K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
Women’s Equality Day is an important opportunity for businesses to take a step back and evaluate if they are doing everything they can to have a diverse and equal workforce. Within the technology industry, only 1 in 6 specialists in the UK are women and the growth of female representation in the sector has stalled over the last ten years. But what is the reason for this and how do we encourage women to join such male-dominated industries? Open Access Government has spoken to four technology industry leaders to try and find the answers.
Outnumbered and underrepresented
Women working in male-dominated industries compete with obstacles on a day to day basis as they fight for their voices to be heard.
“Despite Women’s Equality Day coming round every year, the proportion of female workers in tech industries is still not increasing at a significant rate. 72% of women in tech roles still report being regularly outnumbered by men in business meetings by at least a 2:1 ratio, and 26% of women put this ratio as 5:1 or more,” explains Leane Parsons, Change Manager at Node4.
“The situation is clearly still not improving, tracking right back to schools and classrooms. Whilst it is encouraging to see an increase in the number of students taking STEM subjects into higher education, there are still significantly more boys choosing this academic pathway and the number of girls studying Computing remains worryingly low. With the skills shortage in the technology sector continuing to increase, this lack of uptake should remain a cause for concern for the industry.
With the tech sector remaining such a male-dominated industry despite best efforts to reverse this trend, it is disappointing to see that despite a 40% growth in employment within UK tech companies in the last two years, just 30% of these roles were occupied by women. It is hard to imagine how this might change without more girls taking subjects such as Computing and programming into higher education and beyond.”
Ann Lloyd, VP Customer Success & Experience at Axway adds that, “although women represent nearly half of the entire workforce today, they’re still massively underrepresented in the technology industry. What’s more, McKinsey’s 2020 Women in the Workplace study found that the pandemic has negatively impacted women more severely than men, and we’ll continue to see its ripple effects into the future, undoing much of the progress made over the past six years.”
“Despite it being over one hundred years since women got the right to vote in the UK, it’s sobering to realise that women are still underrepresented in many areas of life including with which subjects they choose to study, which career they pursue and even how much they get paid, relative to their male peers. Although there are no official statistics on the percentage of women in data science or AI roles, there is growing evidence that the gender imbalance that affects the tech sector extends to data science and AI, as well,” furthers Martin Rehak, Founder & CEO at Resistant.AI.
However, it is important to recognise that it is not all doom and gloom and that progress has been, and is continuing to be, made.
“I was encouraged by a February report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) which stated that 31% of UK tech jobs were held by women. This represents progress when it comes to gender equality in the workspace, but I believe that organisations still need to be proactive in ensuring women are represented in IT professional and leadership roles,” explains Liz Cook, Chief People Officer at Six Degrees.
Continue reading: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/womens-equality-day-breaking-the-gender-bias-in-male-dominated-industries/118379/
Outnumbered and underrepresented
Women working in male-dominated industries compete with obstacles on a day to day basis as they fight for their voices to be heard.
“Despite Women’s Equality Day coming round every year, the proportion of female workers in tech industries is still not increasing at a significant rate. 72% of women in tech roles still report being regularly outnumbered by men in business meetings by at least a 2:1 ratio, and 26% of women put this ratio as 5:1 or more,” explains Leane Parsons, Change Manager at Node4.
“The situation is clearly still not improving, tracking right back to schools and classrooms. Whilst it is encouraging to see an increase in the number of students taking STEM subjects into higher education, there are still significantly more boys choosing this academic pathway and the number of girls studying Computing remains worryingly low. With the skills shortage in the technology sector continuing to increase, this lack of uptake should remain a cause for concern for the industry.
With the tech sector remaining such a male-dominated industry despite best efforts to reverse this trend, it is disappointing to see that despite a 40% growth in employment within UK tech companies in the last two years, just 30% of these roles were occupied by women. It is hard to imagine how this might change without more girls taking subjects such as Computing and programming into higher education and beyond.”
Ann Lloyd, VP Customer Success & Experience at Axway adds that, “although women represent nearly half of the entire workforce today, they’re still massively underrepresented in the technology industry. What’s more, McKinsey’s 2020 Women in the Workplace study found that the pandemic has negatively impacted women more severely than men, and we’ll continue to see its ripple effects into the future, undoing much of the progress made over the past six years.”
“Despite it being over one hundred years since women got the right to vote in the UK, it’s sobering to realise that women are still underrepresented in many areas of life including with which subjects they choose to study, which career they pursue and even how much they get paid, relative to their male peers. Although there are no official statistics on the percentage of women in data science or AI roles, there is growing evidence that the gender imbalance that affects the tech sector extends to data science and AI, as well,” furthers Martin Rehak, Founder & CEO at Resistant.AI.
However, it is important to recognise that it is not all doom and gloom and that progress has been, and is continuing to be, made.
“I was encouraged by a February report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) which stated that 31% of UK tech jobs were held by women. This represents progress when it comes to gender equality in the workspace, but I believe that organisations still need to be proactive in ensuring women are represented in IT professional and leadership roles,” explains Liz Cook, Chief People Officer at Six Degrees.
Continue reading: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/womens-equality-day-breaking-the-gender-bias-in-male-dominated-industries/118379/
