In this episode of Amplified, Christine Chow, Engagement Director at Hermes EOS, and Kimberley Lewis, Engagement Director at Hermes, discuss what companies can do to improve inclusivity and promote gender equality. Also taking part is Saniye Gülser Corat, the Director of UNESCO’s Division for Gender Equality and author of the report ‘I’d blush if I could’, which looks at how AI voice assistants perpetuate harmful gender biases.
Gülser explains how the proliferation of AI voice assistants "exposes the dangers of women not being involved in tech design and development", arguing that "having more women in tech would be a first positive step to addressing complex questions about this gendering of the digital space."
According to Kimberley, "the higher up in the company you go… the fewer women there are, with women accounting for only 6% of CEOs of the top 100 tech companies."
Why is this important for investors?
"In multiple sectors, including the tech sector, there is a positive correlation between higher levels of employee diversity and senior leadership, and stronger financial performance… it’s estimated that reaching gender parity in the US tech sector could add up to $390bn in enterprise value."
Christine argues that "to introduce more genuine diversity and inclusion on boards…. more transparency is needed."
And it is important to consider that diversity problems extend beyond gender. As Gülser says, "It’s really very important that companies… have more diverse boards, not only in terms of gender, but also other factors of diversity… when we look at boards today… we don’t see many people with soft skills."
What are some of the tangible actions that companies can take to tackle this? Tune in to Amplified.
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