Women in tech can get gender equality back on track

COVID-19 has impacted efforts to address gender equality. Around the world, women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic compared to men, both at work and home. Automation is adding to this challenge, with up to one in four workers having to transition to new jobs over the coming decade. With the tech sector facing a huge skills gap, getting more women into skilled tech jobs can help bridge this gap and get gender equality back on track. But several obstacles remain.

Even before Covid-19, global progress in tackling gender gaps in work had been marginal. While Singapore fares relatively well in overall labour distribution - women compose 46 per cent of our workforce - a 2019 McKinsey study showed that they constitute just 19 per cent of the executive teams of the companies we examined. A quarter of the companies looked at in Singapore had no women on their executive teams at all.

As a result of the pandemic, women's jobs have been nearly twice as vulnerable compared to men's - while women make up 39 per cent of global employment, they accounted for 54 per cent of overall job losses as at May 2020.

One reason is the heavier representation of women in industries that are hardest hit by Covid-19, such as accommodation and food service, retail and wholesale trade, and other services including arts, recreation and public administration. In Singapore for example, almost 60 per cent of accommodation and food service jobs are held by women, according to data from the Ministry of Manpower.

With a pandemic-induced increase in care responsibilities and housework, which disproportionately fall to women at home, many women have also been forced to compromise paid employment to take on additional unpaid care, such as childcare and home schooling.

Beyond the unfavourable implications for women, there are broader economic consequences. Our research found that if no action is taken to counter the gender-regressive effects of Covid-19, global GDP growth could be US$1 trillion lower in 2030 than it would be if women's unemployment simply tracked that of men. Conversely, if action is taken to advance gender equality, US$12 trillion could be added to global GDP in 2030.

The acceleration of digitalisation further complicates matters. While research from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) found that the impact of automation on jobs is roughly the same between women and men, it is impact of significant scale. By 2030, between 75 and 375 million workers globally may need to transition between occupations due to automation. For Singapore, an estimated 800,000 workers - or 36 per cent of the current workforce - will need to be re-skilled.

At the same time, the tech sector is facing a severe skills shortage globally. Demand for advanced IT and programming skills is expected to increase by as much as 90 per cent over the next 15 years, according to MGI.

There is a clear opportunity for women to meet this demand for skilled tech workers, which would also help narrow the gender gap. If women make the transition to tech, they could find more productive, better-paid work; if they do not, they could face an increasing wage gap or leave the labour market altogether.

Despite the obvious benefits of getting more women into tech, evidence suggests progress has been slow. A 2018 survey by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) found that women make up less than a third, or 30 per cent, of all research scientists and engineers in Singapore. Similarly, figures from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) have also revealed that women account for only 30 per cent of Singapore's 200,000-strong infocomm workforce.

There are major challenges that need to be addressed to get more women into tech.

STRUCTURAL AND SOCIETAL BARRIERS

Women must overcome long-established and pervasive structural and societal barriers, such as having less time to refresh or learn new skills or search for employment because of the time spent on unpaid care.

The talent supply also needs to be strengthened. According to the Ministry of Education, the proportion of Singaporean women pursuing IT degrees - which includes courses in computer science, business analytics and data science - makes up only 35 per cent of the cohort in 2019. While this in itself is an improvement from 28 per cent in 2017, a sizeable gap remains.

One boon from Covid-19 is the validation of working from home as a new normal. Women now have an option to accommodate their personal and professional demands, without potentially sacrificing one for the other. However, we should ensure that this flexibility helps, rather than hurts, women in the longer term.

The benefits of addressing gender inequalities, especially in tech, will go far beyond meeting the demand for skilled workers. Our research has identified a clear "diversity dividend" with companies in the top quartile for gender diversity 25 per cent more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile.

Organisations with more than 30 per cent women executives were more likely to outperform companies where the percentage ranged from 10 per cent to 30 per cent, while these companies were more likely to outperform those with even fewer women executives or none at all.

By getting more women into skilled jobs, especially in tech, three needs will be simultaneously addressed: closing the gender gap, increasing the tech talent pool, and re-skilling the workforce for the future of work. This is a rare opportunity and a complex one. But in line with the theme of this year's International Women's Day - Choose to Challenge - it is an opportunity that we should not back away from.

• The writers are from McKinsey & Company in Singapore. Badrinath Ramanathan is managing partner and Suyin Soon is a partner.