“We need women to help design our digital society”

Tuesday 06 November 2018

Jersey may be aiming to build a digital society, but new figures suggest there is still a long way to go if that society is to give equal opportunities to both men and women.

Its emerged that of the 113 computing students at Highlands College, 111 of them are male - a statistic which St. Lawrence Deputy Kirsten Morel is flagging up in today's States Assembly.

As the Vice Chairman for the States’ Gender Pay Gap Review Panel, Deputy Morel is keen to ensure that Jersey’s workforce is “representative” - particularly within upcoming sectors like the computing industries.

To highlight the issue, Deputy Morel will be asking Education Minister Senator Tracey Vallois about these figures with the following question in today's States Assembly: “With 111 males and two females currently studying computing at Highlands College, will the Minister advise the Assembly as to the measures she is taking, if any, to encourage young women to choose to study computing and thereby to ensure Jersey’s future digital sector is representative of the island's population and not dominated by men?”

Pictured: Deputy Kirsten Morel is raising the issue of the gender gap in the digital industry with the Education Minister in today's States sitting.

Deputy Morel said he was “incredibly aware” of the gender gap in the computing industry on an international scale, but he said that he is concerned about the very low numbers of female computing students at Highlands. 

Deputy Morel emphasised that getting women into digital careers is especially important in the context of an island that “wants to be a digital society and [is] trying to develop a digital government.” 

“We need women to help design our digital society”, he added.

The Deputy warned that a male-dominated industry risks creating a digital sector that relies on “one way of seeing things” and referenced recent research that showed “developers’ own implicit biases seep into their programmes."

“It’s really important that we have a representative workforce”, he continued before noting that part of the problem is “Jersey’s conservative attitude towards employment." Deputy Morel said that more needs to be done to address stereotypes about the kinds of careers men and women can pursue.

Pictured: Deputy Morel called out "Jersey's conservative attitude towards employment" and the types of careers men and women can pursue.

One solution Deputy Morel suggested is promoting female role models in the tech industry to show young women that there is employment opportunities for them in computing and that “they can be whatever they want to be."

“One of the reasons I went into politics is I was sick and tired of seeing this waste of resources. As long as we don’t have women in these top positions, we’re wasting one of the most important resources and that’s human resources." 

Ahead of the States Assembly, he said that he is confident that the Education Minister will take a “pro-active” approach to “break down those gender barriers in employment."

Pictured: The Education Minister will respond to Deputy Morel's question about women in computing in the States Chamber today.

CEO of Digital Jersey Tony Moretta said that he was concerned about the tech gender gap, but he made the point the number young people studying digital skills in general was too low, meaning that there is “massive untapped potential” for Jersey’s tech sector. Mr Moretta said Digital Jersey are coordinating a number of initiatives such as the Women in Tech group and the Digital Skills Academy in partnership with Highlands to open up the computing industry to all young people.

He told Express that Digital Jersey is working with other island bodies to ensure that “there’s a diversity not only of jobs but also a diversity of people in those jobs” within Jersey’s computing and digital industry.