Women are excluded from leadership in the metaverse | McKinsey

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In the nascent metaverse, women are being excluded from leadership roles, according to a new report from consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

The company said it saw five top metrics on women in the Metaverse that reveal gender inequality, particularly in leadership that creates and sets standards in the Metaverse. McKinsey estimates the metaverse will be worth $5 trillion by 2030.

Of course, many experts believe that the metaverse (a real-time, 3D-animated, synchronous, massively scalable Internet) is not here yet. But the firm refers to metaverse type applications. The report was written by Mina Alaghband and Lareina Yee of McKinsey.

"The Metaverse is still in its infancy. Even its definition remains fluid and is likely to continue to evolve. But the consensus, at least today, is that the Metaverse is the next iteration of the Internet, in which The internet is becoming something people immerse themselves more deeply in rather than something they simply see: an evolution from 2D to 3D through a range of interfaces, including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR),” McKinsey said. “As with other transformative technologies, such as cloud and AI, whose evolutions have spanned decades, early consumers and leaders in the metaverse, including investors and CEOs , will shape its future."

What role will women play?

Women are more active in the metaverse.

McKinsey said he set out to better understand how gender dynamics play out in the metaverse at an early stage by looking at a range of data, including that collected for McKinsey's own June 2022 report on value creation in the metaverse.

"We found an already noticeable gender gap in the metaverse, similar to the gap that exists in Fortune 500 companies and startups, where less than 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, only 17% of venture capital (VC) dollars go to women-led and co-led businesses, and only 15% of venture capital sponsors in the United States are women,” the report states. /p>

The report states that the reality is that women spend more time in the proto-metaverse than men and, according to data from McKinsey, are more likely to lead and implement metaverse initiatives. However, just like in the tech industry as a whole, women are a minority in the metaverse economy. The entrepreneurial capital and CEO roles in the metaverse space remain disproportionately reserved for men.

More women than men are power users in the metaverse

Consumer research in the metaverse showed that 41% of women had used a primary metaverse platform or participated in a digital world for more than a year, compared to 34% of men. Additionally, more women have spent a lot of time in the Metaverse: 35% of women surveyed are power users, spending more than three hours a week in the Metaverse, compared to 29% of men.

McKinsey said research also shows that women are more likely than men to engage...