TechFOCUS: The Gender Divide

Women can bring a fresh approach and offer unique perspectives to meet challenges, solve problems, and design new products. They can also bring more women into the tech fold, and since technology often offers high salary opportunity, their presence in the industry can help reduce the overall gender pay gap.A report by Brookings Institution states that women (48%) scored better than men (45%) when it comes to handling digital technology.

We need more women in technology for so many reasons. Women in tech can provide a more balanced view to female gender and technology sector issues. 'When only one gender is being emphasised in the media, academic and industry sectors, issues that females can identify with, and address remain largely ignored.

There are numerous realitites that may entice women to go into tech. Equal pay for equal work is a great beginnnig. A gender-neutral and inclusive tone of voice is as essential. Diversity in sourcing is also a key factor to attract talented women to the industry. That requires a set of successful best practices. Anogther key factor is the leverging of social and professional networks & career sites for women. It is our goal to assist in the process.

When it comes tto jobs and diversity, the numbers reveal just how much work needs to be done. As of 2022, women hold 26.7% of technology jobs. Taking a closer look, we see that of the 141,038 women who worked in the tech industry in 2021, 56% or 79,163 were women of color.

One would assume that the larger firms would lead the charge to attract women to the industry. Wrong! Mid-size tech-sector companies led the way in promoting workplace diversity, boasting more than 53% of the industry's leading employers. When it comes to the high-demand software talent, theres progress but the numbers could be better. 22.0% of software engineers are women and 78.0% of software engineers are men.

There is no question women are in the minority in the tech industry, from the general workforce up through management and leadership roles. A 2020 study by the AnitaB.org Institute found that women make up 28.8% of the tech workforce, a steady increase from the past few years -- 25.9% in 2018 and 26.2% in 2019.