“I am used to being the only woman in the room,” Joni Pirovich told Cointelegraph on the phone.

Her tone was not as impassioned as she was complaining about injustice. This is a fact, and accept its truth. Pirovich is a blockchain and digital asset lawyer who has been in the crypto industry for many years. She is also the mother of two children.

“In some ways, let my voice be heard, to be seen as a legitimate person, with a point of view worth listening to-let alone respect or follow.”

Her statement is not shocking, because gender differences in this industry are not a new topic. Back in August, CNBC Released A survey found that women are still less than half as likely to invest in cryptocurrency as men, with 16% of men investing and 7% of women investing.

These results echo the Finder’s Crypto Report claim June a few months ago. It stated that 22% of men own at least one cryptocurrency, while only 15% of women own it.

As a reminder, men invest twice as many cryptocurrencies as women, and women only account for 16% of the NFT market.thanks @ReeseW And other female leaders in the field who are committed to changing this situation.

-bobbyhundreds.eth (@bobbyhundreds) December 5, 2021

The crypto industry is at the crossroads between finance and technology, and these two industries have historically been plagued by gender differences.

Accenture and Girls Who Code’s 2021 report Established Since 1984, the gender gap for women working in the technology industry has actually widened from 35% to 32%. It also found that half of young women entering the technology industry dropped out of school before the age of 35, which led people to believe that Pirovich had an unfavorable experience working in the industry.

Some of you never have to schedule a dedicated time in the calendar every month to delete all “pretty boobs” https://cointelegraph.com/ “she is cute” https://cointelegraph.com/ “she is really Can you encode it?” https://cointelegraph.com/ “Back to the Kitchen” from your comment on a technical video on YouTube, honestly? show.

-Chloe Condon (@ChloeCondon) August 10, 2021

At the same time, a research report by women in venture capital in October 2020 Established Only 4.9% of US venture capital partners are women. When you look at how these numbers compare to minority women, the data becomes more thought-provoking—only 0.2% of venture capital partners are Latino women and 0.2% are black women.

Susan Banheji, author Women in cryptocurrency And the founders of Crypto Women Global agree that the problems that women face in the crypto field are the same as those that plague women in the entire industry dominated by men.

“Some crypto communities may not be so popular,” she told Cointelegraph, listing harassment and lack of inclusiveness as some of the problems.

The first time I really felt sexism in the technology industry was when I applied for the position of system administrator when I was 16 years old. The interviewer told me, “You are a girl, so you can’t do this job. You are too weak to mention desktop computer”.

Yes, these people exist.

— Lou (@lovelacecoding) November 29, 2021

Emilie Wright is the founder of PULSE, a charity-focused, female-led NFT project. She said that based on her experience, men in this industry will naturally make room for other men.

“As a woman, my experience is that it is more difficult to occupy that space. If you strive for it, you often have questions about whether you are worthy or your credibility,” she told Cointelegraph.

“If I were a man, I might feel more accepted, doubt myself less, and would not feel like an imposter in this field.”

Adoption gap

Gender barriers will appear not only for women who want to work in the crypto industry, but also for women who want to invest in the crypto industry.

Previous discussions about the gender of cryptocurrencies tend to be blamed on risk aversion. Cryptocurrency has made a well-known volatility investment, which is a pulling factor for many investors who are chasing huge returns.Women tend to have more stereotypes Conservative And risk-averse investors.

But maybe this is a simple answer to a complex question. Wright suggested that if female investors do have risk aversion, it is only because male gambling and risk-taking are more “socially acceptable.”

“Perhaps as women, we face the potential pressure to be safe, reliable, and stick to the known. For me, this risk has been recognized more significantly in the cryptocurrency field, and I see more and more women participating in cryptocurrency. Less.”

She added that when she first started investing in cryptocurrency, she would spend a few hours to learn about the industry after her usual 9 to 5 work. She said: “I want to know whether it will become more difficult to enter this field as a woman with a family, a sense of responsibility and a busy life.”

Amy-Rose Goodey, Operations and Membership Manager of Blockchain Australia, has another explanation. She said that women tend to avoid investing because they have no confidence in their understanding of how cryptocurrencies work, and they do not seek help out of fear of being laughed at. She said:

“The argument of’women aversion to risk’ continues to be widely circulated as the main reason why women do not invest in cryptocurrencies. In my experience, this is not the case. Women are very keen to invest but have no confidence in completing the purchase process.”

“[Women] More worried about not knowing how to buy bitcoin, rather than losing the initial investment,” she said. “This seems to be more of a confidence issue than a risk aversion issue. “

Their theory is support Studies have shown that personal confidence is by far the most common predictor of financial risk aversion regardless of personal actual financial knowledge.

Goodey also stated that as the crypto industry moves towards mainstream adoption, it has already begun to move towards gender equality:

“From where I sit, more and more women are heading into the cryptocurrency and investment fields as a whole. With the growing interest in this asset class, I don’t think it will slow down in the short term.”

It is true that as we get closer to mainstream adoption, the number of women entering the cryptocurrency space has soared this year.

In a survey conducted in the United Kingdom in January this year, Gemini Established Among the 2,000 respondents who are currently or previously cryptocurrency investors, women accounted for 41.6%. It also found that 40% of the respondents who said they plan to invest in cryptocurrency are women.

related: NFT to empower women aims to promote women’s participation in cryptocurrency

In July, Robinhood Chief Operating Officer Gretchen Howard claimed Number of women using trading apps A year-on-year increase of 369%.

Looking at historical data on gender differences in cryptocurrencies shows that the baseline for growth is very low. In 2013, a survey of encryption forums on the Internet Established Among the 1,000 people surveyed, 95.2% of “Bitcoin users” were men.EToro’s brokerage research in February this year Established 15% of users are women, an increase from 10% in the previous year.

Road of representation

As for the road to equal representation, Pirovich said that men need to be part of the solution. She said, “It’s about men supporting women to make sure you are in an all-male group. Just choose not to participate until at least another woman speaks, and there is a more equal or diverse representation in the group. ”

Wright agreed and said, “There are some amazing men who support and empower women in the right way, but more work needs to be done.”

There is a lot of gender discrimination and discrimination in this field. I can’t imagine being a woman in the cryptocurrency field-they accept a lot of undue criticism and rarely take it as seriously as their male counterparts. This needs to stop.

-All wolf (@scottmelker) October 9, 2019

Banhegyi talked about the importance of achieving gender equality in the workforce. She said: “The more women working in this industry, the better, because the community is the foundation of any platform.”

Encryption has the potential to empower women and allow them to better control their finances. For many women, mainstream adoption has begun to remove some of the access barriers that previously hindered them and potential benefits.