Fintechs Need More Women, here is why

Financial technology has revolutionised the way humans interact with financial services and their providers. With a tap of a button, payments can be made easily and across borders. Billions of dollars have been raised for Fintech start-ups through VC funding and millions have been employed in the Fintech space. Women however make up a small fraction of that. 

Study shows that women make up less than 30% of workers in the financial technology space. They also account for less than 5% of the CEOS in the space. 

Though there has been a steady increase in the number of women in fintech over the years, the number still remain heavily lopsided. The Fintech industry is estimated to grow to a market value of $305B by 2025 with need for more workers. The system has proved hard to navigate for women, especially as they have to deal with systematic biases, flaws and challenges with being a woman. There are societal barriers that women face which has become a huge problem for them in society.

The World Bank in its 2012 report on development noted that eliminating barriers that discriminate against women in certain sectors and occupations could increase labour productivity by as much as 25%.

Let’s examine reasons why the Fintech space is ripe for more women.

Diversity improves performance

Fintechs continue to improve access to financial products and services every day. In addition, speed, acceleration, and quality improvement seldom are detrimental. This is why improving diversity can provide more of these with minimal cost to the industry and its workers. This way the future of the industry is safeguarded. By making efforts to bring women onboard, businesses can meet such vital development and growth objectives to achieve better operational and financial performance, development of superior products, and the coverage of wider socioeconomic groups.

Fintech is an Industry That’s Growing so Fast

This is similar to a lot of industries that have instituted themselves in society. Governments, likewise investment industries, are working harder to get the industry moving. They navigate through processes to ensure that the success of the fintech industry becomes huge. During Covid19, there was an increase in the growth of fintech as people transacted remotely. This means there was also a salary increase, so women need to be beneficiaries of what fintech offers.

Historically, the fintech industry has always had male dominance and there’s been little desire to fix this. One reason for the underrepresentation of women is because of the innate bias towards women in male-dominated sectors view. According to statistics by the financial alliance for women, 73% of women are unsatisfied with the financial services they get. Employing more women means their needs are met and women are paid for their labours, in turn solving their needs.

To solve problems of not meeting the needs of women, female fintech leaders are going to bring perspective from a female’s point of view to right all the wrongs. Taking an instance from the point of view of lending, women will give insights on how to process credit scores differently, using data away from credit calcification to reach different customer segments, which includes minority groups and those with disabilities.

Diverse Companies generate more revenue 

At the core of every Fintech company is the desire to make maximum profit. This is true for mst companies. Research shows that compared to their peers, high-gender-diversity companies deliver slightly better returns. They have also been found to outperforme on average, less diverse companies over the past five years. There is more perks to diversity, companies that hire and more women usually gain more competitive advantage in the market. 

A survey by Fortune 500 companies showed that firms with at least three women in leading positions saw a 66% increase in ROI. 

In conclusion, a lot of women that are currently navigating through tech spaces should be made to share their success stories. It can be done through webinars, workshops, networking and public forums. It helps other upcoming women to get into this space. It will help them to understand that fintech isn’t out of reach for them. 

The main aim is also to create supportive, professional networks that women lack, being in a very male-centric space. Participating keenly in this can blur the bias that fintech is for men and help to shape the landscape for women who are currently in tech, which helps to move the needed changes in the ecosystem.

Written by

Efosa Obasuyi
Cofounder/CEO of Adancly (Adancly is a Lending Tech Start-up for SME’s in Africa)
Senior Product Manager GRICD integrated Services Limited