Laurie Rauch is fond of words.
After weathering the recession, she never imagined she’d still be writing — only this time, with new languages like HTML and CSS.
“I was always fascinated with web developing but … it was just something a lot of women at the time didn’t do,” Rauch said.
Taking a giant leap, she learned the necessary skills to build a tech career and now owns web developing company Code Diva. Rauch is part of the glaringly small 25 per cent of women working in Canada’s tech sector — a number that has puzzled industry professionals for decades.
“We have this potential to … impact just about every business but we aren’t taking up that challenge,” said University of Toronto computer science professor Kelly Lyons. “I don’t understand why we’re still not 50 per cent of tech.”
Though no one knows the exact reason behind this phenomenon, Lyons, who joined previously worked as an IBM program director before joining U of T in 2008, said there are theories explaining the situation — specifically, the stereotype that the tech industry is a boy’s club.
CanWIT executive director Emily Boucher found that most women see tech companies as “a room full of men working in a dark room coding in the wee hours.”
A 2007 Ryerson University Diversity Institute study found the notion that tech jobs are focused on coding contributed to a decline in female enrollment in tech university programs. The place where women are most scarce, however, is boardrooms.
In Canada, only 16 per cent of women hold leadership roles in the corporate sector and only 14 companies had women in executive ranks in Deloitte’s list of 50 fastest growing technology firms. Facebook CEO Cheryl Sandberg famously deconstructs the phenomenon in a 2012 TED Talk, saying that rearing children and managing a household on top of having a job cause some women to quietly shy away from furthering their careers.
Toronto-based Homesav.com CEO, and mother of two, Aliza Pulver is all too familiar with this scenario. After giving birth to her second daughter a month after raising funding for her luxury home decor sales site, Pulver acutely felt the pull of motherhood.
“There have definitely been some meetings where I’m more pre-occupied with my kids and what they’re doing than what’s being discussed on the table,” she agreed. But Pulver said it’s possible to balance it as long as you have a good support system.
In Ontario, several industry organizations and initiatives have been put in place to assist women who are already working in the industry or looking to enter it. CanWit and Wired Woman offer mentorship programs that pair new professionals with leaders in the field, while Toronto incubator Driven Accelerator Group provides training and support to startups led by women and people of colour. Popular group Girls in Tech Toronto also hosts socials featuring women tech speakers, while Ladies Learning Code facilitates introductory workshops on like HTML and CSS. Though these initiatives are fairly new, they have already grabbed the attention of the Ontario’s tech world — a possible sign of better things to come for women.
“Life‘s moving and women have to evolve with it but I can see now that we are,” Pulver said.
Originally published by ONset Magazine
