HOW TO INCLUDE WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Think Tank – Creation of a network of women to encourage collaboration and use of innovation and technology, for solving specific problems with a focus on women and children.

The Think Tank is a future focused network that aims to empower women. The Think Tank will address the issue of female underrepresentation in the IT and digitalization industry, by addressing a set of challenges that have hindered this to date.

The challenges to address and the solutions the Think Tank will focus on:

1. Underrepresentation of women in the technology industry

Problem The business landscape, as of 2019, acknowledges that there is underrepresentation of women in the field of IT and digitalization. This major gender gap has created a bias in market, investment, education and network availability for women. Statistics shows an improvement in the past 5 years with the rise of online businesses and social media (Facebook and Instagram), where women make up for most of the population at fifty five percent (55%). Despite this increase, women only represent a low percentage of the technology world, which is still dominated by men. Property software held by women is at 28 percent and only 25 percent of IT jobs are held by women. The percent of female executives at 500 fortune companies is at 11 percent and only 5 percent of tech startups are owned by women. Representation of Women in Block chain and Bitcoin is approximately 3 percent. These percentages are even lower when it comes to women tech leaders of organisations with social impact projects.

How will Think Tank address this? The most important element of the Think Tank is to create a network of talented people from diverse professional pools. Their focus will be to actively test and explore how disruptive technology and digital tools can be brought into the hands of every community.

Tech and none tech community, alike. It is important to acknowledge that the purpose for a technology Think Tank should not only focus on the technology itself, but on the problems it solves for our communities.

2. Biased investment on women Problem Corporation, Governments and venture hedge funds, have created an investment fund focusing on women start-ups, hoping that diversity in investment, will create a gender smart market. There is, however, a factor not considered. There are certain markets which are already dominated by women, such as cleaning enterprises, health, beauty and wellness services. It is therefore a natural transition that tech investment on women will be used on such markets, creating a bigger bias. It is critical that, for a shift to happen, women are empowered and motivated to explore, create and invest in solutions for markets other than the traditionally female dominated ones.

How will Think Tank address this? To address this bias, a network driven Think Tank will promote education and technology around creative environments supported by experts on technologies such as block chain, Artificial intelligence, virtualisation, Augmented reality, and more. These experts will present the audience with challenges and promote open forum discussions online or during live events, globally.

3. Generation Gap Problem Its is evident that millennials, generation X and generation Z have a more advanced digital mindset than previous generations. The technological gap among generations is larger among the female population when compared to the male population. After all, for the past 100 years, boys have been encouraged and expected to be around machines, electronics, automation tools, computer science, communication networks, and digital gadgets. Although, statistics show that 78 percent of girls want to study computer science, join coding camps, play with video games, this new generation of girls will lack a network of mentors who can guide them and explain the technological challenges using a common language understood to both genders.

How will Think Tank address this? Create a pool of both male and female, who volunteer as mentors for a week every month, for a number of curious learners. This could be done via an app and a message service, matching the users and their mentor by proximity and interest. (tech tinder)

4. Lack of integration among women networks Problem In the past 3 years more and more women hubs have been founded as communities around a specific topic or a cause, supported by governments and organisations such UNESCO, DAVOS, UN. The growing engagement is notorious with events such as Women in Tech, SHE conference, Women Leader summit and so on. These continue to provide an environment for visibility, sharing news and motivating the audience. Despite current momentum, there is still a piece of the puzzle that is missing: How to increase performance of women and how technology could reach to the larger women population.

How will Think Tank address this? Women need a trust based environment to be able to learn by doing. Learning by doing, is an important step to imprint in our minds technology usage as well as to trigger the creativity and problem solving skills necessary to create new products, new niches, new markets and new economies. The Think Tank will offer this opportunity while focusing on soft leadership skills and a broader spectrum of gender balanced values. Having said that, a women technology think tank should organically grow a portfolio of ideas, ranked and prioritized by their impact in solving critical social issues, as well as their scalability. Game changing innovation ideas within the women network community can turn into projects. These ideas will be encouraged to take part on open public bidding rounds and potentially rewarded with prizes and funding.

