Women Of AR: Empowering Perspective On The Tech Industry

While we celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, we want to give a platform to those enriching the industry with their unique perspectives, talents, and expertise: the women of tech. More specifically, female Creators who continue to make a huge difference in the development of Augmented Reality. Laura Gouillon, Jourdan Johnson, Ayşe Özdemir and Isabel Catherine Yayla all shared their thoughts on what it means to be a woman in the tech industry.

As we talk about women’s perspectives on tech, it’s important to speak about the full picture: praise successes, acknowledge struggles, and discuss representation. Living in the 21st century at first can make us feel like the issues of equal workplace are already behind us, but despite the vast progress that was already made, last year’s statistics show that there’s much left to fix.

Women in The Tech Industry: Statistics

The percentage of women in all tech-related careers has actually decreased over the last 2 years, now being at 26.7%, with more than 50% reporting gender inequality, discrimination, or sexual harassment. Other statistics show that only 17% of technology companies currently have a woman serving as CEO, and 78% of women in tech report feeling like they must work harder than male coworkers to prove themselves. Those numbers, even if they don’t fill with optimism, show us that improvement is possible – and that’s what we should focus on.

Each day, women prove to be a valuable part of the tech industry, with their high skills contributing to technological development, so improving the situation is definitely worth fighting for. But what can we do, exactly?

Let’s start by simply paying attention – giving a platform to women’s experiences and listening to their stories can already make a difference, for example, by spreading awareness about the issues or empowering others to follow their lead. After all, listening to other people’s successes is always the biggest motivating factor to fight the fear of trying something new.

Improving Representation – Why Does It Matter?

Most of the time, we believe what we can see – And that’s why representation is so important. As of now, according to the PwC UK research report, 78% of students can’t name a famous female working in tech, and as a result, girls are often discouraged from pursuing their STEM interests. Without seeing many role models, from a young age, they start to believe that it’s natural for boys to be more interested in computer science and engineering than girls. This idea prevents girls from even trying out their strengths further along, convincing them that “It’s just not for them”. In reality, they might just need to see someone who will make them believe that it’s possible.

Ways To Increase Representation

As a business owner, there are many ways to improve the representation of women in tech. Measures such as gender-bias training or optimizing the recruitment process can already make a difference. Still, it’s best to start with a simple data analysis: What is the percentage of women at your company? How many of them are in management positions? Answering these questions might already become a guidebook.

But even outside the work environment, we can still contribute to making a change. In the era of social media, it’s easy to research and share success stories and accomplishments of women in tech, which helps increase their visibility. Furthermore, supporting women-owned businesses and organizations focused on girls’ education in STEM or even understanding your own subconscious bias can, over time, add to the improvement of the situation of women in tech.

AR Community

Even in an imperfect environment such as the tech industry, there’s still potential for creating a safe space for women. We hope that Augmented Reality has become one of them, as a community full of diverse talents and experiences, connecting through the shared passions for immersing storytelling and focused on one goal: transforming the world around the user. With the wide range of features, industries, and tools accessible to AR Creators, all perspectives are welcome.

The Significance of Women in Tech

For centuries, women in the tech industry have made remarkable contributions across various fields. Trailblazers such as Ada Lovelace, often referred to as the world’s first computer programmer, or Grace Hopper, a pioneer of computer programming, were among those who laid the foundation of what we still work on now. With each achievement and milestone, women in tech reaffirm their rightful place as leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs, proving that the future of technology knows no bounds when everyone has a seat at the table.