This 12 months’s CES demonstrated why so-called “Femtech” nonetheless has an extended strategy to go to get the popularity it deserves, writes Seymourpowell’s Mariel Brown.
My first journey to the Shopper Electronics Present (CES) in 2013 felt like crashing the boys’ membership. I used to be one of many solely ladies on the honest who wasn’t a “sales space boy.” The speaker lineup was virtually fully male, and the one place ladies had a sizeable presence was in advertising and marketing photos for vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and dishwashers.
So at CES 2023 this month, I could not assist however replicate on the modifications of the final 10 years. What distinction has a decade made? Was 2019’s well-known #CESGenderBias second a catalyst for reflection and alter? Sadly, not as a lot because it ought to have been.
She did not end her sentence; the silence stated all of it
CES feels a bit like prospecting: sift by sufficient terabytes of mundane and you may most likely strike gold. Gold, on this case, is a technological innovation that gives a robust worth proposition and sheds mild on the way forward for expertise and, by reciprocity, on society itself. The ladies’s well being part at Eureka Park is a dependable place to hit pay grime, in order that’s the place I headed first.
Once I spoke to 1 exhibitor concerning the response to her product, she stated, “To be trustworthy, it is actually laborious to get males to see the worth of it, and I am a black lady, so…” -finish the sentence; the silence stated all of it.
Regardless of the thrill within the media, in the case of funding, “Femtech” remains to be a sector struggling to search out parity. A research by Pitchbook famous that girls’s well being receives solely four% of world well being analysis and growth funding.
In 2021, CES proprietor the Shopper Know-how Affiliation (CTA) and the World Financial institution launched the International Girl’s Well being Tech Awards to acknowledge revolutionary start-ups utilizing expertise to enhance the well being and security of girls in rising markets. The winners confirmed a complicated understanding of the emotional wants of customers alongside life-changing performance.
Take iBreastExam for instance. The non-invasive, ultra-portable wi-fi system allows early detection and simple analysis of breast most cancers in areas the place entry to healthcare is proscribed. Outcomes are shared immediately, avoiding excruciating ready instances, and the method is painless, not like extra conventional screening strategies reminiscent of mammograms, that are painful. With breast most cancers being the most typical most cancers on the planet affecting one in eight ladies of their lifetime, iBreastExam is a strong instance of technological innovation.
I used to be unhappy to see no signal of the International Girl’s Well being Tech Awards persevering with this 12 months, particularly for the reason that 2023 CES theme was “Human Safety for All.”
A fast rely of the CES Innovation Award jury confirmed 12 ladies to 75 males
How can we enhance the established order for 50% of the world’s inhabitants? A solution could also be a greater illustration. A fast rely of the CES Innovation Award jury confirmed 12 ladies to 75 males. This shortfall is vital as a result of innovation awards appeal to the eye of journalists and traders.
If male contributors cannot see the worth in Femtech, then illustration on judging panels issues. As the author Anais Nin properly mirrored, “we see issues as we’re, not as they’re.” If lived expertise is central to the notion of worth, then it follows that the extra various a jury is, the higher an opinion will likely be shaped about what’s price awarding.
An award-winning ladies’s well being product at this 12 months’s present — however nonetheless considerably dividing public opinion — was the Withings U-Scan. The small, pebble-shaped, hands-free urine lab sits below the bathroom seat and may monitor 100 biomarkers, permitting customers to simply monitor hydration, vitamin and menstrual cycles.
“They’re actually peeing,” joked a male present attendee as we waited in line to see the brand new system. Nonetheless, for the tens of millions of girls all over the world who should get up to the hopes, fears and stress of ovulation stick checks, the U-Scan isn’t any joke.
One other launch aiming to make well being monitoring seamless was the Evie Sensible Ring (pictured), which collects info reminiscent of resting coronary heart charge, coronary heart charge variability, oxygen saturation, respiration charge and pores and skin temperature variability. The ring has acquired approval from the Meals and Drug Administration, making it the world’s first medical-grade wearable that gives a wholesome way of life by personalised info delivered by way of an app.
Whereas the glossy design makes for a pleasant way of life match, what actually excited me was the place the brand new knowledge gathered by this system could lead on. In spite of everything, ladies have solely been included in medical trials for the reason that mid-1990s, partly due to the mistaken perception that fluctuating hormones would make ladies troublesome to check.
There is no such thing as a such factor as “Mentech”
The truth that the ring was designed to help ladies throughout life levels, together with these in peri-menopause, menopause and post-menopause, generated a stunning variety of headlines throughout the present, highlighting the truth that Femtech options have an extended strategy to go. in the case of normalizing ladies’s well being points.
As an alternative, it additionally emphasised that Femtech can advance expertise and tradition for each women and men, because it integrates matters which were taboo for hundreds of years. The rising dialog about feminine menopause has spurred dialogue of male menopause: Males can develop despair, lack of intercourse drive, erectile dysfunction and different bodily and emotional signs once they attain their late 40s to early 50s.
“Femtech” as a time period is at the moment sparking an vital debate. Individuals marvel if the phrase, coined by creator Ida Tin in 2016 to advertise ladies’s well being and wellness, is definitely doing the other, inflicting an “in any other case” impact the place Femtech is unduly separated from broader well being and wellness expertise and positioned as “area of interest”. There is no such thing as a such factor as “Mentech” in any case.
Moreover, does the gender binary time period “Femtech” alienate individuals who might determine as intersex, trans, or nonconforming? Many individuals who may gain advantage from Femtech options (reminiscent of menstruation apps) don’t determine as ladies. If the way forward for expertise is an area the place we escape the constructs of our our bodies, then certainly the related vocabulary should match this ambition.
Whereas the dearth of variety within the judging panel felt tone-deaf, on a extra constructive word, there was a rise in feminine voices on stage. One standout was Alice Xiang, head of Sony Group’s AI ethics workplace and senior researcher in AI analysis, who spoke concerning the significance of variety when designing future merchandise like AI.
“Initially, I might say enter this subject,” she stated. “It is extraordinarily low variety, and that is a giant downside once we take into consideration addressing points like systemic biases in AI. While you’re speaking about creating an AI product, it begins with who’s within the room, and that group of individuals must be various. We’d like various views.”
Let’s hope the CTA listened and the world’s most influential tech showcase is making leaps and bounds in 2024, bringing extra views to the fore, paving the best way for a extra inclusive future.
Mariel Brown is director of forecasting at Seymourpowell.
Picture, displaying the Evie Sensible Ring, is by Movano Well being.