Power Bite: Steps to Increase Gender Diversity

Steps To Increase Gender Diversity

While the move for gender diversity has been glacial for decades, progress in recent years offers encouragement for change. What does it take to keep the momentum going? How can the current majority be persuaded to see that diversity is truly in everyone’s best interest?

Drawing examples from the male-dominated field of technology within the financial sector, Siew Choo Soh, Managing Director, Group Head of Big Data/AI and Consumer Banking Technology at DBS Bank, shares steps you can take to increase gender diversity in your organization.

Highlighting the Need To Do Something

To increase gender diversity, you’ll need to start by raising awareness within every individual in the organization about the importance of creating a more balanced gender representation. Here are some questions and mindsets you might encounter along the way, and suggestions to help reframe perspectives.

Good Enough Isn’t Enough

Women currently represent about 23% to 30% of technology teams in financial services. For many, this is somewhat good enough. As a leader, it’s your role to show them that it isn’t. For instance, you could highlight missed opportunities to create products and services that cater equally to the needs of both men and women.

We have seen ample examples where products and services that are designed by a largely male team fail to support the needs of women. A great example is the car crash test bias which indicates that female drivers are 17% more likely to be killed, and any seat belt wearing females are 73% more likely to be seriously injured because of the lack of modelling of a female driver or passenger in car crash tests.

Win-Win

Another common misunderstanding is that increasing gender diversity comes at the expense of the current majority. It’s key that everyone understands that this move is not a zero sum game. With more women and different perspectives on board, your organization’s products and services can evolve to get better, to tap into new markets. As you cater to new customer groups, the proverbial pie grows. No one has to give up a slice for everyone to get a share.

Offering Differentiated Support

Proposing shifts in policy to offer differentiated support often raises concerns over the lack of equality. It’s important to help your colleagues understand the difference between equality and equity. Equality means everyone is treated the same exact way, regardless of differences. Equity means everyone is provided with what they need to succeed. Often, what we want to achieve is gender equity, not equality.

Help people realize that as men and women have different needs, organizations should provide differentiated support to help them succeed. In environments where women are not represented, it is crucial to provide an opportunity for their voices to be heard so that they have an equal chance. It is important to recognise that in an environment where women are still bearing a bigger proportion of home care and/or child care, creating policies that help mitigate the impact of this unequal distribution of responsibilities is important. And finally, it is important to know that providing the support to ensure equity doesn’t mean lowering the standards or giving special preferences

Building Awareness

Whether they’re conscious of it or not, everyone has intrinsic biases. Confronting one’s biases can be uncomfortable, but it’s an essential step in creating diversity and supporting inclusion. After all, these unconscious biases impact how decisions are made. If you don’t already, offer your team training led by experienced instructors to build awareness. This way, people can start to gain an understanding of different biases and how to work through them with time.

To this end, DBS has embarked on a bank-wide unconscious bias training that also leverages Harvard University’s Implicit Association Test. The open-source quiz builds self-understanding and highlights that over 80% of participants will carry biases in one form or another.

With awareness, the next step would be to help participants learn how to address these biases. When they next make a decision, they can then pause to consider the perspectives they may be overlooking and if all voices have been heard.

Attracting & Retaining Talent

If, like most, you believe that there isn’t enough engineering talent who identify as women – think again. In 2020, DBS Women In Tech, a virtual hiring event to bring female technologists into the bank’s technology workforce, drew over 600 female applicants – proof that there is a strong pipeline of female technologists out there. So initiate a reason for them to connect with you and your organization. Expand your existing reach by working with like-minded partners – DBS for example, partners Financial Women’s Association of Singapore and United Women Singapore to advance gender diversity in Singapore.

As these talents grow within your organization, create opportunities for them to develop their capabilities and continue to build connections. For instance, in addition to internal mentorship programs, DBS actively participates in MentorConnect – a cross-company mentorship program launched by Singapore’s InfoComm Media Development Authority and Dell that offers leadership and networking opportunities especially for women in tech.

Encouraging Allyship

If having a diverse workforce makes us stronger, then championing gender diversity should be everyone’s responsibility. At times, people simply aren’t sure of how to help. The gender gap remains a relatively sensitive issue, which can make potential allies hesitant to step forward.

So create a safe and easy way for anyone to clarify concerns they may have, and to make a contribution. In 2020, DBS Bank launched the EquAlly – Be an Ally campaign where over 500 pledges were made to enhance gender equity. The proposed actions can be as big as policy shifts, like offering differentiated support as mentioned earlier. They could also be small commitments such as going through a checklist to assess, or simply asking aloud, if a woman’s view has been heard when making decisions.