With the blockchain industry growing at lightspeed, businesses are actively and, even desperately, seeking out talent; and there just doesn’t seem to
With the blockchain industry growing at lightspeed, businesses are actively and, even desperately, seeking out talent; and there just doesn’t seem to be enough manpower out there. Enter women — literally around 50% of the global population that has, so far, been heavily underrepresented in crypto. With most developers being men, it’s understandable this still dev-led space noticeably lacks female contributors, but as the industry surges, womanpower is needed.
And, so, women have begun slowly and steadily entering the crypto space and the world of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). While only an estimated 5% of women own NFTs, and 5-15% are creators or founders of collections, the impact of female-led NFT projects is profound. Unlike the mass of solely artistic projects, these female-led NFTs show a preoccupation with social activism and empowerment of women across the globe — a trend charged with the potential to create a new paradigm for more socially-beneficial use cases and models for the asset class.
Related: If the glass slipper doesn’t fit, smash it: Unraveling the myth of gender equality in crypto
Down with the barriers: Time, money, location and class
Initial funding is a huge setback for many women who are typically weighed down by barriers like the gender pay gap. Women have less leeway in their pay, hence fewer funds to spare — a slippery slope to creating a male-driven market. They are also thought to be apprehensive about investing in their own entrepreneurial ideas. However, this risk-averse behavior is not so much a gender-specific trait, as it is a byproduct of the gender pay gap and the fact that women have larger responsibilities in the household. A recent survey indicates that following the post-COVID “Great Resignation,” women are finding it harder to return to work, with childcare and home responsibilities bearing down as the chief reason. Today, with women struggling to return to work and getting paid less overall, it’s natural that they may be less likely than men to find the time and money to invest in their own startups.
NFTs bring art and other on-chain-compatible business ideas to the digital space, creating a low-cost solution for startups and letting more women get in the game. The decentralized and digital nature of blockchain also solves the crucial time/space inequality women are often subject to when other duties keep them away from the workplace more than their male counterparts.
By operating beyond physical spaces, NFT startups also break through class: Imagine a painter from a small town able to sell her work in the same space — for example on Open Sea — as “pedigree artists” born and raised among big names in New York or London galleries. In all, the emerging digital marketplaces have immense potential to tear down entry barriers and really level the playing field for all underrepresented groups, in other words, for all humans.
Related: International Women’s Day 2022 focuses on bringing women to Web3
Anonymity is king queen
Similar to how NFTs business bypasses class and space, it can also completely circumvent the need to present your gender thanks to the anonymous nature of blockchain technology. Traditionally, art created by women sells for around 50% less than that of male artists.
Since NFT creators are in no way required to reveal their identities or genders, women may work in a sphere unchained from the usual prejudices, stigmas, pay gaps and further obstacles that people in traditional industries, unfortunately, still face. People are more than their gender and NFTs give us a chance to separate from it or associate ourselves with it per our own volition — a privilege women have not enjoyed very often in the past.
Related: NFTs of empowered women aim to drive female engagement in crypto
Social activism female-led in NFT art
While the technology behind NFTs can itself present women with better economic opportunity, even discussing the feats of NFT projects is redundant unless we begin with how we can make the space actually accessible to women. For that, we must lay a foundation from the ground up beginning with basics like ensuring women and girls are in safe, healthy and free circumstances no matter where they live, all while having access to both basic and technical education to join the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry should they decide. In this sense, projects like World of Women, which supports causes like She’s the First and Too Young to Wed, Boss Beauties “providing mentorship programs and scholarships to young women and students around the world” and Girlies donating part of its revenue to the Malala Fund sponsor the right kind of activism that would empower girls to be able to engage the power of nonfungible tokens and blockchain.
Women-led NFT collections are among the first to focus on social change rather than just economic value or token utility. Perhaps, this indicates primarily that women’s historical context and current…
cointelegraph.com