“I’m used to being the only woman in the room,” Joni Pirovich told Cointelegraph over the phone.
Her tone didn't sound like she was impassioned about injustice, but resigned to the facts. Pirovich is a blockchain and digital asset attorney with many years of experience in the crypto industry. She is also the mother of two children.
"In some ways, it's been a real struggle to have my voice heard, to be seen as a legitimate human being with a point of view worth listening to, let alone respecting or advocating for."
Her statement isn't shocking, since gender disparity in the industry isn't a new topic. Back in August, a survey released by CNBC found that women are still less than half as likely as men to invest in cryptocurrencies, at 16 percent for men compared to 7 percent for women.
These results echo an encryption report published by Finder in June. It reported that 22 percent of men own at least one cryptocurrency, compared to just 15 percent of women.
As a reminder, twice as many men as women invest in cryptocurrencies, and women only account for 16% of the NFT market. Thanks to @ReeseW and other female leaders in the field who are working to change this.
— bobbyhundreds.eth (@bobbyhundreds) December 5, 2021
The crypto industry sits at the crossroads of finance and technology, two industries that have been plagued by gender disparities.
A 2021 report by Accenture and Girls Who Code found that the gender gap for women working in tech has actually increased since 1984, falling from 35% to 32%. The survey also found that half of young women entering the tech industry quit before the age of 35, echoing Pirovich's unpleasant experience working in the industry.
Meanwhile, an October 2020 study by Women in VC found that only 4.9 percent of venture capital partners in the U.S. are women. The data becomes even more sobering when you look at the number of women from minority groups—only 0.2% of VC partners are Latino women, and 0.2% are Black women.
Susan Banhegyi, author of Women in Crypto and founder of Crypto Women Global, agrees that women face the same problems in crypto that afflict women in all male-dominated industries.
She told Cointelegraph that “some of the crypto community may not be very welcoming,” citing harassment and a lack of inclusivity as some of the issues.
The first time I really felt sexism in tech was when I was 16, when I applied for a sysadmin position and the interviewer told me "You're a girl, so you can't do this job. You're too It’s too weak to carry a desktop computer.”
Yes, these people do exist.
— Lou (@lovelacecoding) November 29, 2021
Emilie Wright is the founder of PULSE, a charity-focused, female-led NFT project. In her experience, men in the industry tend to naturally make room for other men, she said.
She told Cointelegraph: “In my experience, as a woman, it’s harder to occupy that space, and if you try hard enough, you often have questions about how qualified you are or your credibility.”
"If I were male, I might feel more accepted, less self-doubting, and less of a fake."
adoption gap
Gender barriers exist not only for women who want to work in the crypto industry, but also for women who want to invest in the industry.
Previous discussions of crypto gender have often been blamed on risk aversion. Cryptocurrency is notoriously a very volatile investment and this is a factor for many investors chasing big profits. In stereotypes, female investors are generally more conservative and risk-averse.
But maybe it's a simple answer to a complex question. Wright argues that if risk aversion does exist among female investors, it is simply because it is more "socially acceptable" for men to gamble and take risks.
"Maybe as women, we have an underlying pressure to be safe, secure, and stick to what we know. I think that risk is more widely recognized in the cryptocurrency space, and I see participation in There are very few women in crypto.”
She added that when she first started investing in cryptocurrencies, she would spend a few hours learning about the industry after her 9-5 job. "I wonder if it's more difficult to actually break into this field as a woman with a family and obligations and a busy life," she said.
Amy-Rose Goodey, Operations and Membership Manager at Blockchain Australia, has another explanation. Women tend to shy away from investing because they lack confidence in their knowledge of how cryptocurrencies work, and they don't seek help for fear of being ridiculed, she said. she says:
"The 'women are risk-averse' narrative has been circulated as the main reason women don't invest in crypto. In my experience, that's not the case. Women are very keen to invest, but don't feel confident going through the buying process."
“(Women) worry more about not knowing how to buy bitcoin than losing their initial investment,” she said. "It seems to be more of a question of confidence than of risk aversion."
Their theory is backed up by research showing that a person's confidence is by far the most common predictor of financial risk aversion — regardless of the person's actual level of financial literacy.
Goodey also said that as the crypto industry moves towards mainstream adoption, it has already begun to make strides towards gender equality:
“From my perspective, more and more women are diving headfirst into crypto and investing. I don’t think it’s going to slow down anytime soon as demand for this asset class continues to grow.”
It’s true that the number of women entering the crypto space has skyrocketed this year as cryptocurrencies are getting closer to mainstream adoption.
A survey conducted by Gemini in the United Kingdom in January found that women accounted for 41.6 percent of the 2,000 respondents who were current or former cryptocurrency investors. The survey also found that 40 percent of respondents planning to invest in cryptocurrencies are women.
In July, Robinhood Chief Operating Officer Gretchen Howard said the number of women using the trading app had grown 369 percent year-over-year.
A look at historical data on gender disparities in cryptocurrencies reveals that the baseline for growth is rather low. A 2013 survey of Internet encryption forums found that out of 1,000 people surveyed, 95.2% of “bitcoin users” were men. In February, a brokerage study by eToro found that 15 percent of its users were women, up from 10 percent the previous year.
the road to representation
As for the path to equal representation, Pirovich said men need to be part of the solution.
Wright agrees, saying: "There are some amazing men who are supporting and empowering women in the right way, but there is so much more we need to do."
There is a lot of sexism and discrimination in this area. I can't imagine what it's like being a woman in crypto - they get a ton of undeserved criticism and it's rarely taken as seriously as their male counterparts. This situation must stop.
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) October 9, 2019
Banhegyi spoke about the importance of achieving gender parity in the workforce, saying: "The more women working in this industry, the better because community is the foundation of any platform."
Cryptocurrencies have the potential to empower women and give them more control over their finances. For many women, mainstream adoption has begun to remove some of the barriers of accessibility that previously stood between them and the potential benefits.
Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness.
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