Why gender parity alone won't solve representation in tech

If tech leaders want to bridge a gaping gender gap in their industry, they need to look beyond a single solution. 

Today, 46.6% of the total workforce are women, according to data analysis by Zippia. Yet in the tech sector, that drops to 33%, according to Deloitte. Working to close the gap can have far-reaching implications beyond tech, says Kit Krugman, partner and managing director at consultancy Co:Collective, and chair of non-profit Women in Innovation. 

"I'm passionate about the gender gap in many industries, but for me, innovation and technology is the tip of the spear," she says. "If we're able to have more women leading and designing and creating solutions, then those solutions are going to build a more equitable environment." 

Read more: 10 jobs with the largest gender pay gap

Krugman and her team work with startups and tech giants like IBM, LinkedIn and Microsoft to lead more purpose-driven initiatives that support equal representation in the workforce. For the tech sector in particular, getting more women in leadership roles is a critical step. 

"How do we actually ensure women are in leading positions to change the world? And how do we also focus on where access issues for women and girls are most acute?" she says. "It's about increasing the impact and influence of women." 

Krugman spoke with EBN about four things women need to be professionally successful, and what makes her optimistic change will happen. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you see in the tech industry that prevent women from getting a seat at the table to create impactful solutions? 
When people are looking for the answer on gender equity, a lot of times they're looking for this singular answer. But you have to look at the different components that make up the problem. We know that the pipeline is a problem, but that's one small piece. Women are not necessarily going into computer science. You're not seeing women in those roles at the leadership level, and therefore you don't have the role models or the vision that this could be you. And then if you don't have the role models, you don't necessarily have people at the senior level in an organization setting the policies or modeling the behavior that enables women to succeed.  

That seems so overwhelming — what area is the most impactful in order to make a dent in this issue? Where is a good place to start? 
It is overwhelming. The way we've been thinking about it is that women need four things. They need community, like a peer group that is sharing what they're learning and giving access to other jobs and opportunities to progress your career. Women also need command. That means increasing the scope of decision-making authority. How do we ensure that more women are sitting at decision-making tables? 

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The third is capital, and it's well known in the tech sector that such a small percentage of investment money goes to women who want to build companies and to build new technology and products. To overlook that piece of the puzzle is amiss. And then clout is the last piece, which is recognition for women's leadership, influence and impact in the innovation sector. It's about giving women a platform to highlight women's voices, or creating programs internally for mentorship. Women, both inside and outside of the company, are going to see that and say, "Oh, wow, she's doing this amazing thing. Maybe I could do it too." That's really powerful.

How have the recent tech layoffs impacted this work? 
It shifts the power dynamic between talent and the leadership in an organization. That means people are asking for less, and being able to push back less. Layoffs are actually disproportionately impacting women, working parents and people who are not willing to come back to the office, which often are women parents. So I'm very concerned honestly about the steps backward that we're taking as a result of some of the economic downward pressure.

What makes you optimistic that things can and will change in the future? 
I am seeing increased fluency in the tangible differences that women experience in the workplace, and there are just so many more conversations about what it means to be a working parent. There's a lot of people advocating for parental leave, and more reasonable parental leave policies, which is a massive piece of the equation, and in some ways, the single most important thing. 

Read more: 11 companies with the best parental leave policies

Parity alone isn't the end goal. You could have parity, and oftentimes you do, but the power dynamics are still off, which means that even if women have a seat at the table, they're not being listened to — they're being talked over, they're being diminished. I envision a world where there are lots of different companies with different mixes of genders and lots of different models for what great leadership looks like. What I'm focused on is demonstrating, modeling and elevating a different model of leadership for people so that they know that better and more diverse leadership is possible.