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Women in Tech: Blippar’s Jess Butcher on why UK tech needs more female digital role models

As part of Bdaily London’s Women in Tech series, we are shining a light on the capital’s female tech role models, telling their stories and asking them what more needs to be done to undo the significant digital gender disparity. Up first is Blippar Co-Founder and Director Jess Butcher, who talks us through the societal imbalances that result in a distinct lack of female digital role models.

The occasion of Ada Lovelace Day seems a good a time as any to ponder why exactly the gender disparity in UK tech is still so pronounced and why, despite continued efforts to redress the imbalance, the problem persists to such an extent that female representation in digital sectors roles could actually drop below 25% this year.

A potential answer to this conundrum was revealed last week when Tech London Advocates released its findings that almost half of its 246 members believed that diversity among their workforce, which includes gender, social backgrounds and disabilities, does not improve company performance.

This is despite growing research showing that diversity can noticeably increase business performance.

Of course, diversity covers a whole range of different facets along with gender, but the figures hint towards, at best, an ambivalence towards the benefits of a diverse workforce and, at worst, an active aversion to it amongst the capital’s startup community.

In such a climate, is it at all surprising that not only is there a 3 to 1 imbalance in favour of men in digital roles but that only 9% of senior tech and digital roles are held by women?

“My overwhelming answer to why I think there are so few women [in tech roles] is that there are so few role models.”

One of the 9% is Jess Butcher, Co-Founder and Director of Blippar the visual discovery and augmented reality (AR) app, which back in March closed a massive $54m Series D funding round and now boasts 14 offices across the globe.

Her experience building a major London tech success story, not to mention her position as one of the few visible, female digital entrepreneurs, has given her unique insight into the digital gender problem, and as her profile has grown it has become an issue close to her heart.

“I do think it’s a big challenge [getting more women in tech] and it’s something that needs to be addressed,” Jess explains. “My overwhelming answer to why I think there are so few women [in tech roles] is that there are so few role models.”

While quick to clarify that the likes of Eileen Burbidge and Martha Lane Fox were ‘fantastic spokeswomen’ for women in tech, Jess still thinks there is a chronic lack of relatable, representative female entrepreneur spokespeople in the media elsewhere, and believes the reasons for this are twofold:

“The first reason is there aren’t so many women, there aren’t as many that have achieved on a scale that might justify more profiles and awareness about what they do.

“The second is that, women are and this is a very broad generalisation, they are not as good self-publicists, they tend to put their heads down and get on with the work and they don’t like to make a big song and dance about what they’re doing and what they’re achieving.”

It is in this way that circumstances can become self-fulfilling. There aren’t as many women in tech roles which means there aren’t as many role models. Less role models means less visible forerunners for women to take inspiration from and thus the cycle is reinforced.

“The more I think about it, the more I think it’s something that needs to be change at childhood level in terms of how we talk to and educate girls…”

The idea of ‘feminine traits’ and female risk aversion is a little harder to unpick.

While keen to avoid broad generalisations, Jess believes there is a general pattern that women are both less risk averse and less prone to self-promotion, and it is here that the scale of the diversity problem becomes even more pronounced.

The role of education

In other words, what can be done if commonly perceived female character traits are one of the main causes holding women back from getting more digital roles?

Jess thinks it goes all the way back to childhood and that changes need to be made to the way educators and society as a whole speaks to and treats boys and girls.

Expanding on this idea, she said: “The more I think about it, the more I think it’s something that needs to be change at childhood level in terms of how we talk to and educate girls about how risk taking and throwing themselves off the monkey bars as opposed to getting straight As and keeping themselves nice and clean.

“There is a gender disparity about how we talk to boys and girls, that I think is echoed throughout GCSE results where women do really well because they throw all the facts at the answers but at A Levels where they do slightly less well than men because they take more risks with their answers.”

It is clearly, as Jess puts it, an ‘ingrained social problem’ that will not just be solved overnight, and it is a problem which education, tech and the media all have a role to play in rebalancing.

Meanwhile, the repercussions of not facing up to the issue are felt both at the startup and business level, as well as the investor and venture capital (VC) level.

“There is no sector in the world that tech does not impact in a fundamental way right now, and every industry in the world has an audience of 50-50 female to male.”

When over 80% of VC firms have never appointed a woman to the board of one of their portfolio companies, there is an even more pronounced funding gap for female founded companies which inevitably shapes the sort of companies VCs look to invest in.

Again, the issue of ‘female traits’ and risk aversion raises its head as Jess touches upon the ‘huge impact’ that the lack of women in VC investing has on tech and startups in general, which means VCs are missing out on ‘some very important opportunities’.

Getting high net worth female individuals into angel investing is just as big a struggle and, while we’re seeing a lot more women being appointed as entrepreneurs in residence at various accelerators and VC firms, they’re still ‘notable by their scarcity’ according to Jess.

Of course, we’re not saying that only female investors are going to invest in women-led businesses, but more that a lack of diversity at investor level will logically have an impact on the sort of investment decisions VCs and angels make.

Logically, the benefits of diversity for businesses touched upon earlier can also be felt by investment firms too.

Tech and digital as more than just a sector

With tech and digital touching upon every aspect of our everyday lives, not to mention that it has its claws in every major sector and industry across the world, the lack of female digital representation is an issue that isn’t just something that one discreet ‘sector’ has to deal with - it affects everything.

“There is no sector in the world that tech does not impact in a fundamental way right now, and every industry in the world has an audience of 50-50 female to male,” expands Jess. “In fact in many consumer-focused products and industries the buyers of those products are predominantly female when you’re looking at grocery and retail.”

In short, tech and digital is an irreconcilable part of modern society and, as such, it can only reflect the shortcomings and failings as a whole.

Which is why Jess believes that there needs to be a ‘concerted’ and ‘proactive’ effort on behalf of government and all parties to ensure that momentum on the issue is maintained, and there is a move away from ‘sporadic campaigns’ which quickly run out of steam and dissipate.

Perhaps most alluringly for businesses, and going back to the benefits that can be wrought from having a diverse workforce, the commercial advantages that arise from having more female voices are obvious too.

According to Jess: “It’s absolutely imperative that the people actually selling, building, developing and marketing those products through technology are fully representative of the audiences that they’re marketing to.

“That’s not rocket science, it’s just fact.”