Pitchy, a signatory to The Galion Project’s Gender Agreement

Eliminating an imbalance with dangerous consequences

The Galion Project provides tech entrepreneurs with the Gender Agreement, a tool to help them achieve a better gender balance in their teams. With this charter, The Galion Project offers 45 solutions that are easy to implement to promote gender equality in corporations.

Women hold only 33% of jobs in the digital market. And only 9% of them are leaders of start-ups in France. This small proportion can be explained by societal factors. Frédéric Bardeau de Simplon summarises it as follows: “Cyberculture is male-dominated, but it’s cultural. In China, India or Iran, there are more female developers because communication regarding computer science is not gendered.”

The gender balance impacts society’s performance, innovation and progress

Below is a list of the challenges involved in this balance:

• #1 A performance challenge: the McKinsey study entitled “Woman Matter 2016” indicates that parity could generate $200 million in GDP by 2025;
• #2 A recruitment challenge: 750,000 jobs are to be filled in the tech sector by 2020 according to the European Commission;
• #3 A social performance challenge: parity has undeniable beneficial effects. In particular, it improves the social environment and increases job satisfaction and trust in the company. All of these aspects are specified in a 2015 report produced by the Institute of Public Policies;
• #4 An innovation challenge: diversity is a form of collective intelligence to be cultivated;
• #5 A major societal challenge: women must participate in the invention of the uses of tomorrow. The objective is societal progress by increasing diversity.

In China or India there are more female developers because communication about computer science is not gendered 

Major challenges taken into account in the charter

• Developing a holistic approach and an inclusive culture;
• Being proactive in recruiting;
• Arranging for maternity leave;
• Achieving parity in wages and promotions;
• Creating awareness of cognitive biases: self-censorship, promotion, imposter syndrome, etc.

To view the charter or read the full article, click here.