DigiWomen’s new doc exposes a male-dominated sector
Elsa Tannous, founder of DigiWomen, an organization dedicated to promoting the inclusion of girls and women in technology in Laval and across Quebec, is making waves in the tech sector by championing women’s inclusion in an industry where male dominance continues to hold sway.
Women shaping tech
As part of Women’s Month in March and International Women’s Rights Day which was on March 8, DigiWomen is launching “Femmes en Tech, et alors?”, which bills itself as the first Quebec-based documentary highlighting the journeys of women who are shaping the tech industry.
The film will premiere on Friday March 28 at the Banque Nationale du Canada in downtown Montreal, gathering tech leaders, institutional partners and advocates for diversity in the industry. “We need to make the pioneers visible and inspire those who will follow,” said Tannous.
Breaking the ‘glass ceiling’
The documentary shines a light on some of the women who have broken barriers and carved their place in tech – those who shattered “the glass ceiling” as it were. It serves as both a source of inspiration and a call to action for continued efforts toward gender diversity in the digital world.
More than nine women from nations around the world, including some now living in Laval but also elsewhere in Quebec, were interviewed on their experiences working in the technology sector.
The film focuses on the often-overlooked fact that women working in the traditionally male-dominated tech industry must frequently deal with the macho atmosphere that tends to prevail. According to Tannous, women currently account for no more than 20-25 per cent of the labor force in Canada’s and Quebec’s information technology sectors.
‘Not enough,’ says Tannous
“This is not a lot and it’s not enough,” she said, while adding that out of these low numbers, just 11 per cent end up being promoted to management or executive positions. She said the cybersecurity, video game and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors have an especially low representation of women.
Among other things, the film includes an interview with a woman, a cybersecurity specialist, who began her career in the early 1990s. The issues she raises regarding male dominance are compared to the experiences of women who started similar work just five years ago. The unavoidable conclusion is that nothing has changed in more than 30 years.
Speculating on the underlying cause, Tannous said cybersecurity and video gaming “have always tended to be more male-dominated,” while also acknowledging that AI is a relatively recent arrival in the tech industry. Hence, women may have had fewer opportunities to get in.
Male-dominated game sector
But she noted that video game development has been a male-dominated culture practically since the industry’s rise more than four decades ago. As a result, the types of video games that have dominated the market has consisted to a large extent of action- and violence-centered themes, rather than more moderate subjects designed to appeal to girls and women.
“We are not represented in this field,” said Tannous, while adding that she and other like-minded women have been trying to alter the way things are done by pitching new ideas to video game companies like Ubisoft in order to raise the representation of women.
At one point in the documentary, Fabre MNA Alice Abou-Khalil (who had a career in cybersecurity prior to being elected to the Quebec National Assembly) recounts sexist comments she says she sometimes would receive from male colleagues who suggested she’d be better off at home taking care of children and doing housekeeping.
“The whole point of this documentary is to show girls and teenagers that they have the right to be working in the field and that there is room in tech for them, too,” said Tannous.
Programs and initiatives
Founded in Laval in 2024, DigiWomen promotes gender equality in tech, offering mentorship, training and networking opportunities through several flagship initiatives.
They include Women Tech Talk panel discussions; J’ose la Tech hands-on workshops; the Académie TechMoms training and mentorship program; the Journée de la Femme Numérique (JFN) women-focused tech career fair; and Tech & Transmission, a podcast fostering intergenerational discussions on tech and inclusion.
DigiWomen is inviting all businesses, schools, and tech enthusiasts in Laval to join them for the documentary screening. Time: 4 – 7 pm. Address: 800 Saint-Jacques St. Information & Registration link: it.ly/43m7fJP.
