Women in Tech

Women are fully integrated into today’s workforce, with companies doing more and more to accommodate and attract female employees.

Jobs have been around since the dawn of civilisation, so it’s shocking to think that only last century women were allowed to join the workforce. 1914 marked the beginning of WWI, and in the 4 years to follow, a generation of men travelled overseas. Many did not return.

This tragedy left a huge gap in the workforce, with factories, stores and transport systems unable to fulfil the demands of the public. Women from everywhere began to take jobs and, for the first time ever, earn a living wage.

Fast forward to today, and despite the leaps and bounds the UK workforce has made with gender equality, many industries have boxed themselves in and are labelled ‘women’s jobs’ (teacher, accountant, HR), while others struggle to attract female workers.

Industries such as tech naturally lends itself to men - only 19% of the tech workforce are women¹. While no one can pinpoint the exact reason, many studies have been carried out to determine why this is. Here are the top 5 findings:

1.        Stigma: Technology as we know it has been built by men. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates – and the list goes on. While the industry did not intend to create a stereotype, one was undeniably formed.
2.        Benefits: While statutory parental leave is present in the UK, many countries do not offer maternity leave, or recognise the inequality of leaving out such benefits.
3.        Current gender imbalance: Many tech companies have a male-dominated senior leadership team. This signals that promotions to a senior role are limited for female employees.
4.        Gender pay-gap: The tech sector is widely known as one of the biggest culprits when it comes to a gender pay gap, with a 16% difference between men and women’s pay².
5.        Attraction: Women have a different set of requirements when looking for a job role, for instance flexible working, working from home or parental leave. In a male-dominated industry, these requirements are less likely to be offered.

While these reasons are generalised, there is huge amounts of work going on behind the scenes to ensure that women and men are both equally compensated in the tech industry. Companies such as C.E.X. and LinkedIn³ have both reported equal wages for both men and women, and many others are offering better benefits to attract more women into tech – which in turn will begin to close the gender pay gap.

At e-Careers, we strive for an equal working environment for both men and women, and are offering our IT Technician programme in the hopes of making the industry more accessible and open to anyone who desires a career in tech.

We do our utmost to ensure that the companies we work closely with to design the programmes are progressive and forward thinking, aiming to nurture their employees and provide the benefits that women seek.

Interested in a career in tech? Find out more about our IT Technician Career Academy Programme, designed with IT novices in mind. 

Sources
¹ https://www.womenintech.co.uk/8-facts-women-tech-industry#:~:text=Women%20are%20still%20in%20the%20minority%20in%20tech&text=Stats%20from%20Tech%20Nation%20also,and%20Asian%20women%20just%205%25

² https://www.verdict.co.uk/exclusive-how-big-is-the-gender-pay-gap-in-the-tech-industry-in-britain-and-who-are-the-worst-offenders/#:~:text=In%20total%2C%20326%20companies%20had,the%20national%20average%20of%2011.6%25

³ https://www.verdict.co.uk/exclusive-how-big-is-the-gender-pay-gap-in-the-tech-industry-in-britain-and-who-are-the-worst-offenders/#:~:text=In%20total%2C%20326%20companies%20had,the%20national%20average%20of%2011.6%25