COVID-19 has left an everlasting impact on nearly every industry and is undoubtedly shaping the future of work, both for employees and companies. According to a new research released today by JFD x BVA, nearly 77% of Europeans believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is equally affecting women and men. This study, which polled nearly 4000 people in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, unveils several interesting facts regarding gender inequality in tech and entrepreneurship.
– 28% of Europeans perceive technological and digital skills as being male skills
– 37% of Europeans women plan to work in a tech or digital environment
– For Europeans, a great entrepreneur has a sense of responsibility, self-confidence, ambition and leadership. Qualities they do not consider feminine.
“We learn in this study that even in crisis times, the new generations are the most optimistic about their country’s economic situation and their future. This reveals their determination to integrate into tomorrow’s world. We need to build an increasingly digital future by relying on this new generation of leaders.”, says Delphine Remy-Boutang, CEO the Bureau & JFD, President GEN France.
What future is there for women and young people in tomorrow’s jobs?
China and Germany are considered to be the countries that will recover best after the health crisis. It is also their populations and the Americans who seem best prepared to work in the professions of the future, according to the interviewees.
Moreover, the interviewees are unanimous that the professions of the future are linked to digital, alongside those in the medical and paramedical sector. 47% of Europeans believe that IT development is a job of the future, while 45% think that an artificial intelligence engineer is also a job with a future.
In relation to the future potential of tech professions, digital skills are considered to be the most important (76%), ahead of technical skills (74%). While overall the skills that will be increasingly in demand are deemed to be mostly non-gendered, technological and digital skills are perceived to be more masculine (28%) than feminine (4%).
While 16% of working Europeans think that their profession will disappear in 10 years and are not convinced of their ability to bounce back, hope nevertheless lies in the professions of the future, and more specifically in the digital sector. However, 56% of the people surveyed do not feel sufficiently prepared to work in these professions that have a future.
The lack of knowledge and information accounts for this, with only 36% feeling they are well informed about digital jobs (51% among 15-29 year olds). Overall, women are generally more at a disadvantage on these issues. 37% of women plan to work in tech (48% among young people aged 15-29).
Entrepreneurship: a distorted perception of entrepreneurs or women?
In the professional world in general, as in the digital world, individual rather than relational qualities are expected, such as adaptability (76%), creativity (73%) or intelligence (74%). These qualities are generally non-gendered, but are more easily associated with feminine than masculine qualities.
On the other hand, in order to be an entrepreneur, Europeans feel that the most important qualities are a sense of responsibility, self-confidence, ambition, and leadership. These qualities, seen as essential to being an entrepreneur, still struggle to be considered as qualities they attribute to women: self-confidence (40%), ambition (41%) and leadership (39%).
→ DISCOVER THE ENTIRE STUDY: Study conducted for JFD by BVA, involving 4019 people in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom from January 28 to February 5, 2021, on representative samples of the population and an over-sample of young people aged 15 to 29 in each country.
