According to a recent study by the International Labor Organization, teams with gender balance are 20 percent more likely to achieve better business results and benefit from different approaches to solving challenges. That is why the tech industry has tried to attract female specialists for the past decades. As for the Ukrainian tech sector, which shows promising and inspiring results, the gender balance is yet to come. The number of women is increasing, but the process is overall somehow slow. Sergey Tokarev, an IT entrepreneur and co-founder of Roosh, elaborates on the topic in his op-ed for Forbes.
According to a study by the Ukrainian IT community platform DOU, the number of female employees in the Ukrainian technical sector has kept on growing in the past few years. Four years ago, women represented 20 percent of the industry’s employees, while in 2023, the figure was 24 percent. As for female tech specialists, their number reached 19 percent in 2023.
Sergey Tokarev exemplifies Roosh, an investment group, and says that in 2020 the group counted about 20 percent of female managers, while this year they can boast 38 percent. “This is just one example of how the Ukrainian tech sector is no longer predominantly male,” the investor says.
The businessman says that this tendency is not stable and cannot guarantee that the IT and tech industries will reach a gender balance in a few years, especially when it comes to Ukraine. The country undergoes challenging times and new obstacles arise for women to join the tech sector.
First of all, it is Russia’s war against Ukraine. The danger for life pushes women to leave the country. According to Sergey Tokarev, one can assume that over time most of these women will find a local work abroad. It is also important to consider that some women are in the Ukrainian army, and many have to manage households and families by themselves which makes it quite challenging to work or study in the tech sector.
Another obstacle can be an overcrowded market and a lack of job offers. According to DOU, in 2022 a newly-baked front-end developer could find 49 offers, while in 2024 only 12.
All these challenges come from the long-existing prejudices against women in the technology industry which have existed in society for a very long time. The prejudiced attitude may start in the family when a girl is expected to be more interested in dolls than constructors, or in school, where some teachers may support boys more in their thrive for studying math and IT than girls.
“At Roosh, we always consider the team of a startup we are thinking of investing in. We know that true success lies in collaboration and diversity of experience and approaches,” explains Sergey Tokarev in his op-ed.
According to the businessman, four focus areas might change the gender balance in Ukrainian tech for the better.
Tech businesses should nurture future specialists. Ukrainian tech companies can benefit from being involved in the education process of future professionals. Sergey Tokarev urges businesses to launch internship programs for their professionals and students.
The curriculum should include soft skills development. The modern tech and IT market requires more than only tech skills—in the modern world, it is also important to have effective communication and organizational skills, to develop critical thinking and be able to work in a team.
Mentoring and role models. Role models and assistance in careers can positively affect girls’ success in the tech industry. STEM is FEM is one of the Ukrainian projects that helps girls find mentors to get professional advice, guidance, and motivation.
Supporting youth. It is not enough to support only adult professionals, the guidance towards the tech world should start much earlier—we need to educate youth about the industry and launch activities that will show them how the industry works and develops.
