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Is crypto a boys’ club? The future of finance is not gendered

December 24, 2021No Comments


"I'm used to being the only woman in the room," Joni Pirovich told Cointelegraph by phone.

His tone was not passionate as if he was claiming an injustice. He was practical, resigned to the truth. Pirovich is a blockchain and digital asset lawyer and has been involved in the crypto industry for years. She is also a mother of two.

"In some ways, it has been a real struggle to make my voice heard, to be seen as a legitimate person at the table who has points of view that are worth listening to, let alone respect or follow."

Her claim wasn't surprising, as the gender disparity in this industry isn't exactly a new talking point. In August, CNBC published a survey that found that women are still less than half as likely to invest in cryptocurrencies as men, with 16% of men investing versus 7% of women.

These results echoed what the Finder crypto report had. reclaimed months earlier in June, it stated that 22% of men own at least one type of cryptocurrency, while only 15% of women do.

The crypto industry is at a crossroads between finance and technology, two sectors that have traditionally been haunted by gender disparity.

A 2021 report from Accenture and Girls Who Code found that the gender gap for women working in the tech sector has worsened since 1984, from 35% to 32%. It also found that half of young women who enter tech drop out at age 35, lending credence to Pirovich's unfavorable experiences working in the industry.

Meanwhile, an October 2020 research report from Women in VC found that only 4.9% of US-based venture capital partners are women. The data becomes even more sobering when you look at how the numbers compare to minority women: Only 0.2% of venture capital partners are Latina women and 0.2% are Black women.

Susan Banhegyi, author of Women in Crypto and founder of Crypto Women Global agreed that the issues women face in crypto are the same as those affecting women across the board in male-dominated industries.

"Some crypto communities may be less welcoming," he told Cointelegraph, citing harassment and lack of inclusion as some issues.

Emilie Wright is the founder of PULSE, a charity-focused, women-led NFT project. He said that in his experience, men in the industry tend to leave a natural space for other men.

"My experience, as a woman, is that it is more difficult to occupy that space, and if you push for it, you often find yourself with questions about how much you deserve it or your credibility," she told Cointelegraph.

"If I were a man, I would probably feel more accepted, doubt myself less, and feel less of an impostor in space."

The adoption gap

Gender hurdles arise not only for women who want to work in the crypto industry, but also for those looking to invest in it.

The above discourse on the crypto genre tends to blame risk aversion. Crypto makes a notoriously volatile investment that is a pull factor for many investors chasing lucrative profits. Stereotypically, women tend to be more conservative and risk-averse investors.

But, perhaps this is an easy answer to a complicated question. Wright suggested that if there is risk aversion among female investors, it is only because it is more "socially acceptable" for men to gamble and take risks.

“Perhaps, as women, there is an underlying pressure on us to be safe, secure and stick with the known. For me, this risk is recognized much more significantly in the crypto space, and I see fewer women involved in crypto. "

He added that when he started investing in crypto, he spent hours learning about the industry after working his regular nine-to-five job. She said: "I wonder if, as women with families, commitments and busy lives, it makes it that much more difficult to enter the space."

Amy-Rose Goodey, Operations and Membership Manager at Blockchain Australia, has an alternate explanation. He said that women tend to avoid investing because they don't trust their understanding of how cryptocurrencies work and don't ask for help for fear of being ridiculed, stating:

“The statement 'women are risk averse' has continued to circulate as the main reason women do not invest in cryptocurrencies. In my experience, this is not the case. Women are very interested in investing, but they don't feel safe going through the buying process. "

"[Women] they are more anxious about not knowing how to buy Bitcoin than they are about losing the initial investment, "he said. "It seems to be more a question of confidence than risk aversion."

His theories are Backed According to research, which shows that an individual's confidence is by far the most ubiquitous predictor of financial risk aversion, regardless of the individual's actual financial education.

Goodey also said that the crypto industry is already beginning to move towards gender parity as it moves towards mainstream adoption:

“From where I am sitting, there are a growing number of women diving head first into cryptocurrencies and investing in general. I don't see a slowdown anytime soon with a growing appetite for this asset class. "

This is true, the number of women diving into the crypto space has exploded this year as we move closer to mainstream adoption.

In a UK poll from January this year, Gemini found that women made up 41.6% of the 2,000 respondents who were current or former crypto investors. It also found that 40% of the respondents who said they planned to invest in crypto were women.

Related: Empowered Women's NFTs Aim to Drive Female Engagement in Crypto

In July, Robinhood's chief operating officer, Gretchen Howard, claimed the number of women using the commercial app it had increased by 369% year-on-year.

Looking at the historical data on the gender disparity in cryptocurrencies, it shows a fairly low benchmark for growth. In 2013, a survey on crypto forums on the Internet found that out of 1,000 people surveyed, 95.2% of "Bitcoin users" were male. An eToro brokerage study in February this year found that 15% of its users were women, an increase of 10% from the previous year.

The road to representation

On the path to equitable representation, Pirovich said that men must be part of the solution. She said: “These are men supporting women to identify that you are on a men's panel. Just choose not to be a part of it until at least one other woman is speaking and there is more equal or diverse representation on that panel. "

Wright agreed, saying that "there are some amazing men who support and empower women in the right way, but so much more needs to be done."

Banhegyi spoke about the importance of having gender parity in the workforce, saying: "The more women work in this industry, the better, because a community is the foundation of any platform."

Crypto has the potential to empower women and give them more control over their finances. And for many women, widespread adoption has already begun to remove some of the accessibility barriers that previously stood between them and the potential benefits.