Dot-com entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox condemns ‘unconscious bias’ against women in the tech sector

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>There is an &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;unconscious bias” against women in the technology sector&comma; according to dot-com entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Baroness Lane-Fox&comma; who co-founded Lastminute&period;com in the online boom of the early 2000s&comma; said she had originally thought the internet would level the playing field&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She described the growth of the internet as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;industrial revolution of our time” and said that unless women were at the forefront of it&comma; the UK would go backwards&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;All that’s happened is that one bunch of very rich white men have transferred their money to another bunch of very rich white men and&comma; worse than that&comma; they are in a very small concentrated area of the world&comma; in Silicon Valley&comma;” Baroness Lane-Fox&comma; a cross-bench peer&comma; said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I still find that really baffling&period; The absence of women from the teams that are making the internet&comma; the product designers&comma; the coders&comma; the engineers&comma; the absence of women in the venture capital community&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I think it is really profoundly important because this is where the industrial revolution of our time is&period; If women are absent from it I think we will go back in time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In the Sixties and Seventies there were a whole load of women in the computer industries but something happened in the Eighties that professionalised it and a lot left and it has now become a self-fulfilling prophecy&comma;” she said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I am perplexed by this as I genuinely thought the internet would be an empowering tool for women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is a cycle of behaviour in the venture capital community which I don’t think is overt sexism&comma; I think there is some&comma; but I don’t think it is the only reason but there is a lot of unconscious bias&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If you are a venture capitalist and you are looking at risk you are less likely to invest in someone that is not like you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I think there is a lot of different angles in the chain and I think it is incredibly important to understand with real data why that is happening&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I am optimistic because I think there are a lot of things that we can do that is imaginative to get women and girls into the sector right now&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Baroness Lane-Fox was speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to outline her plans for her Dot Everyone project&comma; which aims to advance the understanding of the digital age&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e49357c4d7c">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;divId&colon; 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e49357c4d7c'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;format&colon; 'belowpost'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; document&period;readyState &equals;&equals;&equals; 'loading' &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;document&period;addEventListener&lpar; 'DOMContentLoaded'&comma; window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; else &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback&lpar;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;script>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>


Discover more from London Glossy Post

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

- Advertisement -
Exit mobile version