At BETWEEN we work constantly to eliminate any kind of bias. We are firm believers that diversity is a must for the development of a company, and we know first-hand the potential that a diverse company offers.
We sat down to talk to some of our programmers who work at the IT LAB in Barcelona. In this conversation, they shared their experiences and broke some of the stereotypes that they are labelled with, simply for being a woman or being a programmer.
One of the key points discussed was trust. "Men often ask us if we can do any task that is asked of us", the women told us. "On other occasions, we hear comments such as: "you have achieved it alone". Comments like these leave us doubting whether or not we can do our jobs, but the men don't question their own ability".
Another issue we talked about was the feminisation (or lack of) of women in tech. "We're not interested in cute things or having everything in pink. We don't understand why we have to be stereotyped simply for being women. Some women like these things and others don't, just the same as in any sector".
"It's the same with regards to our work. People think that because we are dedicated to technology, we spend all our free time playing video games". The conversation ended talking about the real interests of these women. "When I leave work, I like to devote my time to photography, art, crafts, and design - nothing related to technology!"
We drew some key conclusions from these conversations that we believe are important to highlight.
- We realised that there is a mistaken belief that women require external validation to confirm that they are doing their work well. There is data showing that women apply to an offer if they meet 90% of requirements, however, men do so if they meet just 60%, for example.
- Have you ever seen leading brands feminise their campaigns? If large companies can globalise their messages, we should raise awareness and pass it on to smaller environments.
- We cannot generalise about the relationship between somebody's interests and their work. Whilst some people will have interests that are closely related to their work, others will need to do something completely different to switch off from work.
You have seen that in just a few short paragraphs we have broken several stereotypes in the technology sector, in this case, surrounding women working as programmers.
At BETWEEN we are fortunate to look at the talent of each candidate and bet on the different qualities they can give us, regardless of whether they are men or women.
