More Women Join the Crypto Conversation
Women remain a scarce presence in the crypto sector as industry leaders take deliberate actions to be more inclusive. A recent ladies-only blockchain event held earlier this month hopes to correct these issues. And more.
Including More Women In Blockchain Industry
According to a WEF survey carried out in 2019, the overall presence of women in the crypto economy struggles to eclipse the 5% mark globally.
The cryptocurrency industry is not particularly synonymous to women.
You might have to sit back and rack and mull to name a single known female face in the industry, and you just might not be able to name one. Neha Nerula and Anne Favlis are a few female names familiar in the industry known to a broader public. Nerula is the Director of Digital Currency Initiative and a part of MIT Media Labs focused on blockchain technology. Fauvre is the Chief Operating Officer at Oasis Labs, and also the host for the recent virtual conference with an all-women panel.
The conference, tagged “_Women Blockchain Leaders_”, was a mentorship event targeted at younger women in the industry. Fauvre hopes to make the less-represented gender understand the limitless opportunities available in the crypto-economy and is confident an all-women panel conference is the first step of many.
“We think these events will definitely help drive women to get more involved in the space,” explained Anne. “Being able to hear other successful women in the industry discuss how they got involved in this ‘unusual’ space shows younger women who want to learn more or get involved in how to do so.”
Ladies-only blockchain events are quickly becoming a thing, at least in 2021. And there are deliberate efforts to encourage them as organisations hope to bring a level of diversity to an industry that is fully male dominated.
Anne Fauvre sees the nascent crypto era as a generation of “wealth-handling.”
A handling of batons. Like a baton is passed, wealth is passing hands as well, and the crypto economy seems to be the hub of it all.
Why Are There Few Women in the Crypto Industry?
It is not exactly a simple question. The industry started with key male figures, and seems to have grown in the same way, revolving around male influencers, from Satoshi Nakamoto to Elon Musk. Even Nakamoto, the ever anonymous founder of Bitcoin has never been whispered to be a woman; for many, such consideration is out of the question.
Neha Nerula, a prominent figure at MIT Labs discussed in an earlier interview that women’s proclivity to be risk-averse might be a reason for the lack of female presence in the evolving crypto market. But this itself does not explain it all.
Whatever the reasons, Fauvre and others hope to bring more women into the crypto world soon. And people like Bridget Greenwood, speaker at Fauvre’s conference and founder of Bigger Pie (an organisation focused on supporting women in tech and blockchain), are just making the right steps.
ChangeNOW is proud to admit that there is a decent amount of women among our staff, including on high ranking posts. Our CEO and unquestioned leader is a woman, along with fearless CMO, several product-managers, and the chief editor. The ChangeNOW brilliant business development team is almost fully female, and we have two female software developers on board. We welcome all kinds of inclusion and diversity in our ranks and aspire to make the crypto industry a healthy working environment.
