Games with the power

Women from the IT industry and the SAP environment who are active in the Women@DSAG initiative took part. They were asked about their experiences of how power is perceived in their everyday working lives, about the consequences, and about their behavior in situations in which power is used negatively. 130 women
participated in the online survey.

Because there is no other way

When asked how power is perceived and implemented in their company, just under 27 percent of the women answered that power in their professional environment is linked to positions, perceived responsibly and realized. Decisions are therefore good for them to share, regardless of the direct consequences for themselves.

Just under 22 percent play along with power games because there is no other way: including all known tricks, even if it does not correspond to their own catalog of values. 23 percent would like to play along, but they lack the tools. And more than 28 percent refuse to play power games because of their values, accepting that they will achieve nothing or be overlooked.

Based on these statements, it is clear that discrimination against women is also part of everyday working life in the IT sector. "We interviewed many successful and committed women in STEM fields and got some feedback on discriminatory and unappreciative behavior", says Karin Gräslund, member of the DSAG Board of Experts and spokesperson for the Women@DSAG initiative, about the survey results. "I personally think that we are confronted with a structural problem here. We should now validate this accordingly and develop concrete measures ourselves to empower those affected and to be able to avoid incidents like this as far as possible in the future."

Improve actual state

This is an important project, because according to the current study "This is how Germany works," among other things, 66 percent of all female IT experts have already been discriminated against on the basis of their gender - even though 91 percent of German employees and freelancers would like to see women and men treated equally on the job. 50 percent also said that women only get a job to meet a quota. And 71 percent would like to urgently change the current situation and demand more impetus for equality from management.