Women in Tech

The low percentage of women employed in the technology industry often staggers people. When women make up more than 50% of the total workforce, why are only 20% of them working in tech? You would think it would be simple, hire more women, but that’s not the case. Not enough women are choosing technology-related careers.

The primary reason that there aren’t many women in tech seems to boil down to fact that there is a lack of role models in the sector. Although in recent years there has been an increase in women entering senior levels in technology companies, women are still in the minority compared to the number of male role models in the sector. According to women working in Silicon Valley in America, where three-quarters of the workforce is male, women aren’t as driven in perusing jobs in tech because the ‘tech culture’ is largely male. Also, there just isn’t the talent pool with fewer women choosing to study these subjects at school and university.

It’s clear that tech needs more women! Gender diversity benefits companies in lots of ways, including ideas sharing, leadership and creativity for new projects and could even benefit your bottom line, with a study from Nominet showing that increasing the number of women working in IT could generate an extra £2.6 billion a year for the UK’s economy.