“I’m used to being the only woman in the room,” Joni Pirovich told Cointelegraph by phone.
His tone was not passionate, as if he was claiming an injustice. It was a practical tone, resigned to the truth. Pirovich is a lawyer specializing in blockchain and digital assets and has been involved in the cryptocurrency industry for years. She is also the mother of two children.
“In a way, it has been a real struggle for my voice to be heard, to be seen as a legitimate person at the table who has points of view that are worth listening to – let alone respect or follow.”
His claim is not surprising, since the gender disparity in this industry is not exactly a new topic of conversation. In August, CNBC published a survey finding that women were still less than half as likely to invest in cryptocurrencies as men, with 16% of men investing versus 7% of women.
These results echoed what the Finder cryptocurrency report had claimed months earlier, in June, stating that 22% of men own at least one type of cryptocurrency, while only 15% of women do. .
Reminder that twice as many men invest in crypto than women, and women only make up 16% of the NFT market. Thanks @ReeseW and other women leaders in the space who are committed to changing that.
– bobbyhundreds.eth (@bobbyhundreds) December 5, 2021
Reminder that the number of men who invest in cryptocurrencies is twice that of women, and women only represent 16% of the NFT market. Thanks to Reese Witherspoon and other leading women in the space who have committed to changing this.
The cryptocurrency industry is at a crossroads between finance and technology, two sectors that have traditionally been haunted by gender disparity.
A 2021 report by Accenture and Girls Who Code found that the gender gap for women working in tech has worsened since 1984, from 35% to 32%. It also found that half of young women in tech drop out at 35, lending credence to Pirovich’s unfavorable experiences working in the industry.
Some of you have never had to schedule dedicated time each month in your calendar to remove all the “nice boobs” https://es.cointelegraph.com/ “she’s cute” https://es.cointelegraph.com/ “can she actually code? “https://es.cointelegraph.com/” get back in the kitchen “comments from your technical videos on YouTube, and honestly? It shows.
– Chloe Condon (@ChloeCondon) August 10, 2021
Some of you have never had to schedule a dedicated time each month in your calendar to delete all the comments of “pretty tet * s” https://es.cointelegraph.com/ “she is beautiful” https://es.cointelegraph. com / “can you really code?” https://es.cointelegraph.com/ “go back to the kitchen” from his technical videos on YouTube, and honestly … It shows.
Meanwhile, an October 2020 research report from Women in VC found that only 4.9% of US-based VC partners are women. The data becomes even more sobering when you look at how the numbers stack up regarding women from minority groups: Only 0.2% of VC members are Latina women and 0.2% are black women.
Susan Banhegyi, author of Women in Crypto and founder of Crypto Women Global, agrees that the problems faced by women in the cryptocurrency sector are the same that affect all male-dominated industries.
“Some crypto communities can be unwelcoming,” he told Cointelegraph, citing harassment and lack of inclusion as some issues.
The first time I genuinely felt the sexism in tech was when I applied for a sys admin role when I was 16, and the interviewer told me “you’re a girl so you can’t do this job. You’re too weak to lift desktop computers “.
Yes these guys exist.
– Lou (@lovelacecoding) November 29, 2021
The first time I really felt sexism in technology was when I applied for a system administrator position when I was 16 years old, and the interviewer said, “You are a girl, so you cannot do this job. You are too weak to lift computers. desktop “.
Yes, these guys exist.
Emilie Wright is the founder of PULSE, an NFT project focused on charity and run by women. He says that in his experience, men in the industry naturally tend to make room for other men.
“My experience, as a woman, is that it is more difficult to occupy that space, and if you push for it you often find yourself with questions about what you deserve or your credibility,” she told Cointelegraph.
“If I were a man, I would probably feel more accepted, doubt myself less, and feel less of an impostor in that space.”
The adoption gap
Gender hurdles come not only for women who want to work in the cryptocurrency industry, but also for those looking to invest in it.
The above discourse on gender tends to blame risk aversion. Cryptocurrencies are a notoriously volatile investment, which is a pull factor for many investors seeking lucrative returns. Women stereotypically tend to be more conservative and risk-averse.
But, maybe this is an easy answer to a complicated question. Wright suggested that if risk aversion exists among female investors, it is only because it is more “socially acceptable” for men to gamble and take risks.
“Perhaps, as women, there is an underlying pressure on us to be safe and stick with the known. For me, this risk is recognized much more significantly in the crypto space, and I see fewer women involved in crypto.” .
He added that when he first started investing in cryptocurrencies, he spent hours learning about the sector after working his usual nine-to-five job. She said, “I wonder if, as women with families, commitments, and busy lives, it makes it that much more difficult to get into the space.”
Amy-Rose Goodey, Director of Operations and Affiliation at Blockchain Australia, has an alternate explanation. He says that women tend to shy away from investing because they are not confident in their understanding of how cryptocurrencies work, and do not ask for help for fear of being ridiculed, stating:
“The statement” women are risk-averse “has continued to circulate as the main reason women do not invest in crypto. In my experience, this is not the case. Women are very eager to invest, but they don’t feel like it. sure to go through the process to buy. “
“[Las mujeres] they are more anxious about not knowing how to buy Bitcoin than they are about losing the initial investment, “he said.” It seems to be more a question of confidence than risk aversion. “
His theories are backed by research, which shows that an individual’s confidence is by far the most penetrating predictor of financial risk aversion – regardless of the individual’s actual financial literacy.
Goodey also said that the cryptocurrency industry is already beginning to take steps towards gender parity as it moves towards mainstream adoption:
“From my point of view, more and more women are diving headlong into the crypto sector and investing in general. I don’t see it slowing down in the short term with a growing appetite for this asset class.”
This is true, the number of women diving into the cryptocurrency space has exploded this year as we move closer to mainstream adoption.
In a survey conducted in the UK in January this year, Gemini found that women made up 41.6% of the 2,000 respondents who were current or former investors in crypto. It also found that 40% of the respondents who said they planned to invest in cryptocurrencies were women.
In July, Robinhood’s COO Gretchen Howard claimed that the number of women using the trading app had risen 369% year-on-year.
If you look at the historical data on the gender disparity in cryptocurrencies, you see a fairly low benchmark for growth. In 2013, a survey of cryptocurrency forums across the internet revealed that out of 1,000 people surveyed, 95.2% of “Bitcoin users” were male. An eToro brokerage study in February this year found that 15% of its users were women, an increase from 10% from the previous year.
The road to representation
On the path to equal representation, Pirovich said that men have to be part of the solution. She said: “It’s about men supporting women to identify that they are on an exclusively male panel. They just decide not to be part of it until at least one other woman is speaking and there is a more equal or diverse representation on that panel. “.
Wright agreed, saying that “there are some incredible men who are supporting and empowering women in the right way, but much more needs to be done.”
There is an incredible amount of sexism and discrimination in this space. I could not imagine being a woman in crypto – they take an incredible amount of undeserved criticism and are rarely taken as seriously as their male counterparts. This needs to stop.
– The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) October 9, 2019
There is an incredible amount of sexism and discrimination in this space. I can’t imagine being a woman in the crypto industry – they get an incredible amount of undeserved criticism and are rarely taken as seriously as their male counterparts. This has to stop.
Banhegyi spoke of the importance of having gender parity in the workforce, stating: “The more women work in this industry, the better, because a community is the foundation of any platform.”
Cryptocurrencies have the potential to empower women and give them more control over their finances. And for many women, widespread adoption has already started to remove some of the accessibility barriers that previously stood between them and potential gains.