Amazing facts you didn’t know about tech and diversity: Crash test dummies

In this season opener, hosts Em and Craig explore gender dynamics in tech, focusing on women's unique challenges with imposter syndrome, funding disparities, and opportunities in an evolving industry that increasingly needs diverse perspectives. 

• Gender Differences in the Workplace: They explore how women often need to feel 94% qualified before applying for jobs, while men apply at around 60%. Em notes that imposter syndrome is more prevalent among women, while men tend to experience more shame after failure.
• Femtech Industry: They discuss the growing field of women's health technology, highlighting how the period-tracking app Flow (founded by two brothers) recently achieved unicorn status, raising questions about female representation in tech leadership.
• Funding Disparities: The hosts examine why female-founded tech companies, despite often having higher ROI, receive less funding than male-founded counterparts. They suggest this may partly stem from women's hesitancy to directly ask for what they want, compared to men's greater directness and sense of entitlement.
• Opportunities for Women in Tech: Craig highlights that tech companies actively seek female talent and suggests entry paths including project management and relationship-oriented roles. They discuss how technology now intersects with nearly every industry, creating diverse opportunities beyond traditional technical roles.
• Challenges in Male-Dominated Workplaces: They address the pitfall of organisations over-indexing on showcasing diversity, which can lead to women being overloaded with public-facing opportunities and experiencing burnout.

Featured Resources:

• The Imperfects podcast episode "Maybe It's Menopause" with Dr. Louise Newson
• "The Confidence Code" by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay

Hero of the Week:

Volvo Cars for their EVA initiative, which researches safety for all body types (not just adult males) and shares this data openly with all car manufacturers, similar to how they previously shared seatbelt technology.