With the rise of automation, women in tech is no longer a nice-to-have but a need-to-have – Business Insider Nordic

For this years International Womens Day, expect to see numerous articles calling for more women in tech.

Theyre all right, of course a report released by Allbright earlier this week shows that a mere 3% of all VCs in Sweden are women, so little wonder that less than one in ten of VC investments in Sweden go to female entrepreneurs.

Sweden is at the forefront of gender equality across the board, but when it comes to the tech sector we have an embarrassingly long way to go. And unfortunately, its starting to get pretty urgent.

The advancement of tech and automation of jobs is waiting for no one. Arecent report from McKinsey shows that 46% of Swedish jobs are likely to be wiped out by emerging technology and female-dominated sectors like retail, administration and healthcare are taking some of the hardest hits.

This is not a bad thing per se quite the opposite. Innovation and new technologies should be embraced as important parts of moving countries and societies forward. Moreover, new jobs will be created en masse to build, develop and manage the technology replacing those jobs.

But considering thatwomen still make up of only a fifth of Swedens programming workforce, and less than 30% of the countrys STEM students, most of them risk missing out on the new opportunities that lie ahead.

Or, as areport from World Economic Forumput it given womens low participation in STEM professions (..) women stand to gain only one new STEM job for every 20 lost across other job families."

The same number for men? One new job for every four lost.

In other words, women's underrepresentation in STEM and technology combined precipitous job declines in women-dominated professions may well lead to women becoming grossly disadvantaged in the new, automated economy.

Regarding gender balance in tech, weve mainly heard concerns about women and girls not having enough role models, or too little female representation among VCs and founders. These are valid concerns but with jobs in female-dominated fields of work being wiped out in large numbers, women in tech is no longer a nice-to-have, but rather a pretty urgent need-to-have.

Failing to foster environments that encourage more women to approach STEM professions comes with the risk of excluding huge numbers of people from the general workforce benefiting no one.

Mina Hesar is the Head of Program and Culture at the Malm based accelerator Fast Track Malm.

Also Read:Here are Sweden's most powerful women in tech 2017

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With the rise of automation, women in tech is no longer a nice-to-have but a need-to-have - Business Insider Nordic