A recent report by global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin, Journey into Web 3 – A Global Study on the Future of Work, explores professional engagement in the decentralised internet sector. The report highlights that female Web3 professionals are generally more active career-wise than their male counterparts, unlike surveyed female Web3 enthusiasts, who are less prone to making Web3 investments than their male counterparts. Forty-nine percent of female Web3 professionals have worked part-time or as freelancers in Web3-related industries, and 33% have worked full-time. Although 27% of female Web3 professionals have been involved in starting Web3-related projects or businesses, the share is still lower than their male Web3 professionals, of whom 41% are self-reported Web3 entrepreneurs. Only 22% of women Web3 enthusiasts have expressed interest in the same function.

Among those technologists who work with artificial intelligence (A.I.) and data, a higher percentage of women have advanced degrees than men. However, that doesn't translate into comparable salaries, according to a new study by O'Reilly: Instead, women who work with A.I. and data make significantly less than their male counterparts. The O'Reilly breakdown suggests that men working in A.I. and data make an average of $150,000 per year, while women make $126,000. That's significantly less, and the gap persists regardless of education levels (according to the study, 16 percent of women involved in A.I. and data had a doctorate, versus 13 percent of men; 47 percent of women had a master's degree, compared to 46 percent of men). "Women's salaries also lagged men's salaries when we compared women and men with similar job titles," the report stated.

Several years ago, Bella Abrahams, the public affairs director at Intel Israel, spoke to a group of female students from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She discussed her career journey and shared her challenges and decisions along the way. She also provided some insights on how to prepare for job applications and sending resumes. After some time, Abrahams got a call. A young student on the line told her how helpful her speech was and how, by using Abrahams' tools, the young woman got the job of her dreams.

It's such a simple question Rachael (Sean Young) asks Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) in Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner: "Have you ever retired a human by mistake?" They've just met in Eldon Tyrell's opulent offices, and Deckard, a replicant bounty hunter, has come to interview Rachael as a means of testing the LAPD's replicant-detecting Voight-Kampff device. Deckard's equally simple response-- "no"--comes without hesitation; he nonchalantly shrugs it off as though he's never bothered questioning the supposed difference between humans and the androids he's contracted to kill. The entire exchange takes about five seconds, yet it encapsulates everything that has fueled the public's decades-long love affair with Blade Runner's existential dread: What are humans? What myths do they take for granted? What have they been missing?

Computer science has long been a discipline seemingly dominated by males, with the number of women in the field, and even of those graduating with technology degrees, perennially lagging behind the number of men. A recent study by the National Girls Collaborative Project in the United States and the success of conferences like "Women in Data" in the UK suggest that this may be beginning to change, and one catalyst for that change may be the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (AI). Take Cylance, the fastest growing cyber-security software startup in the past ten years, according to research firm Gartner. The company developed an AI-based alternative to traditional antivirus (AV) -- and just recruited the second female member for its fast-growing data scientist team, now numbering 14. Another example of a company embracing women in the field of AI is Fast Forward Labs, an organisation that works with businesses to accelerate their data science and machine intelligence capabilities.