The two sides of tech gender inequality

You usually are the sum of all the things you let others perceive about you (unless others are biased in perceiving you in a certain way by their previous experiences, not necessarily related to yourself). The same applies to inequality - if looked upon closely, there are significant numbers of high-placed positions held by one gender in an industry which people consider to be traditionally the majority playing field of the other gender. It all comes to individual capacity in spite of social pressure when analyzing whether gender inequality is actually a fact or moreover an excuse.

Regardless of the above, there are states where laws, political views, religion beliefs or opinions of top-level voices - all of which are or have become roots of tight-knit human societies as we know them now - are the sources of gender inequality. By far, the most actual example of this can be seen in Silicon Valley, where lawsuits of women against the "tech bros" have heightened starting with a female co-founder of Tinder accused the management of stripping her position on gender limitation in June last year.

But gender inequality on objective bases has been the attribute of many countries around the world even before news about it could spread instantly, as is the case nowadays. Religion is one of the factors around for centuries, and working on both raising tech awareness and allowing more women to escape the trenches of deep-rooted beliefs is Women Engineers Pakistan.

Women Engineers Pakistan is a non-profit organization working to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics to the nearly 100 million women living in Pakistan. Women Engineers Pakistan achieves this by having Campus Ambassadors in all of the major engineering universities of the Pakistan, and they are the ones facilitating interaction with enrolled students through conferences and seminars (less than one fifth of the women eligible for higher education end up attending university). Women Engineers Pakistan also serves as a recruiter by screen resumes of students in view of future hiring with partner engineering firms. Apart from bridging gender inequality, this is a great way to attract workforce in a field where the entire world confronts itself with a shortage of qualified IT professionals.

At the moment, Women Engineers Pakistan is running a crowd-funding campaign on LaunchGood - the Muslim world's KickStarter for NGOs - in order to achieve full-fledged international non-profit organisation status. The sum needed is north of $ 1,000, which can prove immensely important for Women Engineers Pakistan to continue on their endeavors for a healthier tech world in Pakistan. The campaign is just 10% funded right now, so let's help them reach their goal in their remaining 25 days of campaigning!

More info on Women Engineers Pakistan may be also found on their Facebook account, having a strong following.