If we want a different world through technology we must insist on women being invited to the design table
“Live in the future, then build what’s missing.” Paul Graham
The future we are building in the tech world is almost entirely designed by men.
Actually, the future we are building in any area is almost entirely designed by men. Still.
Has anyone considered that this is a serious problem?
What does ‘designed by men” mean?
Let’s go back 50 plus years and look at what men designed then that we are now using today…
Our capitalist system. Our banking system. Our ‘health care’ system. Our Venture Capital system.
City plans, agriculture, education…pretty much everything. Designed by men.
Unless we bring the female design ethic into the design of the systems that will enable our future, we are going to get more problem design and more of the same – women left out of the conversation. Women in second-rate jobs. Women underpaid. Isolated young people, suicide, environmental ravage, more poverty, more guns, more violence, more really shitty government and governance.
Yet the truth is that even bright, gender friendly urban males are building blockchain and tech companies stacked with…you guessed it…more males. They say it is because women don’t know how to code.
They fail to understand that women might not know how to code. But we know how to build community, design for care, consider the long-term future in our design, ensure people can breathe, live, connect, and have real relationships, and honour different forms of value. Love, care, thoughtfulness, compassion, vulnerability…some of the values the world could do well with right now.
If we want a different world, if we want to enable blockchain technology (and any technology) to serve humanity, then we need women on the design team—not as peripheral tokens, but as engaged participants in what is being made.
So men, quit your lame excuse as to why your team is testosterone-heavy. Suck up your precious A type go-hard-or-go-home story. Take a good look in the mirror if you say you are pro-women yet your team is male-dominated. Be up for feeling uncomfortable when a woman asks you really great, but very challenging questions about what you are designing.
In the words of the goddess Nike. Just do it. Get more women on your team. Listen to them. Consider that they might actually offer value, the kind of value that might lead to a world that your daughter with thank you for.
Photo by Andre Francois on Unsplash
