Identity Week has released an insightful new report titled “Transformative Women: Women’s Inclusion in the Evolving Identity Industry,” edited by Evie Kim Sing. The detailed analysis explores the current landscape of gender inclusion in the identity technology sector, emphasizing the necessity of diversity to build more effective and equitable digital identity systems.
A notable example highlighted in the report is the UK government’s “One Login” system. The report praises this initiative for demonstrating how inclusive practices—such as balanced demographic testing and diverse developer teams—are crucial to producing technologies suitable for all users. “Collaboration across diverse backgrounds ensures more comprehensive, balanced, and impactful outcomes,” the report asserts.
The issue of gender bias within AI technologies, specifically facial recognition systems, is also thoroughly discussed. The report points out ongoing challenges, noting that “accuracy of facial recognition technology (FRT) gender identification can vary with respect to age and ethnic group,” adding, “Prepubescent male faces are frequently misclassified as female, and older female faces are progressively misclassified as male.” It stresses the importance of balanced training datasets to mitigate such biases, referencing findings from NIST and other authoritative sources.
The report further examines the adoption disparity between genders in digital identity usage. It cites research from the Digital ID Observatory, Osservatori Digital Innovation at Politecnico di Milano, which found significant gender gaps in professional digital ID adoption. The study revealed that “68 percent of professional digital identities were adopted by men compared to women,” indicating persistent inequality despite widespread adoption of digital identity solutions.
In addition to technological concerns, the report addresses workplace dynamics within the identity industry. Elexon Information Security Architect Shruti Kulkarni asserts that “women tend to ‘wear many hats’ and feel pulled in multiple directions to fulfil their career goals, societal pressures, having a family and managing different expectations.” The report calls for better mentorship opportunities and improved parental leave policies as essential steps toward a more inclusive industry.
Policymakers, technology developers, and industry stakeholders are encouraged to engage with these findings. “Inclusion should be a basic human experience no matter gender, background, race, or age,” Sing concludes. “With the European drive for digital identity by 2026, we need to ensure ID for all with high acceptance and use rates to ensure a more inclusive future.”
Read the full report at IdentityWeek.net.
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March 13, 2025 – by Cass Kennedy and Alex Perala
