Tech exec: Level playing field for men, women leads to top performance

Should companies be required to hire an equal number of men and women employees to promote diversity in the workplace?

As far as Minette Navarrete is concerned, it is wrong to force the hiring of women just to achieve gender balance in the technology sector.

“This isn’t about force-fitting women into roles that they are not qualified for,” the president of Kickstart Ventures, said during the Inquirer Conversation on “Women in Tech, Tech for Women” held at the Ateneo Professional Schools in Makati on Friday.

The key, according to the venture investing executive, is to ensure a level playing field.

No charity

“I don’t think the solution is to force the issue. I think to suggest that we should hire women simply because they are women is as crazy and as bad as not hiring women. And to suggest that women want charity is to miss the point completely,” Navarrete explained

“We aren’t looking for charity. I think what we want is to earn a right to contribute and work beside the men,” she added.

“By providing everyone, men and women, an equal shot in an even playing field, companies can get the best performance out of their teams,” she said.

But Navarrete acknowledges that there are not enough women in her sector.

As founder and president of Globe Telecom subsidiary Kickstart Ventures, Navarrete is responsible for identifying potential investments in the form of startups. Oftentimes, she is invited to international conferences and finds herself as the only woman onstage.

Citing statistics in the United States, she said of the billions of dollars invested in startups in 2014, only 7 percent went to women-owned businesses. On the other hand, over the last three years in the Philippines, 15 percent of investments went to startups founded by women.

“Is it an issue? The numbers tell us it’s a real issue. Is it a US-only issue?” she said. “I would hazard a guess that it’s much a Philippine issue, an Asian issue as it is a US issue.”

She said it is important to have a god mix of women and men in the workplace because of its correlation with company performance.

“A number of studies has shown through the years that diversity, gender diversity in particular, all kinds of diversity, is good for men and women alike,” she said.

“To have women in technology will mean there is much sharper insight, much resonant insight about the consumer, what the customer wants,” she further said, citing Facebook and e-commerce where there are more women users.

Biases

Nevertheless, Navarrete said she is “not a big believer in government intervention.”

“I think government should create a policy environment that’s good for everybody,” she said, explaining that while government and policies should provide for services like maternal and reproductive health, people should also take into account their own biases that contribute to the less than ideal diversity in the sector.

“We need to seriously take a step back and examine the things that lead to this. We need to examine our education and [culture] and the systems where the biases originate from. We need to be much more mindful about the hiring process and the funding process,” Navarrete said.

READ: Globe Telecom one with gov’t in narrowing gender inequality gap

Gang Badoy, founder of Rock Ed Philippines and Polimetrics.net, said that while she is not conscious about how her gender affects her work, she has observed how people respond to her.

Because of her name, a lot of people that have yet to meet her in person immediately conclude that she is a man.

“For me, my gender is irrelevant to my output. [However], my gender is relevant to their reaction,” she said.

Badoy, who was also a speaker at the Inquirer Conversation, said she doesn’t mind people underestimating her because she is a woman as long as they eventually admit that she did a good job.

What she doesn’t want are other women who claim that the work of their peers are superior just because they are women.

For the technology sector, Navarrete said the subjects engineering and mathematics are mostly associated with men but there is no evidence that they are better at it.

READ: Gender programs to be mainstreamed in PH academe

She said tests on information and technology reveal that women perform better. However, there are also other factors that affect women’s performance. These include how women are brought up or are discouraged from taking subjects that are deemed ill-suited for women.

“Women are slightly more obedient. Typically we are not pushed to be more adventurous. The tendency of people is to nurture us…keep us safe and secure,” she said, which is unlike the sector she works in that requires her to make high risk decisions.

Work-life balance

As for how they juggle their work and family life, Badoy said she somehow found a way.

When she started with Polimetrics, which provides data on local legislators and the bills they filed, she learned how to code and did everything while traveling. During a trip to Europe, she worked on the basic code for Polimetrics so that when she went back to the Philippines she had time for her family.

“It’s like gambling,” she said, explaining that one should only bet money or time that they are willing to lose.

Navarrete, on the other hand, pointed out that the work-life balance question is always asked of women but never of men.

Nevertheless, she said technology has also helped her organize her life.

She said she used technology to keep in touch with her son and to remind herself to do “family things.”

“I use technology a lot. I always travel with lots of gadgets,” she said. “Tech can work for women. Tech helps me organize my life..to be more present with the people I need to stay connected with.”

“Women in Tech, Tech for Women” was organized by Inquirer, in partnership with Globe, for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit in Manila. CDG