucial for attracting and retaining talent.

“In the long run, an effective retention strategy should be one that enables employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance,” she says.

Apart from a top-down technique, Azizah believes an organic approach is necessary for nurturing women’s interest in technical fields.

This can start at an early age through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in school, she says, and be followed up with other programmes that will help open doors to lucrative careers in the gig-economy.

Late last year, Microsoft collaborated with 13 companies and organisations across nine Asia Pacific countries with its “Code; Without Barriers” initiative to close the gender divide in the region’s fast-growing areas such as Cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI).

In Malaysia, partners such as Petronas, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia provide a platform for female developers, coders and other technical talents to train and network.

Late last year, Microsoft collaborated with 13 companies and organisations across nine Asia Pacific countries with its “Code; Without Barriers” initiative to close the gender divide in the region’s fast-growing areas such as Cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). — Unsplash

The initiative trained over 480 women and certified 203 developers in the field of AI.

Meanwhile, international non-profit organisation Women in Tech, with 23 chapters in six continents and close to 200,000 members, opened its Malaysia chapter on Feb 24.

According to a Bernama interview with its country director, Yuki Aizawa, the organisation’s mission is to increase women’s representation “in corporate, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as startups”.

Additionally, she believes that many female business owners rely on extensive manual labour that may be streamlined by the use of apps and comparable technologies.

Making it personal

Suzanne Ngiow’s passion for building personal computers eventually led her into the technology industry, where she landed a position with chipmaker AMD about a decade ago.

Ngiow’s interest in personal computers led her to pursue a profession in the tech sector.

Now a Commvault field marketing manager for South-East Asia, she recalls meeting business owners in Digital Mall in Petaling Jaya and Low Yat Plaza in Kuala Lumpur, both popular places for purchasing gadgets, which involved exclusively men.

When she helped set up event booths and build PCs, she initially drew strange looks, but the businessmen quickly recognised her expertise, earning her their respect.

She says continued education has been crucial in staying relevant, especially when switching jobs in the industry.

Koh, too, feels that education is crucial to igniting the spark, as her interest in computer science at a young age led her to her current career.

“Though my dad was never in a tech role, as a lab assistant, he was personally interested in computers and even built the family PC himself.

As tech giants court the younger generation, it’s important that they embrace diversity when hiring, Lim says. — Unsplash

“This got me inspired to enter the field, starting with programming classes in primary school and continuing on from there,” she recalls.

Recently, hearing her daughter talking about NFT – non-fungible tokens that offer proof of ownership for digital assets – after returning from school came as a pleasant surprise, proving that the younger generation is on top of the latest tech trends.

“I tell my kids, ‘choose what you want, but you need to stick it through’,” though she adds with a wink that she quietly encourages them to explore more tech roles.