“Vocations by gender do not exist. It is shown that skills do not depend on whether you are born male or female“, said Ingrid Zunigadirector of communications and PR of Platzi, an online education platform focused on technology, to Infobae in a technology special for the International Women’s Day.
Historically, technology has been a space occupied by men, since women were displaced to other areas. However, as Zuñiga mentioned, “that thought was driven by androcentrism that imposed a vision of men when they told us that men were better for hard sciences and women for care work”.
Today, that vision is changing little by little with the efforts of women like Zúñiga, Jennifer Aguirresecurity Tester and mentor at the cybersecurity company Fluid Attacks and Cecile Novion, v.Vice President for Latin America of the Beat application, who told Infobae about their experience in the technological field.
According to the study cited by Google, “Women in technology”, which the consulting firm Michael Page carried out in Latin America, there is a shortage of females in the areamainly because there is a lack of enrollment of women (38%) and lack of opportunities (37%), where also It permeates that there are no female role models.
“The lack of female role models in the area discourages women to participate in the sector that, in addition, offers them fewer opportunities”, says Google. In this sense, he calls for a change of scenery and encourage young women to study careers focused on technology.
Cécile Novion is an example of those women who work in technology companies and encourage others to trust their skills, what they want and focus on what they can do, because no one should stop them from exercising what they are passionate about.
“At first it can be scary to feel that you are in the minority, right? It is very rare, because at the end of the day at the University or in forums with technology leaders, one being a woman, is from the majority”.
Indicators for Latin America indicate that there is a minority of women in the sector (30%), but at Beat, a company where Cécile is in charge at the Latin American level, 43% are women and 57% men, and they also work for that there are more women drivers, that is, so that in all areas there are female professionals.
At Platzi, 42.7% of the workforce are women, 56.8% men and 0.5% non-binary. However, of the students, only 17% are women; Despite this, it is positive that the percentage of women vs. men studying at Tech in Platzi, compared to January 2021 vs today increased 156 percent.
On the other hand, in Fluid Attacks 19% of the company are women. Jennifer Aguirre, mentor of the cybersecurity company, points out that despite the fact that opportunities for women in the industry have increased “we still need more momentum”.
She assured that “as a woman, our work is taken into account equally, new challenges constantly arrive that help us grow and learn, developing our abilities.”
The answer is: To all. As the interviewees mentioned, there are no limitations on gender as long as they set out to do it and follow as far as their passion dictates, ignoring that there are more men than women in the area.
“Today we are breaking those paradigms and that is why we are looking for more women in the technology sector where there are more job opportunities and better salaries. Knowledge and mastery in areas such as Data Science, programming, artificial intelligence, digital marketing, UX/UI design, are highly demanded”, said Zúñiga.
She recommended that young women, before graduating, actively participate in communities, “network, dare to create and share their work”, because “technology is a component that will need to be integrated into any area of knowledge”, so they should never stop undertaking, be creative and curious.
Cécile Novion shared a similar idea. On the one hand, she said that women should be encouraged to study IT’sand on the other hand, companies must support them so that they gain access to leadership positions.
“You have to look beyond the numbers. To a young person, adolescent, woman or man who is interested, do not look at the numbers. If you look at the numbers, you will be scared […] If they are curious, if they are interested, you have to give it to them; women are just as good as men”.
She pointed out that support among women is necessary despite the fact that there is less in technology, through circles of trust, as well as asking the experiences of other women in the area to realize that “I am not the only one”.
Advised: “Don’t be afraid to chase your dreams”, recalled her own experience and pointed out that “at the end of the day I never thought that because I am a woman that it will be more difficult. I want to do this and this world of technology fascinates me, so I’m going to find out how to do it […] Don’t be afraid of failure either”, as he assured that “you have to make mistakes in order to be successful later”.
