Tackling Gender Equality In The Ecosystem

By Raghav Sawhney

Numerous surveys and research studies show that the percentage of women invested and involved in cryptocurrency is far lower than that of men. Moreover, incidents like the North American Bitcoin Conference, where only 3 of the 88 speakers were women and the conference after party was held at a strip club, show a massive imbalance present in the trade.

So what exactly do the participation statistics reveal, and what could women do to get more involved in the emerging blockchain and cryptocurrency industries?

What can be done to get more women invested and involved?

The percentage of women invested and involved in cryptocurrency is far lower than that of men. 
Recently, there has been a push to get more women involved in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.

Disparity in involvement

The study found that “stress amplifies gender differences in strategies during risky decisions, with males taking more risk and females less risk under stress”.

Phu Styles, founder of the Women in Blockchain Foundation told Cointelegraph about another possible reason there are more men than women involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency:

How to get women involved: from wallet to research

Research the technology and the market, because due diligence is crucial to success, from both a career and investment perspective.  
Increase awareness

In major conferences, seminars and gatherings for discussion over Blockchain space, a look will reveal that there is scarcity in the number of women.

Many of the biggest ICOs and digital currency platforms, even many blockchain development firms are there whose founders are women.

Notable women in crypto and Blockchain  industry:

• Elizabeth Stark
• Meltem Demirors
• Galia Benartzi
• Rhian Lewis
• Elizabeth McCauley

Others individual women are as follows:

• Kathleen Breitman (co-founder of Tezos),
• Maxine Ryan (co-founder and COO of Bitspark),
• Tavonia Evans (CEO of $Guap),
• Elizabeth Rossiello (co-founder and CEO of BitPesa).  

 

The gender bias in cryptocurrency and blockchain

In the year 2017, Bitcoin investors seem to create wealth of approximately 85 billion dollars, but only 5 billion dollars are obtained by women. Ninety percent of Bitcoin users are men.

It is commonly known that the technology industry always has a scarcity of women and cryptocurrency also seems to be male-dominated from its roots.

Why the problem persists

Due to its origins of being male-dominated, the public perception of crypto-assets and Blockchain software continues to be that of an industry that is unappealing, and even unviable, for women.

ICO’s involvement with women:

People who are facing a major problem in ICOs which comes around is VC funding.

In 2016, only 4.94% of all successful VC fundraisers involved startups that were led by women. This is helpful for the women in a way that they will have the freedom to apply themselves for development of new startup big ideas without caring about the VC funding bias.

Increasing women participation in cryptocurrency

Some other practices that can be incorporated include:

• Campaigns which are informative whose targets are young girls in schools, to nurture the interest of Blockchain and crypto from the young age.
• Application of Blockchain which has been increased has taken away the products from the niche market, and those products are now usable universally.  
• On the topic of financial management, practice is given to the young girls to increase their knowledge and insight towards the digital.

Gender disparity is not new, but we feel that if, as a woman, you believe you have something of value to add then you need to simply go for it. It may not be easy, and it may take time, but eventually, it is the work you do that will speak for itself and that will attract interest from the right people