A major talking point during the pandemic has been the rapid growth of the tech sector, not least the blockchain industry . Throughout 2021, blockchain-related job postings soared by 118 per cent, driven by the general trend towards decentralised work. Given that, at the same time, women were disproportionately affected by rising global unemployment, a surge in female employment in the space would have been expected. However, less than 5 per cent of the world’s leading blockchain and crypto firms are led by women. In fact, all of the industry’s major projects have at least one male founder. The conditions are seemingly ripe for greater participation – why aren’t we seeing it? Education determines a lot. Only 18 per cent of girls globally are pursuing tertiary studies in STEM subjects, compared to 35 per cent of boys. Meanwhile, children’s interests at school are equally shaped by prevailing cultural norms and biases. Consider that in India, over 50 per cent of illustrations in maths or science textbooks predominantly feature boys, while only 6 per cent show girls. From a young age, children are inundated with gender-based ideas of what their futures should look like. In Southeast Asia, especially, deeply entrenched gender norms continue to limit women and girls. In the early years of my career, I could see that women were expected to be quiet: to be seen as “difficult” to work with could mean missing out on opportunities to advance. Teaching girls the value of assertiveness and, crucially, of choice, thus becomes an important first step. Improving diversity in tech also requires a recognition of the many intersecting contexts that shape a woman’s experience, including race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and socioeconomic class. When some of the world’s most successful crypto outfits are guilty of pay discrepancies across both gender and race lines that are far worse than the tech industry average, the challenges facing women and minorities in tech are compounded. Technology itself may be neutral, but the people and teams that build it are not. The argument that “blockchain is decentralised, it’s therefore for everyone” isn’t enough. Projects need to develop inclusive policies to mitigate the existing “crypto bro” culture, for evidence of which one needs to look no further than Crypto Twitter. We also need to prioritise empowering female- and minority-led start-ups, developers and creators. AllStars Women, for one, supports female-led projects that have historically been less likely to secure funding. With women addressing systemic barriers, the dynamics might change. When I reflect on my past, I realise I felt lonely and disempowered as a woman in tech, and it only got worse at the top. Was this really what inclusivity was – a statistic, at the expense of one’s well-being? Women have so much to gain from blockchain, an industry rooted in the promise of financial empowerment. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become a palatable entry point, especially among creatives looking to make art full-time. Take Malaysian artist mumu the stan, who quit her job to make NFT art, encouraged by the financial and creative autonomy it offered. The art world carries its own baggage of biases and the same patterns are being replicated in the NFT space, but the community-building work done by Women of Crypto Art , a group of women NFT artists and collectors , aims to turn the tide. Indeed, 93 per cent of women surveyed worldwide are open to investing in crypto and NFTs if provided with more information. Women might be a small part of the space today, but it doesn’t mean we’re not interested. Today, half of the board members of the Association of Crypto Currency Enterprises and Start-ups Singapore are women, a notable feat for an industry body representing the interests of the broader local blockchain ecosystem. 12 successful women entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia whose names you should know The blockchain industry needs to chart a sustainable path forward. Building an inclusive environment for a new generation of tech talent is a good place to start. If the blockchain industry wants more women, we’re here and we’re ready – but change needs to come first because we are much more than a day in March or a tick on the diversity checkbox. Katherine Ng is the head of APAC marketing for TZ APAC, the leading Asia-based blockchain adoption entity supporting the Tezos ecosystem