Women in Web3: Defeating The Stigma and Pointing Out The Benefits

This Hackernoon post by full stack web developer Abbey Perini makes some interesting points about the stigma and biases found in software development. Indeed, women have had a hand in computer science since the very start, and the lack of support and facilities to encourage further interaction can be hard to understand.

Abbey points out how she loved learning to code and coding in private. When she took her skills public and started networking, she had to deal with a lot of unjustified stereotypical criticism as well as major biases against her inherent skills. Her interviewers and co-workers continually made reference to her gender as opposed to the quality of coding.

This can be quite toxic and runs counter to true gender equality. In Abbey’s case, the problem is not computer science, but the irrational biases surrounding the business of computer science and Web3.

Women Already Play a Huge Role In Web3

There are already a number of women who are heavily involved in cryptocurrency, and have been since the beginning.

Take Elizabeth Stark, the CEO and co-founder of Lightning Labs, serial entrepreneur, and lecturer at Yale University. This startup developed and implemented the Lightning Network Daemon and protocol. Stark is also a researcher at Coin Center and holds a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard.

Meanwhile, Imge Su Cetin is the founder of the female-led Defy Trends data analytics provider, which assists traders and investors to make informed decisions about their financial allocations. The application supports those who are just starting out in cryptocurrency and also caters to institutions and trading professionals. Essentially, it aggregates multiple relevant data points into a format that people can understand, and then apply, to their trades.

The Defy Trends team seeks to help people escape from the outdated banking system by making informed decisions on crypto investment. Before founding this company, Imge Su worked as a Data Analyst at the International Organization of Migration and as a research analyst for the United Nations in Iraq. She holds a BS in economics and has a master's in data science.

BitPesa, founded by Elizabeth Rossiello, is a payments and exchange platform for emerging countries. Rossiello was selected as a member of the Investment Committee for Bamboo Capital and the Future Council of the World Economic Forum on Blockchain. Colendi, a decentralized credit scoring system, was founded by Mihriban Ersin Tekmen. Colendi is aiming to support microfinance and to bank the unbanked.

Other hugely influential figures in the blockchain space include Sally Eaves, Galia Benartzi, Rachael Wolfson, Piper Moretti, and Maxine Ryan. While there are some prominent contributors, however, the trend is that its more difficult for women to succeed in Web3 due to historical biases that hinder the rate of progress.

The Importance Of Actual, Not Feigned, Equality

There are very serious reasons as to why more women are needed in Web3, and this goes beyond mere virtue signaling or political diversity mandates (where companies employ a few staff to appear diverse). Why pretend to be an all-inclusive company if you’re not going to make it a real part of the culture?

Appearing to be diverse and actually being diverse are two completely different things. Actual diversity is needed in Web3, particularly in the supporting areas of finance and business which are known to be very imbalanced in terms of financial allocations.

The problem gets deeper when you consider the future of the global economy. It’s obvious that programmers of AI and decentralized applications are going to hold enormous power. If the vast majority of computer scientists and researchers are going to be male, what are the implications for a society founded on distributed ledgers? The biases are going to be reflected in the code.

The core ethos of distributed ledgers is equality for all parties, based on competence and interest. An unfair representation of one side goes against the very principles of blockchain. From a commercial standpoint, there are also very precise reasons why equality and diversity will increase success. A significant amount of objective research points out that diverse teams work more effectively.

Assisting Women To Gain Access To Web3

There are many strategies that could be adopted to help increase equality in Web3. But social stigma is very difficult to pin down. Female programmers, especially teenagers and college students, will be very influenced by the prevailing social norms, which are generally not supportive of their interest in computer science and related areas.

The largest culprit is fundraising and business, which has long been male-dominated (as evidenced by a huge body of reliable research). This is an area where women are clearly discriminated against and they simply don’t get as much backing in comparison. Obviously, the ability to get finance is critical to the long-term viability of any business. Educational and business incentives are needed.

Admittedly, it is definitely possible to go too far in the other direction. Hiring somebody as a diversity hire as opposed to the quality of their work is an incredibly insulting thing to do and can be quite dehumanizing.

It’s about equality of opportunity.

From a financial and educational standpoint, the opportunities need to be equal. The cultural and social perspectives are the most deeply ingrained and the most difficult to tackle. Even with tangible incentives and programs, these will take time to transform.

They’ve Been Here All Along

Women have played, and are playing, a pivotal role in Web3. It is undoubtedly very difficult to battle against the stigma as either a Web3 founder or a blockchain programmer.

Faruk Ates, in a Hackernoon post about the history of women in computing, went as far as to suggest that:

“Women invented the field - then men pushed them out of it”.

While the gender disparity is evident, distributed ledger technology ultimately lends itself towards fairness and will help to assist in actual, as opposed to feigned, equality.

Everybody will benefit from diversity through a stronger ecosystem built on sounder principles of unity, as opposed to exclusion. This includes both males and females.