Moojan Asghari, passionate entrepreneur and social vanguard, identifies the central issue contributing to the significant gender disparity in tech: mindset. “We have a wrong idea of tech in our minds,” she says.

Asghari believes in many things. Enterprise. Women’s rights. Eradicating bias and eliminating social inequality.

She also believes wholeheartedly in one of the planet’s most valuable resources — our youth. In fact, Asghari’s non-profit, Women in AI, seeks to close the gender gap in the field by enabling today’s youth.

She doesn’t want the lack of balance that was present in her generation and the ones before her to affect tomorrow’s thought leaders. When Asghari was growing up, she began to recognize the constriction of gender roles in the workplace.

Beginning with an academic background in finance and banking, then shifting to the tech industry, Asghari became quite familiar with the traditionally male-dominated territory. Participating in hackathons and startups, Asghari used the power of education to breach antiquated gender roles.

Society’s persistence in enforcing these gender roles and norms is at the core of the opportunity too many tech companies miss: the incredible economic power of women.

Asghari wants to challenge the masculinity of the tech industry. Women, she says, not only have the potential to change our world — they are the change. Tech outfits that employ more women have more revenue, better ethical standing, and higher performance. Wherever women are, success is soon to follow. It’s getting them there that’s the trick.

Asghari believes it all comes back to the next generation. “Knowing our biased history and the impact of labeling our kids,” she says, “we can understand where we went wrong and fix it.”

If she has her way, the world will look very different when today’s youth grow into tomorrow’s leaders. From space, she reminds us, our world is simply a beautiful blue planet, with no lines and no borders. In Asghari’s vision of the future, the tech world will someday soon share these same qualities.

©Prophets of AI