Women in Economics and Technology

Can you believe it? Imagine the mimicry of a hushed gossip tone at the watercooler, used in most professions. It wasn't a man or a feminazi who shed light on the gender stereotypes but machine learning, text mining and tools of econometrics at the fingertips of Alice H Wu, through which thousands of posts on an anonymous online forum that actually revealed trends in the gender stereotypes for women in economics and technology. Before I write a blog post, it's customary to research, motivate, inspire and ultimately take an educated perspective on the topic with a large dose of self-reflection. This post isn't going to be any different. 

The Missing Link - Women in Economics and Technology

As the end of the Summer Term fast approaches, bringing with it final examinations for the year, albeit postponed, creating further uncertainty in the COVID-19 scenario, I needed motivation. I thought of beginning with the first step - finding role models of women in economics and technology. Five or six searches down the page I hit the jackpot although I admit I was sceptical of finding the link between women in economics and women in tech. There is a lot of data for low enrollment, high drop of rates, shattering the glass ceiling of women entering the profession and re-entering at the top with limited scope for the middle ground in STEM careers. I kept on telling myself, but economics is different. Or perhaps, I wanted to believe it was different. And perhaps, it will be different. 

But, Alice H Wu's thesis clearly states, "a post related to female is much less academic-oriented and more likely to discuss one’s physical appearance, which deviates from the main purpose of this academic forum. This finding is robust to different model specifications and identification strategies". The NYTimes describes this as a "toxic environment for Women in Economics". Another Google search also led me to Professor Diane Coyle at the University of Cambridge, also an active blogger at the Enlightened Economist which is filled with book reviews on artificial intelligence, policy and other exciting economics notions. Her views on Alice H Wu's work at the time (2017) can be read on FT.com. Professor Coyle's words from her "Coleridge Lecture: Women and Economics" deeply resonate within me: 

"This (lack of female and ethnic minority representation) is not a women problem, it is an economics problem. It is deeply embedded in the discipline’s culture and norms, and the profession’s senior men need to take it seriously. It’s an existential issue for economics". 

The Role of Technology in Reducing Gender Inequality

Technological growth and development are always dependent on how the end-users incorporate the flow of information for better decision-making and in the age of Big Data, take away actionable insights to further build the balance in inclusive economies. SAP has used artificial intelligence in its product called Business Beyond Bias to eliminate the use of sexist language in the advertisements of job offers. Hence, eradicating gender bias and equating the pay gap through machine learning, where ideal candidates were rewarded according to the level of difficulty of tasks and responsibility, independent of gender. However, even artificial intelligence is not free from bias because human biases get coded in. Thus, we need more inclusivity of women in all aspects of technology and the economy for more diversity and better outcomes. 

Building the Balance for Inclusive Economies 

Boosting women in economics and tech must thus start with boosting women in society, in education and in the workplace. This means addressing the root causes of gender inequality — the literacy gap, the pay gap, sexual violence and employment policies with equal emphasis on paternity leaves. A UNWomen.org publication, "Gender equality and inclusive growth: Economic policies to achieve sustainable development", authored and edited by Diane Elson and Anuradha Seth, builds the case for policymakers to view and "to rethink the role of macro-level economic policies, including trade, industrial, macroeconomic, finance, and investment policies" from an unbiased, human rights lens.