The Ministry of Economy and Enterprise presents the White Paper on the gender gap in technology

The Ministry of Economy and Enterprise presented this Monday at its headquarters the “White Paper of women in the technological field”. At the opening of the event, the Minister of Economy and Business, Nadia Calviño, assured that her objective is to give visibility and analyze the gap that exists between men and women in that sector to serve as a guide to the public authorities when it comes to propose effective measures to address inequalities.

Increases inequality

The lack of equal opportunities has increased in Spain during the economic crisis, as revealed by the Gender Gap Index of the Davos Economic Forum, which went from 10th in gender equality in 2007 to 29th in 2018. In terms of equal pay, our country ranks 129 of the 149 economies analyzed. Reversing this situation is an “unpostponable” objective, according to the minister, “not only for reasons of justice and equity, but also for reasons of pure economic rationality”. Some studies reveal that our country would be losing at least 15% of GDP due to the gender gap.

But women’s unequal participation in the labour market means not only losing productive resources. “To dispense with the gaze of half of the impoverished population the response that the institutions can give to the social problems that we face every day”, said the Minister of Economy and Enterprise, for whom diversity generates quantifiable and tangible value because it allows a greater wealth of approaches to seek solutions to the problems.

Discriminatory algorithms

The gender differences of the traditional sectors are reproduced in the technological field. “We are building a new world by relying even less on the female point of view,” said Nadia Calviño, citing the conclusions of the White Paper. There are fewer women than men in scientific and technical careers, which will have an impact on the labour market in the future. In Europe, only 30% of technological jobs are occupied by women, a percentage that in Spain is reduced to 15.6%, almost four points less than in 2006. 66% of telecommunications companies do not have any women among their managers.

The White Paper also warns that the algorithms and Artificial Intelligence that are currently being developed reproduce the same discriminatory gender biases that exist in analog reality.

Measures with gender perspective

The minister has called for the urgency of acting with a horizontal approach that covers entrepreneurship, new professional careers, education and social awareness, with transversal actions that incorporate the gender perspective. According to Nadia Calviño, this perspective has been present in the decisions taken by the Government in the last nine months, such as the Royal Decree-Law on gender equality adopted last Friday with measures to move towards equal pay and the progressive equalization of paternity and maternity leave. She also mentioned the revision of the State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research to promote women’s participation in science at the appropriate levels.

Round table

The presentation of the White Paper was completed with a round table moderated by the Secretary of State for Digital Advancement, Francisco Polo, in which participated Carlota Tarín, partner of Quanticae; Cristina Aranda, co-founder of Mujeres Tech; Ignacio Conde-Ruiz, deputy director of the Foundation for Applied Economy Studies (FEDEA), and Sara Mateos, co-author of the White Paper together with Clara Gómez.

Tarín and Conde-Ruiz have emphasized that the gender gap in technical and technological careers is growing in our country. Aranda has developed the problem generated by bias in algorithms, while Mateos has called for the creation of official indicators that measure the issue of gender equality. “Understanding the problem of the gender gap is the first step to begin to solve it,” said the Secretary of State.

Practical proposals and recommendations

The “White Paper on Women in Technology” consists of 5 chapters. The first provides an overview of the current situation of the digital gender gap in Spain. The second chapter addresses, from a gender perspective, the aspects that influence the construction of differences between the sexes during childhood and youth. The third one delves into the situation of women in the digital sector in our country. The fourth chapter delves into the video game sector. Finally, the fifth chapter addresses the issue of gender biases in algorithms.

The White Paper also lists a complete list of practical proposals and recommendations to help reduce the digital gender gap in Spain.

It can be consulted and downloaded through the website of the Ministry of Economy and Enterprise, in the next link.