Tech's troubling gender disparity

Lindsay Gallard at Six Degrees considers how to overcome under-representation in the digital world

 

Despite the efforts of many in the tech industry to recruit and retain more women, representation remains worryingly low.

 

Data from Tech Nation, for example, reveals that while “50% of workers in the labour market as a whole are women, in tech, it’s half that, at 26%.” Looking more closely, only 5% of leadership positions in the tech sector are held by women, according to research carried out by PwC.

 

What’s more, only 27% of female students surveyed said they would consider a career in technology, compared to over 60% of males. Only 3% of females said it is their first choice.

 

Clearly, this is a perennial issue that is deep-rooted in societal attitudes towards women in the workplace. Exacerbated by major pay gaps and gender-based stereotypes that have deterred female students from pursuing tech careers, events such as the Great Resignation have only added to the gender imbalance.

 

As a result, many women have reconsidered their career choices in recent years, contributing to the ongoing underrepresentation.

 

This comes at a time when the industry as a whole is struggling with significant talent shortages, with 95% of employers looking for tech talent encountering a skills shortage over the past year, according to Hays.

 

At a government level, there is clearly a concern that progress towards gender equality is too slow, with the most recent budget bringing forward plans to give all working parents with children under the age of five access to 30 hours of free childcare per week by 2025.

 

Elsewhere, awareness is growing about the need to recognise the impact of issues such as the menopause on female employees. Collectively, more proactive steps need to be taken if the UK economy as a whole – and tech in particular – is to benefit from the win-win that more women in the workforce will bring.

 

Boosting performance through gender equality

The pursuit of workplace gender equality also has a commercial imperative attached to it. According to a study by McKinsey, organisations in the top quartile for gender equality are 15% more likely to outperform their rivals – a revelation of huge significance and one that should grab the attention of every male-dominated boardroom.

 

Indeed, the evidence under-lining the impact of gender equality on business performance is growing. Research carried out by Deloitte found that more inclusive organisations “are six times more likely to be innovative, six times more likely to anticipate change and respond effectively, and twice as likely to meet or exceed financial targets.”

 

Despite the demonstrated benefits of embracing an inclusive culture, the research says only 12% of organisations around the world “have reached full maturity”.

 

Given this situation, how can organisations effectively address these issues, and in the organisations that are succeeding, what does good look like? Ultimately, building more equitable workplace opportunities and environments that enable organisations to recruit and retain female talent requires long-term, proactive commitment and investment from the top down.

 

For many organisations, the starting point is to understand what barriers their current female employees and recruitment candidates encounter, and peeling back the layers here can reveal a whole range of blockers. These can include everything from pay inequality, lack of access to training and restricted flexible working options to unsupportive leaders and even damaging and toxic attitudes that restrict opportunities or force female employees to leave the workforce altogether.

 

To eliminate these failures from workplace attitudes, processes and culture, organisations should first seek to understand the experiences and opinions of their existing female employees. This kind of benchmarking can provide the basis for understanding current challenges and opportunities, particularly around issues such as how well the employer supports women in their day-to-day roles and career development.

 

With these and other insights driving their equality objectives and strategy, employers are much better placed to create proactive policies that ensure the employer-employee relationship experienced by women is equitable and supportive over the long term.

 

Looking more broadly, many employers are also seeing the benefits of helping women to upskill and reskill so they can return to the workforce after a career break. Any employer committed to equal opportunities and closing the talent gap should be acting on all these issues with determination and urgency.

 

Without a joined-up and honest approach, employers across the tech sector will continue to count the cost of talent and experience shortages. This remains true even at a time when advances in AI technologies are set to help companies become more competitive and efficient.

 

While many would agree that these tools offer some very exciting potential productivity benefits, human skill and expertise remain just as important as ever, and in the years ahead, those organisations that continue to strive for true gender equality in the workplace will be ideally placed to succeed.

 

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Lindsay Gallard is Chief People Officer at Six Degrees

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com