Women are at risk of missing out on the next wave of “good jobs” in technology, according to LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue. As newer technologies have become increasingly important, they have opened doors to many new jobs. However, some also fear they are closing many job doors as well.
Blue made the claims during the World Economic Forum in Davos. The suggestion is not quite that there is a shortage of qualified women for jobs in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and crypto, but more so that men have greater access to these jobs due to their network and support structures. Essentially, Blue suggests that a person’s network strongly affects the chance of career success within a given industry and that women’s networks are not yet as developed in these newer technology fields as men’s are.
Further adding to the situation, Blue predicts that unless there is some form of intervention to ensure more women are entering these jobs soon, the imbalance is only going to intensify as the years go on and those industries become even more evolved and in demand. It’s a situation that will naturally develop simply to the strengthening of the already imbalanced networks over time. In explaining the urgency to address the imbalance, Blue suggested this is more than a matter of quota-filling as there’s currently too many job opportunities in these emerging fields as it stands. Jobs that need to be filled and therefore society as a whole is missing out by not ensuring the support structures are in place to fill the vacant positions.
Technology Posing Many Job Questions
While Blue was quick to highlight the need for both men and women to be taking on the next-gen tech jobs, the advancements in these technologies is posing many different questions to the job market. Although these fields are growing quickly and creating plenty of opportunities, many expect they will also close out jobs in other fields. This is particularly thought to be the case in the world of artificial intelligence and self-driving vehicles with multiple segments of the job market currently feeling under pressure. While many expect the job market to become all the more fruitful thanks to these technologies, others are predicting a more bleaker future where jobs are sparse and unemployment soars.
What many from both sides of the technology and job debate seem to agree on, including Blue, is that actual framework intervention is needed. Whether that’s through retraining or greater access to associated networks, having a more robust infrastructure in place to facilitate access to these jobs is crucial. Not only for those in need of the income, but also those benefiting from the technologies that these industries create. Of course, doing this is easier said than done as most of these industries are still ones a lot of people view and understand from a distance. What’s more, the effects of this arms-length perspective is not only an issue for jobs, but also for consumers. For example, Xinxi Wang, co-founder of the Coinut Exchange and the Litecoin Foundation recently took to Twitter to highlight how Bitcoin is “still pretty much” only for elites and especially those with a STEM background. This was in addition to echoing Blue’s technology comments by suggesting women “have much less chance of buying Bitcoin,” and that the Bitcoin gender inequality gap is “huuuuuge.”
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Source: The National
