6 Smart Ways to Involve More Women in Your Business Tech Department

For a very long time even before technology became such a prominent and undeniable part of human life, few women have been known to be actively involved in technology-related companies.

In fact, a stereotype soon developed that occupations in tech departments and companies belonged to men. Of course, many people have tried to decipher why there are so few women in technology positions, and society has presented a number of reasons.

At first, the popular reasons were that; women thought tech careers were not interesting or that they wouldn’t be good at it. But in the world we live now, where technology is so interwoven into everything, being technology-illiterate is like not knowing how to read, so this is becoming less of an issue.

It seems the main issue now is that the hiring policies of technology departments and companies are unfair to women and they usually experience uncomfortable work environments, taut with various forms of gender discrimination including pay gaps and reports on sexism and sexual harassment.

Regardless of these reasons, there is a need to terminate this stereotype and not just employ more women into tech departments, but also offer more incentives and opportunities to women in tech and get more men to wholeheartedly buy into the idea of involving more women.

Today, we will discuss some of the smartest ways in which you could help involve more women in your business tech department. Check them out and let us know what you think, especially if you are already a woman in the tech industry!

Why do you need more women in your business tech department?

This is in order to create a tech department that encourages gender diversity which results in a better work environment with more results.

And since women in tech usually have to prove themselves, they tend to outperform men and bring better results and creativity. A lot of females understand the market, especially in a female-oriented market.

So, it is important to have a female’s output and insight to be able to properly understand and manage your female customers and client base. Here are the six smart ways to involve more women in your business tech department:

1. Create and implement policies that make your tech department open to women

One of the best ways to involve more women in your business tech department is to create policies that openly support cultures relating to women and their career advancement in your tech department.

You can start with simple things like providing for women maternity leaves and childcare with policies that allow talented women to return to work with a flexible schedule to reduce burn-out after returning from leave and supports having children and a career.

There is also a need for conscious effort to encourage women into leadership positions which is one of the few ways to create a female-friendly environment in your tech department.

You also need to implement policies that encourage women to make reports of sexual harassment and discrimination anonymously. You should also conduct prompt investigations on such cases without any negative backlash.

2. Challenge the “Male-dominated” Stereotype

Among the many things stopping women from being involved in the tech industry is the stereotype of it being male-dominated.

There is an urgent need to challenge this stereotype so that you can have a gender-diverse tech department with a much more diverse insight into things related to your business.

Business leaders and managers can champion and support the “more women in tech” course by countering biased and inappropriate behavior as well as comments with sexist and condescending undercurrents towards women in the company with repercussions.

3. Write gender-diverse job descriptions

In order to involve more women in tech departments, you have to attract more of them to apply for jobs at the department and this can only be done when your job description attracts as many women as possible.

However, it is very common for job vacancies into tech departments to be described with gendered wording that sends cues that it is potentially unwelcoming to women.

Your job description should be aimed at ensuring gender equality and you must realize that talent is not a respecter of gender and this will practically help you to get the best talent combination. It is, therefore, important that you write job descriptions that don’t alienate women.

It will only help you to get diverse candidates for your tech and customer support job posts.

4. Treat your female employees well

There is no better way to involve more women in your tech department than to treat them well. In the first place, it is not very wise to waste resources to interview, hire, and train a female employee only for her to quit a few years down the line.

Female employees could quit because of in conducive sexist environment, pay gaps, or lack of promotional opportunities. 

In fact, instead of attempting to hire more women into your tech departments, you can use those resources to retain and promote women already in the department.

You can start by rewarding your employees on merit, regardless of their gender. You should publicly appreciate their accomplishments, provide the opportunity for training them, and generally provide support systems for them.

5. Track the gender ratio

The best way to involve more women in tech is to discourage male-dominated management because they have been found to tolerate sexually-biased and sexist treatment of women workers.

This usually leads to a complicit workplace culture where people expect, ignore, and even promote sexism and sexual discrimination. The only way to discourage male-dominated management is to aim for a 50/50 women-men ratio when hiring.

You can do this by reaching out to many of the highly organized women’s groups, hiring a female recruiter skilled in recruiting female applicants, looking through diverse networks to recruit female talents to your tech departments, or allowing female employees to have input in the hiring process.

It is also not a bad idea for female employees to speak to female candidates about their work experiences.

To discourage bias from unconsciously creeping into interviews, you need to define your criteria and target while evaluating candidates by conducting a structured interview that prevents gender bias from creeping in.

6. Promote awareness of technology roles

Don’t just profess to want women in your tech department, show that you want women in your tech departments by sponsoring events, scholarships, mentoring programs, and female communities with tech talents.

Organize pieces of training for female technology enthusiasts as well as mentoring sessions to inspire more young women and promote awareness of roles in the tech industry or tech departments for women.

Even if you don’t have the resources to sponsor this kind of elaborate program, you can do something as simple as providing new employees with mentors to encourage a non-bias workplace culture.

Conclusion: Involve more women in your business tech department

Even though many people underestimate the value of women in tech departments, a gender-diverse organization usually enjoys more profitability than their gender-biased counterparts.

Nowadays communication and collaboration are of great importance for achieving success and especially due to this factor, the women have quite a few advantages in the workplace. They strongly believe in team spirit and are compassionate, which leads the whole team to better results. 

This proves that a tech department with a reasonable gender balance will enjoy a diverse thinking and adaptable creativity that will work for its progress.