3 Reasons Closing the Gender Gap Helps Build Better Tech

It’s well documented that diversity among tech teams improves the tech industry. We also know that women professionals disrupting the gender gap in tech leads to increased representation, better pay, and more equitable company benefits and policies for all. But what does closing the gender gap mean for technology overall?

In this article, we’ll focus on the tech industry output; that is, how women and non-binary tech talent help make technology itself better.

You’ll explore how women and non-binary perspectives, lived experiences, professional experiences, and social intelligence can contribute to tech products that are more efficient, ethical, and intuitively designed for all. Learn how closing the gender gap contributes to tech products and services that increase revenue, are more thoughtfully designed, and incorporate meaningful market insights below.

Increased Revenue

This one is simple: tech companies with more women professionals outperform those that are less diverse. According to a study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, the difference in revenue is slight, yet consistent—and directly correlates with a company’s ability to innovate. Namely, companies with the highest percentage of women in leadership roles can directly contribute about 34% of their revenues to innovative products and services.

Thoughtful Usability and Design Elements

For digital products intended for use by a wide range of individuals (think banking apps, social media, certain e-commerce sites, etc.), usability elements and their impact on diverse audiences often go overlooked. This is due not only to incomplete testing within ranges of audiences and audience types, but also the simple fact that a product designed for everyone isn’t always designed by everyone.

A team of UI/UX designers and developers can solve this problem by hiring women and nonbinary team members in addition to just testing their product among women demographics. That way, digital products are initially developed in consideration of both a specific user demographic’s unique needs and their unique behaviors—which are best gleaned by lived experience.

Market Insight

Similarly, technology designed to be woman-centric, or to promote women-centric products, benefits from tech-driven innovation.

For example, women tech professionals can help steer women-centric tech products toward their most advantageous position in the marketplace. As the target consumers, they can leverage what they know they’d look for in these products—alongside their technical expertise in creating them.

While not an extensive list, these 3 top reasons to prioritize closing the gender gap should be considered by companies and organizations looking to build better tech.

Discover more of what you or your company can do to support women and non-binary individuals in tech with content from the Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy, and be sure to connect with our Employer Relations Team to inquire about hiring partnerships.