We are all aware that the world faces several challenges towards making a more sustainable planet. Therefore, we have established specific long-term goals to accomplish sustainability as a society. These goals are represented in UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals to transform the world (SDGs). But today, we´re going to talk about the Gender Gap of Women in STEM and Tech, specifically in the software development industry.

Even though there’s still a long road that the world has to travel to meet Goal #5 of UNESCO’s SDG’s (Gender Equality) to transform the world, especially in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), at all levels of education and labor market, these are four of the areas in which the world can still recognize shocking gender inequality and underrepresentation.   

According to the EQUALS and UNESCO study: I’d blush if I could: closing gender gaps in digital skills through education from 2019, “women and girls are 25 percent less likely than men to know how to leverage digital technology for basic purposes; 4 times less likely to know how to program computers and 13 times less likely to file for a technology patent”, not to mention statistics like the fact that “only 12 percent of individuals around the world with an identifiable STEM job are women” according to the 2015 Gender Bias Without Borders study by the Geena Davis Institute.   

According to UIS data, less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. The Gender Gap of Women in STEM

Experts argue that even though women represent the majority of all graduates from tertiary education in most countries globally. Fewer women than men choose to pursue STEM degrees. Some of the reasons that explain this counterintuitive insight are: “discrimination, biases, social norms and expectations that influence the quality of education they receive and the subjects they study, according to Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO (2009-2017)  

In a world with solid gender stereotypes and a culture that promotes the lack of self-confidence. Women end up opting for careers outside of the STEM fields. Consequently, this causes low representation in the labor market, especially in leadership roles.   

This vicious cycle keeps on reproducing itself and resulting from women not entering STEM careers. There is a lack of role models that girls can look up to. Learn and internalize how a woman in a leadership role looks like and how they can see themselves in her and emulate her.   

The greatest challenge preventing the economic gender gap from closing is women’s under-representation in emerging roles. In cloud computing, just 12% of professionals are women. Similarly, in Engineering and Data and AI, the numbers are 15% and 26% respectively.   

Global Gender Gap Report 2020. World Economic Forum  

In Cafeto, we firmly believe in the power of diversity and inclusion. And we are firmly convinced that taking positive action towards common global goals is our responsibility. To break the cycle of underrepresentation of women in the labor market, companies must create actionable plans to make a change. And we also believe that when companies commit CHANGE HAPPENS because we are proof of it.  

“I am particularly proud to see that our board of directors is full of women.”

Luis Perez
CEO Cafeto

Many years ago, we started incorporating women into our workforce in a very natural and intuitive way. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the discovery that this decision represented an enormous potential on a seldom untapped resource.  

It was at this moment that we decided to actively and consciously contribute to closing the gender gap.

All of this by breaking the cycle of the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles.  

This decision has led us to say with pride that we have designed an ecosystem where the company, as a whole, can benefit from the vantage points gender diversity naturally brings to teams. So much so that as of today, five out of seven board of directors are women, and we consider this result a win.  

Our latest board of directors’ member brought to our team has made us look back and see how much we have accomplished in so little time just by making a choice and taking positive action. And we have hundreds of reasons to demonstrate why this has been one of the best investments we could have ever made. Being led by women has made us better. Our teams are more diverse, more creative; we have gained perspective. We’ve acquired relentlessness, versatility, and adaptability values, and we are ready to go to the next level.   

Therefore, having accomplished this goal is just the beginning of our deep commitment to closing the gender gap. We already know the power of how making a single and straightforward decision can impact the world.

“We want to be a different company in many ways, and this also has to do with the way we organize and lead”

Felipe Tabares
COO Cafeto

These videos will be available on all our social media platforms. We invite you to take positive action and share this campaign with every girl and woman you believe needs to hear these empowering messages and experiences from future role models.   

Together, we hope to contribute to the defeat of gender inequality and overcome the Gender Gap of Women in STEM and the Women in Tech (software development). 

“We support gender equality 100%. It is necessary to delete from our minds the paradigm that this is an industry of/for men”

Felipe Tabares
COO Cafeto