Gender- and diversity-fair IT — without the 'hot potato'-effect

This was the title of a talk, our gender and technology researcher Anita Thaler held on May 28, 2020 at the ISPA-Forum of Austria's Internet Service Providers.

After an introduction of federal minister Elisabeth Köstinger, Thaler explained why it is so important for sustainable change in the IT sector to use own room for manoeuvres instead of waiting for others to change first (which would be throwing the hot potato).

In the following panel discussion ‘unconscious bias' was one of the main topics, which is of great relevance for human resources' managers. We all have prejudices, however to notice them and reflecting one owns behaviour are important first steps. IT organisations can offer unconscious bias trainings especially for their managers. To reduce structural barriers of gender equality, Thaler recommends collecting gender segregated data, making decision making processes transparent and boards gender balanced, including gender- and diversity experts.