Digital Gender Parity? Gender-specific Attitudes and Competencies of Young Professionals in Germany

Digitalization has not only affected production conditions but also gender relations by creating favourable conditions that promote gender equality in companies and make use of female resources and competencies. To seize this opportunity, the digital work environment must be collaboratively designed. Currently, in the predominantly male world of IT and engineering, women are still outnumbered. A quantitative online-study with 28 closed questions on the attitudes and competencies of Young Professionals regarding digitalization was conducted from July to September 2017 in Germany. Results were analysed for trends in gender and generations. The participants (n=400, thereof female=273, male=127, in employment=221) consisted mostly of Generations Y and Z, who are at the beginning of their working lives. Several causes of the ongoing gender disparity were confirmed during analysis. While Young Professionals of both genders show interest in digital technologies, this interest was more pronounced among male respondents. Moreover, compared to men of the same age, young female respondents more intensively use the internet and social media while being less interested in technical functioning. Regarding necessary competencies in the digitalized world, male respondents were particularly interested in the importance of problem solving, optimization skills, and interdisciplinary cooperation. Female respondents placed more value on media, social, and communication competencies, as well as personal responsibility. Since leadership roles are traditionally associated with problem solving and decisiveness instead of social competence, these differences could represent barriers in women’s careers. However, these discrepancies also indicate that qualified women have more opportunity to become supporters and role models for new participatory leadership. Additionally, this study reveals clear stereotypes regarding women’s competencies. Male respondents generally believed that female IT and media competence, as well as their interest in technology are still less compared to men. These study results indicate that future measures should strive to sensitize managers and provide targeted training and support for women. Furthermore, these results contribute to the broad public and scientific discussion concerning the issue of gender parity in the context of digitalization.