Technology and gender gap

By Jason Lim

It's no secret that trends happen faster and more visibly in Korea than in most other countries around the world. A popular actress' dress or hairstyle will be all the rage ― and I mean practically everybody ― for a season or two, only to be replaced by the next big thing. Perhaps the sheer population density of the country, in which the rich and poor, old and young, and every other demographic live practically on top of each other and can't help but see and be seen, drives this speedy uptake.

This is not limited to fashion. Korea also prides itself in being the latest and greatest when it comes to technology, especially the fast and ubiquitous connectivity that underpins the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Of course, there are also the robotics, AI, blockchain, and other latest technology trends. In fact, the 2018 speculative craze that surrounded bitcoin and other cyber currencies in Korea was fairly shocking in both its breadth and speed.

Besides being a tool for making money, however, what other impacts will technology have in Korea? Here's something that you don't usually think of. How about gender inequality? The 2020 World Economic Forum report on gender gap provides an interesting, if not alarming, preview. Key findings include:

"Women's participation in the wider labor market has stalled and financial disparities are increasing. Globally, the trend is towards a deteriorating picture in emerging and developing economies, which is offsetting the gains made in OECD countries.

"Although education attainment as well as health and survival enjoy much closer to parity (96.1 percent and 95.7 percent respectively), one important area of concern is that of economic participation and opportunity. This is the only dimension where progress has regressed. Here, the figures are sobering, with a deteriorating situation forcing gender parity to a lowly 57.8 percent, which in time represents a massive 257 years before gender parity can be achieved."

I don't know about you, but 257 years is a pretty long time to wait for economic parity. But what it says about emerging technology and its role in potentially widening this disparity is more concerning.

"Looking to the future, the report reveals that the greatest challenge preventing the economic gender gap from closing is women's under-representation in emerging roles. In cloud computing, just 12 percent of professionals are women. Similarly, in engineering and Data and AI, the numbers are 15 percent and 26 percent respectively.

There is one talent shortfall that consistently influences the ability of men and women to participate equally in roles of the future: women continue to be under-represented among workers with disruptive technical skills. Disruptive technology skills are the capabilities associated with developing new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Genetic Engineering."

To translate this into the vernacular, women are traditionally represented disproportionally in the type of jobs that is not only ripe for automation due to advancing technologies but also don't play key roles in driving disruptions that will shape what the world looks like in the future. This would necessarily mean that men would reap the lopsided share of wealth created by these disruptions while women will lag even further behind because their jobs will be replaced.

Wait, it gets worse. When you take into account the traditional socioeconomic barriers that women have always faced, namely equal access to education, investment capital, and opportunity for entrepreneurship, the gender gap is bound to grow, not shrink. Soon, as we wade into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we might be thinking back wistfully to the 257 years.

The time is now to proactively address these deficiencies. The WEF report states, "workforce strategies must ensure that women are better equipped (in terms of improved skills or reskilling) to deal with the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Diverse hiring is another area for improvement (reflecting the current situation that sees gender parity in an in-demand skillset but not equal representation), along with creating inclusive work cultures."

But it's almost too late when you get to the workplace. You have to start in classrooms, as early as possible. Science and technical skills are not gender specific. I am not some gender-neutral purist who claims that there are absolutely no differences between the sexes except what's visible to the eye; there absolutely are different tendencies and preferences between boys and girls. However, there is no evidence that boys are inherently better at science, technology, or even entrepreneurship than girls. However, there are definitely cultural influences that tend to segregate kids into different academic bents, leading directly into professional segregation that does not prepare half the population to become equal partners in authoring the common future.

Coming back to the tendency for fast trends in Korea, why not turn it into a competitive advantage? Make it into a fashionable trend to have girls excel in STEM and entrepreneurship. Hopefully it won't be a passing fad.

Jason Lim (jasonlim@msn.com) is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture.