It will be another 12.5 years before the UK tech sector achieves gender balance, according to research by specialist IT recruiter, CWJobs.
By Liz Hall
The research found that most companies are struggling to level the playing field, and almost nine in ten (87%) respondents agree that a gender imbalance still exists. This imbalance is across both pay of female tech workers and overall female representation in the industry.
This inequality comes in spite of nearly three-quarters (70%) of industry professionals agreeing that gender balance is very important or crucial within these roles. Reasons to strive for diversity include greater innovation (54%), differing viewpoints (45%) and to ensure new technologies are geared towards everyone (42%).
The most common deterrents to women pursuing a career in the tech industry are a perceived male-dominated culture (48%), and a lack of opportunity for promotion or senior roles (40%). Other deterrents include negative perceptions of the roles/work (33%), as well as the recruitment process and interview questions favouring men (31%).
Equal pay and discrimination were among other concerns cited by respondents. More than half (55%) of women believe they are on the wrong side of a gender pay gap, and this imbalance is not expected to be redressed for another 7.5 years.
However, almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents believe that their company has taken steps to recruit more women into tech roles.
CWJobs is among around 75 other organisations that have signed the Tech She Can Charter, launched by PwC in February 2018.
Sheridan Ash, director at PwC and Tech She Can founder, said: “It’s only by taking combined action across the industry that we can hope to tackle the root cause of the gender imbalance in the technology sector. We need to work hard to create a sustainable pipeline of diverse tech talent, and it all starts by inspiring girls to consider tech roles while they are in school. It’s often said that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’, so we need to promote the brilliant women already working in a wide range of different roles across the sector, from creatives and designers, to coders and data scientists. Technology is open to all, and that’s an important message we need to get across.”