Is the world becoming disillusioned with Silicon Valley?

Between 2009 and 2013, UC Berkeley almost doubled its percentage of female computer science majors in the College of Letters and Science, up to 21 percent. In 2014, for the first time on record, UC Berkeley reported a greater number of females than males in its introductory computer science course. Redesigning its “Symbolic Programming” course as “Beauty and the Joy of Computing,” Berkeley emphasized the impact computing has in the world, and worked to tone down elements that may put females off.

In this article I’ll be covering the anticipated increase of women in tech, and the disillusionment that it is becoming synonymous with silicon valley.

Between 2009 and 2013, UC Berkeley almost doubled its percentage of female computer science majors in the College of Letters and Science

Generation Z are the digital natives. Technology, efficiency and automation was a part of their world before they could recite their ‘ABC’s’ so why are they becoming disillusioned with the apparent tech bubble of the world?

 Within the UK, children are conditioned to become accustomed to technological jargon and coding way earlier than previous generations due to the advancement in British schooling curriculums. This means that there’s no pre-determined gender disparity when they hit high school age, it’s still an even playing field at this point, attracting more females ready to disrupt the tech industry.

When Silicon Valley was still curating it’s reputation, it was mainly university students fresh from Stanford’s Elite Computing programme (conveniently located in the valley) who were leaving their studies, ready to discover and nurture start-ups that would one day become the leaders of tech as we know it… and at the time, it all just worked. Silicon Valley became the ultimate badge of success after years of tech companies going from strength to strength – Silicon Valley succeeded in solidifying itself as the place to be, and the place to work. Then the times shifted, and the lure of the valley started to crumble. Spates of whistle blowers came forward, harassment complaints emerged, and whispered rumours of the industry being a ‘boys only club’ circled the valley.

All of this is resulted in the newest wave of data scientists, analysts and coders becoming less and less enamoured by the ideology of working for the big names – and instead preferring to work for companies they feel create beneficial, impactful results where they can impact directly on projects – instead of having to work their way from ground up in places that have already been proven to entertain gender and age disparities.

In previous years there’s been multiple reasons as to why the gender difference in tech was so pronounced. To name a few:

Lack of female mentors Lack of female role models within the tech industry Gender bias within the workplace Wage discrepancies between male and female employees Unequal growth opportunities 

For those older than Generation Z, they can remember when Silicon Valley was the golden place to be – but as a generation that became media aware when the harassment complaints were piling in – why should they be eager to join companies that were the reason behind the huge gender disparity we are currently fighting against?

Standing up to the ‘boys only’ ideology, female role models and mentors made themselves present – meaning that the younger generation would have someone to listen to and emulate.  As times evolve, now more than ever, peoples values are aligning more with their companies economic effects, social placement and political stance.

So, how do you ensure that your organisation doesn’t follow a downward trend, like silicon valley? Firstly, championing talent and drive above all else will ensure your hiring will remain unmatched and will result in a varied pool of employees ready to impact on insightful projects. Secondly, due to the fact that the companies that attract the newest wave of Generation Z women are the ones that are keeping at the top of their game with employee feedback, insights, and keeping tech savvy with automation in almost every place of work. We suggest following these guidelines, which will result in remote working opportunities, bespoke training packages for employees, and a deeper understanding of employee satisfaction. All of which is something that is soon going to be considered the norm.

Code doesn’t care if it’s a woman or a man writing it – so why does everybody else? Going forward we can expect to see the amount of women in tech to climb, especially as more generation Z enter the workplace – and by the time generation Alpha are working, we hope the playing field will be entirely level. With SME culture overtaking start-up culture there are a few points we think should be maintained. Automation will be becoming an everyday part of working life. Processes will run smoothly and have little to no human interference to work well – freeing the time of data scientists, administrators and coders to work on bigger projects and more impactful results, instead of focusing efforts on laborious, repetitive tasks. 

To ensure you’re staying ahead of the curve in a climate that’s constantly changing, we recommend reviewing your work flow and seeing what parts could be automated. Are there steps that could be taken to help work flow easier and more direct?

Once this is done, looking at current data for insights can be priceless. It will give direction on where your organisation can improve, or expand. Ensuring you’re looking at your organisation in a non-biased light, and focusing on areas that can benefit is a sure fire way to grow with the times. Ensuring this non-biased light in maintained in hiring situations, project delegation, and management will assist your organisation in maintaining impactful results.