The Women in Tech project conducted a study "Belarusians on the way to IT: myths, fears, obstacles" to find out why there are few women in Belarusian IT.

The Women in Tech project was launched this August to support women in IT and, in many ways, as a response to the apparent gender imbalance in the industry.

Already at the start of the project, a study was launched, the main task of which was to find out why women who are interested in technical disciplines do not dare to discover this sphere for themselves.

This is the first stage of a large study conducted by Marina Mentusova within the framework of the Women in Tech and Gender Master's program of ESU.

Obstacles to an IT career.

The main conclusions of the research

• Public stereotypes about women prevent them from becoming programmers and engineers, 95% of respondents faced a prejudiced attitude towards women's abilities.

  The most common stereotypes encountered by the survey participants were: "Boys are technologists, girls are humanitarians" (57%), "Girls will get married anyway" (56%), "It requires a male mindset" (38%), " Mathematics/informatics/physics are not for girls" (37%), "It's not for women's minds" (35%).

• Because of stereotypes, women believe less in themselves, try something new less often.

  45% of respondents said that self-doubt prevents them from studying IT.

  When asked what barriers women see for themselves in choosing an IT specialty, 74% of respondents answered that they are hindered by high competition in the environment, and 18% called the IT field "aggressive".

• The high cost of education and ageism are the most common barriers to women's career development.

  Research participants wrote: "I'm afraid that it's too late to start, I'm 33", "I'm not sure that I'll be in demand on the labor market at 40."

  55% of girls have financial difficulties and cannot afford to pay for education.

• Women fear that they will have to choose between work and family/motherhood when building a career in IT.

Researcher: "Stereotypes make women poorer"

Maria Mentusova

The author of the study, Marina Mentusova, is convinced that stereotypes make women poorer.

- If the employer believes the stereotypes about female and male appointments, then the man's salary will be higher, because he needs to "support the family".

If a woman believes that she copes with technical work worse than a man, then she will not count on the same salary as a man (on average, women receive 30% less than men).

This contributes to the fact that women are generally poorer than men, which means that it is more difficult for them to get funds for education.

The researcher is worried about educational inequality, especially in technical disciplines.

- These are now almost the most promising and highly paid spheres, where initially many women worked, but over time their positions were taken by men.

Although the legislation of Belarus provides for the provision of the basic human right to quality education, in reality we are constantly faced with discrimination based on gender.

And this, according to Marina Mentusova, is connected with the fact that, starting from school, girls are prepared for traditional female roles.

- At best, they are encouraged to choose humanitarian, traditionally female professions, at worst - they point to the intellectual superiority of men and hint at the mythical "female purpose" of guarding the family hearth and giving birth to children.

These seemingly harmless phrases have a serious impact on the psychology of girls and undermine their self-confidence, which leads to self-limitations, the development of internal fears and impostor syndrome... Although formally in the industry there are no longer artificial restrictions for women in hiring and career movement, nevertheless stereotypes laid down in childhood and fixed in society about women's cognitive abilities and development opportunities in not all professional fields lead to women's insecurity and fear of technical specialties.

"Women are to blame."

Why is it not so?

Almira Usmanov

Professor Almira Usmanova, director of the master's program of the Center for Gender Studies of ESU, notes that these figures are an eloquent response to criticism from those who believe that the problems of gender inequality in our society are not relevant, and that women themselves are to blame for not having enough motivation to develop your career in IT.

— For us as gender researchers, this is an important argument in favor of the need to create opportunities for professional self-realization of women in technical fields (Women in Tech project) and an incentive for further research aimed at finding ways and means of solving these problems.

How to overcome stereotypes

According to the research participants, this can be done with the help of mentorship and scholarship programs, educational opportunities exclusively for women, as well as with the help of the appearance in the public sphere of women's success stories in IT, which will destroy internal fears and inspire action.

Women in Belarusian IT.

Only numbers

In 2020, due to the pandemic, the representation of women in the field of IT in Belarus increased by 3.2 percent.

Women made up 27.4% of IT specialists (every fourth specialist is a woman);

13.8% developers.

The positions of women have strengthened not only in related specialties, but also in technical ones.

For comparison: the share of women in the Belarusian IT industry was 7.5 percent in 2010, 20.3 percent in 2015, and 25.4 percent in 2018.

And in 2021, the share of women in the Belarusian IT industry was 26.5%.

As the portal dev.by notes in its analysis for the past year, after a long period of smooth growth, the share of women in the industry decreased in 2021.

On the other hand, if in 2010-2012

Women and men who preferred IT careers were 1 in 10, now 1 in 3.

As dev.by experts point out, the decline in the participation of women in IT is one of the first results of the stagnation of the labor market and reductions in related specialties.

In 2022, with news of a complete shutdown of recruiting, marketing and other areas in many companies, we should see a much more significant rebound to the past, experts predict.

Women make up more than half of the number of analysts for the second year in a row (about 57%).

90% of HR managers are women, 54% of designers.

The professions of business analysts and testers are the most gender-balanced professions, the proportion of men and women in them is almost the same.

There are very few women among managers and developers, about 9%.

• The research was conducted in the format of an online survey.

  233 Belarusians took part in it.

  Respondents are mostly 25-45 years old, most of them grew up in big cities and capitals.

  The Women in Tech project is implemented by the Center for Gender Studies of ESU with the financial support of EZ.

• Anna Sous

  Journalist of Radio Svaboda

  Editor of the "Only women" community on Facebook 

  sousa@rferl.org

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