5. Cultural shift from split to integrated female values The Problem Women talents and skills are unevenly distributed in today’s social structure. This creates a bias in investment, market creation and well-being. One of the main causes for such a bias is the foremost attachment to the cultural status-quo: the “traditional” and stereotypical feminine role. In today′s society women are explicitly and implicitly told to “embrace it or fight it {their role}” rather than being told “you are valuable as you are, woman.” Historically, women have claimed a different role than the stereotype. During the world war, women got the opportunity to enter the traditional male labour markets because the men went to war. In the 60s and 70s the modern feminist was born. Those women took charge over their own lives and careers.

The challenge surfaced when they came to a workplace with masculine values. An unfriendly environment that had little room or appreciation of their feminine driving force, their soft leadership skills, their special analytic thinking and their problem solving approaches. Some women, acting on survival mode, selected to mold their personalities and talents in order to fit into these new environments. As a survival mechanism, women created a split in their feminine nature. These are called the 4 women archetypes which are as follow: The 4 feminine archetypes for the women are The Maiden: she is a doer, a creator, the businesswoman, she represents self-confidence, social skills, determination, ambition, concentration, a high achiever. The Mother: she has embodied the unconditional love, has tolerance, flexible, healer, she knows boundaries is needed for children to develop properly, driven by the values of community The Enchantress: Her creativity is limitless, unpredictable, irresistible, powerful intuitive and moody. Needs time in stillness. Is not completely aware of her strong mental powers. The Crone: she has the wisdom, the forgiveness, and the magic of telling exactly what you need to hear at the right time, she is not afraid to make you feel uncomfortable. This is the Wise Woman. She has a vast experience.

After almost half a century of working in an environment heavily influenced by the masculine values, most women find themselves at a loss of awareness with their femininity and with an inner conflict: “carry-on living under cognitive dissonance and exhaustion abandoning herself at the workplace by putting aside her feminine and motherly values.” Women have tried to achieve rewards in the work place by mirroring masculine values: working harder, speaking stronger, constantly choosing to be the competitive employee – the big achiever, as opposed to the being the empathetic mother.

How will Think Tank address this? The Think Tank will promote mental and spiritual work to educate women on a leadership methodology that embraces their femininity in the work field. This will be done by gathering a mature tribe of women from different cultures, geographical locations, religions and professional backgrounds who have already integrated these archetypes within their environments. The archetypes unite the human consciousness across cultures and genders. They transcend beyond history, geography, culture and religious beliefs. Integration is the action of bringing together those values into the environment we are in. The Think Tank network will promote and guide women on finding their voice and embodying these values. Women will know how to reach their goals collectively with integrity.

6. One billion Happy movement. Report Finds Huge Gender Gap in Artificial Intelligence Workforce. Only 22 percent of professionals with AI skills are female. The Problem The World Economic Forum (WEF) published a report focused on the global economic gender gap. According to the WEF’s research, a massive gender gap is already forming in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) workforce. Seventy eight (78) percent of professionals with AI skills are male. Men are also more likely than women to hold senior positions, such as software engineer or head of engineering. This is a gap the industry needs to start addressing in order not to end up with bias on the technology development and a one-sided gender influence in future innovation.

Another element of Artificial intelligence and machine learning not yet being addressed by many, is explained by Mo Gawdat in one billion happy movement as the singularity moment, where Machines are learning from what is historically available and the mistakes and inequality from the past. He is therefore, encouraging 1 billon people to shift those values through the internet: social media and online interactions. Instead of perpetuating antiquated systems that reinforce inequality, people should embrace and instead reflect more diverse and positive values online. He calls this collective shift: The human happiness algorithm.

The goal of this is that the machines could learn from the happiness human algorithm instead. How will those machines interpret women? Her role? Her talents? Her mind? Her heart? If it interprets it based on history, we may be a long way from empowering women and balancing the equation. This can cause a misrepresentation from which machine learning will develop. However, what the happy movement lacks, is a conscious approach to ensure that include women values.

