Up to Code

LOCAL VOICES

Globally, there are far more men than women in tech. But the traditionally male-dominated industry will miss out on a world of talent if it doesnʼt encourage women to participate. We checked in with experts in Hong Kong and Macao to learn what's happening locally.

By Andrea Lo and Cathy Lai

-HONG KONG-

The National Center for Women & Information (NCWI) in the US predicts that 3.5 million computing-related jobs will be available worldwide by 2026. But if more young women donʼt pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees – the so-called STEM subjects – they might be left out of the conversation. The fact that the tech industry has long been a boysʼ club is not breaking news. From Silicon Valley to Shenzhen, gender imbalance has been a distinctive trait in the industry, with significantly lower numbers of female employees compared to male.

In the US, just 26 per cent of the computing workforce are women, as of April 2018, according to the NCWI, and a recent report from law firm Fenwick & West LLP revealed that women hold just 11 per cent of executive positions at Silicon Valley companies.

Hong Kong is no exception to this phenomenon. The government does not outline statistics on women working in tech or STEM, but anecdotal evidence suggests the circumstances reflects worldwide trends. We ask thought leaders and industry veterans to share their insights on the topic.

“Girls grow up being bombarded with gender stereotypes. This often involves encouraging behaviours that are not necessarily prized in a male-dominated competitive workplace culture, such as humility, deference, kindness, and politeness.

Itʼs what I call 'pinkification'. Although attitudes are changing, historically girls were simply not encouraged – and often discouraged – to pursue STEM subjects. So many girls and women assume that a career in STEM-related industries is either not possible or limited.”

– Farzana Aslam, Director of Kintillo, an executive coaching and training organisation

“While women comprise more than half of the student population across the cityʼs universities, they make up only 29.5 per cent of engineering and technology students. Results [from The Womenʼs Foundationʼs 2018 Gender Differences in Hong Kongʼs STEM Education report] suggest that not only are girls less likely to take STEM related electives in the DSE curriculum, but they are also less likely to consider STEM majors in higher education and work in the STEM fields so women risk losing out on tomorrowʼs best job opportunities.”

– Fiona Nott, CEO of The Womenʼs Foundation

“For the past 10 years, there has been a steady increase in the number of females working in biomedical research. However, only a few female scientists become professors in STEM-related careers – probably because of commitments to raising families.”

“In my observations, gender bias prevails mainly in engineering fields that have poor environments for fieldwork. Also, fields that involve complicated computing models tend to be more male-dominated. In the universityʼs computer services department, for example, we do not have any female staff.”

-– Professor Kenneth Ka Ho Lee, Chief of Developmental and Regenerative Biology Thematic Research Programme, Chinese University of Hong Kong

“It is a challenge... to attract women into the field and retain them as they become more senior and go through different stages in life, [such as starting a family]. A lot of these issues raise a point about womenʼs traditional roles. Even small things – like having a room at work to pump breast milk – are something so new to everyone. But this is crazy, because humans have been breastfeeding for thousands of years. The perspective [that coding is for boys] has no logical foundation. Coding is problem-solving, basically – something thatʼs certainly never been a male-only prerogative.”

– Michelle Sun, Founder of First Code Academy, a coding start-up for children

“I specialise in the cyber security industry, so my experience is limited to this field. Iʼve observed that women in cyber security are virtually non-existent in Hong Kong – in the past five years, Iʼve met less than seven women.”

– James Kung, Founder, inSecurity Limited

ROLL CALL

We asked a few of Hong Kong’s largest STEM corporations what percentage of on their board members are women. Here’s the breakdown.

25%: MTR Corporation Limited

18%: Swire Pacific Limited

15%: CLP Holdings Limited

12.5%: PCCW Limited 0%: Tencent Holdings Limited

BY THE NUMBERS

2 MILLION computing-related jobs available worldwide by 2020

26% of the computing workforce in the US are women

11% of executive positions at Silicon Valley companies are held by women

17% of Fortune 500 Chief Information Officer positions held by women in 2017

51.8% of female students in Hong Kong choose STEMrelated secondary school electives

13.9% of women in Hong Kong pursue STEM majors at university

35% of all female students worldwide graduate from STEM subjects at university

-MACAO-

Macao and Hong Kong both see gender imbalances when it comes to careers in STEM but within Macaoʼs secondary school streaming system the gap begins as early as 14. Before they begin senior secondary school (form 4), the majority of students must choose between three main ʻstreamsʼ – arts, science and commerce – as the main focus of their studies and, possibly, the foundation of their future professional development.

The “Curriculum Framework for Formal Education of Local Education System”, established by Macaoʼs Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, requires students majoring in one stream to obtain basic knowledge of the other streams through additional classes. However, switching between streams is not easy. During early secondary school, students are encouraged to focus on selected stream subjects, meaning they would likely be too far behind to change directions. Of the cityʼs secondary schools, 34 of 46 follow this optional practice.

Although the Macao government does not track statistics on STEM education or career paths, professors, professionals and current science students agree that gender imbalance in STEM-related university degrees and subsequent careers, results from these early formative decisions. We hear their thoughts and experiences.

“Men and women have different perspectives. Their diversities can stimulate creativity, and a better understanding of human needs on a broader spectrum. In the long-term, female scientists can play an important role in encouraging more young girls to enter the field. This is very important for future generations, as we need to be diversified.”

– Maggie Hoi, Associate Professor at University of Macauʼs Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences

“The science stream tends to generally have more male students. Female students have an advantage in literature and language, so many of them enrol in the arts stream. Thatʼs why we tend to have fewer girls in the former. [In our school] we also provide an arts-science stream as a curriculum option, where we combine subjects from the two. In this stream, we see a good mix of male and female students.”

– Dr. Kou Kam Fai, Principal of co-education Pui Ching Middle School

“It starts with early education and societal expectations. By default, society makes many girls feel like the ʻprincessʼ life – and marrying a prince – is what they should be aspiring to. Growing up, girls are usually not exposed to toys that are more related to logical thinking. Itʼs a systemic divide that has repercussions later on. Even though more girls study engineering nowadays, the overall numbers of male engineers still out rates female engineers. Itʼs a hard environment for women, because males are so dominant.”

– Vinnci Lou, San Francisco Studio Director and Design Lead, Impossible Labs; Engineering graduate, University of Macau

“Macaoʼs high schools care a lot of about marks – many of them determine whether their students are suitable for the science stream by their marks. [I personally think] this is wrong. After I started university, I realised that girls can also be very good scientists. Because they are very attentive to details, they can outperform male students in terms of system analysis, sorting data and writing literature reviews.”

– Chi-man Leong, Entomologist, Macao