Globally, tech firms suffer from a serious gender imbalance, with a study from consultancy Accenture and NGO Girls Who Code showing the proportion of women working in the sector is now smaller than in 1984.— © AFP UC Berkeley’s ‘ DEIB In Web3 ’ playbook has launched the ‘At Women Of Web3 Conference – To Embrace ‘Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging’.DEIB represents ‘Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging’.
The initiative is being led by Ripple as the founding sponsor and Bridget Greenwood from The Bigger Pie .The focus is with Web3 decentralised communities.
This comes at a time of turmoil within Web3 communities, where the industry is still attempting to recover from the FTX, Celsius, Terra Luna and other scandals.These were crypto currency providers who went under .
These were 2022 events; in 2023 there are reports of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and other banks collapsing, indicating a sector that is still subject to wild and turbulent economic times.
With the ‘DEIB In Web3’ initiative, the launch of this playbook provides an opportunity to reset the Web3 space.
This is through promoting women and minorities.
This is based on companies with more women in leadership roles tending to be more profitable.One reason put forwards is that more diverse teams are more innovative and are better able to solve complex problems, better able to understand and serve their customers, as they are more representative of the broader population.
Traditionally, the male dominated blockchain and cryptocurrency environment has not been conducive to female voices and particularly other minorities in the LGBTQ space.
Yet new research finds almost 90 per cent of women worldwide are penalised and undermined because of their achievements at work.
Here, so-termed ‘ Tall Poppy Syndrome ’ occurs when people are attacked, resented, disliked, criticised, or cut down because of their achievements and/or success.
And this is no different in Web3.
As an example of the challenges, technology investors are more likely to back male founders over female counterparts due to their own biases and the popular perception that top tech tycoons are all young white men.This is according to a Study by Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Bridget Greenwood explains to Digital Journal: “The default for VCs so often means championing men in key roles over women, especially in a bear market”.
Greenwood adds: “But all the data shows that women in key C-suite roles deliver greater profitability than their male counterparts”.
In terms of how effectively companies turn a dollar of investment into a dollar of revenue, startups founded and cofounded by women are significantly better financial investments.For every dollar of funding, these startups generated 78 cents, while male-founded startups generated less than half that, at just 31 cents.
The purpose of the DEIB in Web3 Playbook is to create an actionable resource and tool that will highlight a path forward for Web3 that centers on equity and inclusion, while acting as a bridge between academia and industry as in an open invitation to the entire ecosystem to get involved.This includes:
Dedicated Website & Portal Steering Group Playbook DAO for those shaping and guiding the playbook including Key Industry Leaders SaaS Model implementation of Playbook Digital Dashboard with data gathering and reporting.
Greenwood puts the process in context, noting: “The DEIB Web3 Playbook represents a critical turning point for the Web3 space.We are proud to have collaborated with UC Berkeley, Ripple, and are looking forward to bringing in other key Web3 foundations, organisations and communities to set a new standard for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the industry.
By providing companies with the resources, they need to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace, and to allow more funding to flow to outstanding startups, we believe that we can create a more successful and sustainable Web3 ecosystem.”.
