By Christina Lovelock
We all know women are underrepresented in the tech workforce. We all know that leaving half of humanity out of the decisions that are shaping our world, our children and our lives lead to worse outcomes for everyone. The solutions are available. We know why and it’s very possible to do something about it.
Routes into tech
Most people think the way to get into tech is to choose to study Computer Science at school, and then as a university degree. In fact, only about 10% of the tech workforce have a Computer Science or IT related degree. The way school timetables are structured, particularly in the UK, means children often only get to make one or two real ‘choices’ about the subjects they study outside of the core curriculum. They think NOT selecting Computer Science rules them out of the only career pathway into tech.
Getting more girls to engage with the idea of Computer Science is often the approach that gets the most focus, but is not the only way to increase the number of women in tech. We need to place more emphasis on telling young women about all the roles in tech that don’t require coding skills and are open to people from a wide range of educational backgrounds.
Not every job in tech is technical
This is entirely obvious to everyone who works in tech, but a well-kept secret to everyone outside the tech sector. Most people think every tech job involves writing code, and that most people in tech are software developers. They have never heard of many of the common tech-focussed roles, such as business analyst, QA engineer, data analyst, delivery manager, product owner… If you have no visibility of a role, how can you aim for it? How can young people learn about the wide range of careers in tech, data and digital? If teachers, careers advisors and parents are not aware of these jobs, how can they help people to consider these options?
It comes down to tech professionals, with the full support of their organisations, getting out to schools, colleges and universities, discussing their jobs and career pathways. No one else can do it. We need to stop keeping this secret.
The focus on Tech Bros
The media spotlight on the behaviour of a small number of tech-billionaires reinforces the idea that this is not a world that women would enjoy being part of. In film and television, the stereotypes of ‘techies’ as hackers in hoodies is not representative of the modern tech workforce.
The people who work in tech are just regular people, many of whom did not plan to work in tech; They have a wide range of interests and don’t all love gadgets and gaming.
If you want to save the world – work in tech
We know young people care about purpose-driven roles. Women are overrepresented in the charity sector, and health and social care sector. They want to do meaningful work that helps people and aligns to the causes they care about.
Working in tech allows significant career mobility, as every sector and organisation needs tech professionals. There are tech roles which support a wide range of social challenges to be addressed. Tech has a massive part to play in addressing sustainability, global inequities and disaster response. Whatever you care about – there is a tech job that is working towards the solution to those issues. We need to more clearly articulate that tech can be a force for good, and something worth dedicating your career to.
The messages we are giving girls
We often try to persuade girls to consider a career in tech because there are not enough women in tech. This is not a good argument. It makes them think there must be a reason for this, and it’s not their responsibility to put it right. Instead, we need to focus on all the great things about a tech career! The higher salaries, the flexibility, the opportunity to contribute to tackling global challenges and the wide range of interesting roles that need people who are creative, curious and good at communicating and collaborating.
Side of the desk job
Women often take these issues into their own hands. They form internal women’s networks, they celebrate International Women’s Day, they lobby their executive teams. This is often tolerated rather than encouraged by the organisation. There is no specific time granted to these internal change agents, they have to do this on top of the day job. There is no budget to invite external speakers or order a few sandwiches. This often leads to these inspiring and energetic women becoming frustrated and burned out.
Many organisations find it difficult to stay focused on the goal of getting more women into tech. This is often swept into a more general conversation about diversity and representation of all kinds. And those conversations are important, but any initiative which has constantly expanding scope, no specific funding and little leadership attention is doomed to fail. Of course, more diverse teams make better decisions. Organisations need to recognise that different underrepresented groups face different challenges and barriers and it’s OK to take specific actions aimed at encouraging more women into tech, such as dedicated career returner programmes.
It’s not that complicated
The solutions are known. But it’s going to take an investment of both effort and money, at a time when many organisations are cutting back on spending.
- Reach out early: encourage and enable employees, especially women, to engage with young people. Make sure this is part of the job, not on top of the job.
- Set up for success: Run initiatives to attract and retain women as we would any other project (with a sponsor, a budget, goals and a plan!)
- Create more entry level roles: developing talent internally helps to move the needle on diversity and increases the talent pool that is suitable for more experienced tech roles.
- Experiment: sponsor different events, advertise in different places, use different recruiting specialists. Innovate and listen to women.
- Create flexible roles: Tech is able to offer many jobs as remote first, part-time and flexible. This will help attract and retain top talent.
- Monitor progress: Check efforts to attract more female candidates are translating to more female hires. Track whether having more women in junior roles is, over time, leading to more progression to senior roles. And in each case, ask: if not, why not?
Christina Lovelock
