The world of work is becoming more and more digital. This could soon prove to be a disadvantage for women. According to a new study, female employees work less often with sophisticated software – and feel less prepared for dealing with digital technologies.
According to a study, the digitization of the working world could increase the discrimination against women. “With a view to the digital future, female employees are noticeably at a disadvantage compared to male employees,” explained the Economic and Social Science Institute (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation. Study author Yvonne Lott called for active countermeasures.
It is true that women and men work at the computer with similar frequency, as the study further states. However, advanced and specialized software and technologies such as cloud services are used significantly more often by men. The following applies: “The more sophisticated a software application is, the less likely it is that women will use it.”
The gap is particularly large for women working part-time: According to the study, they only use advanced standard software with a probability of 20 percent, compared to just under 33 percent for female full-time employees. The differences between male full-time and part-time employees are therefore usually much smaller.
According to the study, this is reflected in women’s assessment of their career opportunities: “The probability that working women feel well prepared for dealing with networked digital technologies is 34 percent. In contrast, among male employees it is at least 49 percent. ” Only every tenth woman expects digitization to improve her job prospects – compared to 18 percent for men.
To ensure that women do not fall even further behind in the labor market, the author of the study, Lott, calls for a particular focus on further training. This is “of course necessary for all employees”. But it can currently be observed that women receive less frequent and shorter further training than men. In addition, Lott generally advocates more acceptance of part-time work, shorter working days and a clear separation of work and private life.