How will Think Tank address this? It is crucial for a Think Tank to include women with a set of values that reflects ideology which will raise an awareness towards female and children challenges. We need to create a shift in this very important decade, where AI and machine learning algorithms are learning from representative samples that also emphasize and display women′s values, strengths and factors that promotes women′s fulfilment and happiness. It is critical that AI and machine learning does not perpetuate the old paradigms embedded in our individual and collective psyche, which in turn corrupts positive outcomes. In addition the Think Tank will invest on efforts to reach a higher competence for women with venture capital support for research and prototyping.

7. Women leadership models The problem The world is shifting towards a digital transformation and a peer to peer economy. Peer to peer (P2P) is a very human centric concept where value is shifting from a commodity economy to a service economy. Currently, those driving the digital transformation are existing corporations and leaders. Their leadership model comes from a male driven networks and processes approach but the peer-to-peer economy requires a human centric leadership approach.

Gender balance is also very important in both P2P, M2M, B2C, B2B, Industry 4.0, and so on. Any gap between community skills, digital knowledge, diversity and inclusion will also create a higher levels of economical unbalance towards those unrepresented minorities. It is important to consider gender balance not as a transition but as a shift, where genders will be given an equal stake in the process. It is also risky to use traditional leadership models in these new economies.

How will Think Tank address this? The Think Tank will create its own Women leadership model based on a broader inclusion, a set of values: free and futuristic. Such leadership model should embrace: Enterprise of own identity: Integration on our uniqueness/archetypes Experimental Knowledge: Game changing mind, hands on with technology Human centric market: Create niches from the true wellbeing of humans Network Capital (Intellectual and Financial): Let the community develop such niches Having this approach will not only create a safe ecosystem but an academy for future leadership, relevant to all genders and to all generational groups. Those 4 components are the driving forces for a positive digital peer to peer economy.

8. Communication across hubs, generational gap and technology itself. The problem There is a lack of integration and alignment among technology groups, or technological community hubs. Those, commonly work separately towards a disruptive technology, sometimes lacking an agnostic judgment on the real usability and value of the technology. Knowledge is one sided, as is nearly impossible to keep up with all disruptions nowadays. This create a breach in communication, as the technological language for experience transfer is nonexistent.

When it comes to gender and generational gaps, the same case applies. We are also unable to communicate. Older generations lack understanding of the virtual space that younger generation are born into.

How will Think Tank address this? In 2019, there is a shift: A new earth. We are rapidly moving into digital transformation and this will require that humans move towards and embrace the creation of digital ecosystems with virtual spaces, allowing us to integrate. All we need is our digital DNA, and a common language to co-create. JANE (Journeying Artificial Neurological Entity) will be the action figure representing this journey.

JANE will be a character in a possible upcoming series of films and videogames in relation with the think tank and the woman journey. JANE is the voice of the digital transformation enhanced by woman leadership models from the four archetypes integration and disruptive tech. She will represent the alliance of the women of the future.

Through JANE and her appearance in a netflix film, we will be able to have a representation of the women of the future that all generations will be able to relate to, technical or non-technical.

9. Remarks The Think Tank network will provide an opportunity for cultural transformation, new markets and gender balance by the use of unbiased technology and with a totally new set of values and leadership models.

The models and ideals Think Tank networks will create, represent and enable, are better suited to achieve sustainable future proof solutions for projects with an emphasis and focus on social challenges that affect women and children, which could be supported by DAVOS, UN, and other organizations.

Everyone aiming gender equality is welcome. Some will want to create new markets for women; some will be looking for a better economic opportunity to develop a social impact project, some will come for knowledge or spiritual education, others to stand for rights, equality and collaboration and some for applying creativity into the digital transformation. Yet, the main alignment element for all participants, supporters, investors and collaborators is to create a new thinking among all: collaborative, digital, free of gender, and generational boundaries. By doing so, will in turn help us leverage our collective capacity to unlock barriers and close gaps to deploying capital in a gender-smart way.

We share a common belief that together, we can spark real and lasting change, using digital tools. We carry the values of an equal society and aim to change the lives of individuals and communities across the globe, contributing on the advancement on Sustainable Development Goals.

Marisol Angel Guzman, (JANE) AUTOR- Founder of Fabulous Futuristist Movement

Writter Collaborators: Ginnette Sandberg, Maria H?ier Copyright 20.02.2019