In 2018, over 100 years since the first Women’s Day was held in New York, women in a majority of countries can vote, open a bank account, serve on a jury, apply for loans and even “spend their own money in a pub” (U.K. law, 1982). They also have the right to equal opportunity and equal pay – though we’re still working on these two.
Just last week, the U.N. Secretary General announced that the U.N.’s top body achieved gender parity, with 23 women and 21 men now making up the Senior Management Group.
But women still make up only 26% of the tech workforce.
In the tech startup world, women are drastically underrepresented. They’re less likely than men to study STEM-related fields at university, less likely to choose careers in tech and less likely to work at startups.
“74% of young girls express an interest in STEM fields and computer science, but only 18% of undergraduate computer science degrees and 26% of tech jobs are held by women. Worse still, just 5% of leadership positions in the tech industry are held by women.”
Something is going wrong, and we need to know what it is and what we can do to change it.
#pressforprogress
On March 8, the organisers of International Women’s Day will issue a call “to motivate and unite friends, colleagues and whole communities to think, act and be gender inclusive.”
As part of our #pressforprogress campaign, we spoke to 74 developers, as well as recruiters and HR managers, to get their views on what it’s like to work in the tech industry and what we can all do to be more gender inclusive.
Based on their responses, our own research and personal experiences in recruitment, we’re publishing four more blog posts – one every day this week. Tomorrow we will publish the survey results, then we will address some of the biggest issues respondents identified and what the tech industry can do to combat them.
We’re all responsible
Key finding: We all play a part in making sure more women are hired
Whether it’s acting as mentors for young women considering tech careers at school or university, making startup cultures more inclusive and diverse or improving the hiring process and candidate experience, we need to be doing all we can to encourage women to apply for and accept Europe’s best tech jobs.
“With so many aspects of our industry ready to be made more inclusive, each of us plays a part. Whether it’s donating to great organizations, promoting young women in STEM, giving your time to serve as a jungle guide for talented women leaders early in their career, or developing company policies for inclusive recruiting and flexible work and more.”
Swati Mylavarapu, CEO of Incite Ventures and Incite Labs
Check out the survey results, why we should be hiring more women developers, designers and IT managers, and what can we do to bring them on board.
We’ve created a free guide to help startups hire more women in tech.
From startup culture and candidate experience to supporting the next generation, there are lots of simple steps you can take to attract, engage and retain more female candidates.
