Rise of Women Working In The Tech Sector In The UK

• In Updates
• 14 Dec 2021, 08:54 PM
• By Technologist Confidant

According to the Office for National Statistics study, the technology sector in the UK was in the third position in terms of job creation for women. Over the last two years, the number of women working in the tech sector has increased, with around 150.000 jobs created in the tech sector in the country for women.

In the data published by the Office for National Statistics, the country had created an additional 58,000 tech and IT jobs between the months of July and September this year. The majority of positions held in these jobs are by women. According to the report, 41,000 women were employed in the IT sector between July and September 2021, compared to 17,000 men. The data also reveals that among all the new tech and IT jobs created in the UK, 71% of them were secured by women.

According to the Office of National Statistics, 1.6 million people were employed in the UK's Information & Technology sector between the months of July and September. The number of people employed increased by 69,000 compared to the months of July and September of 2020. At the same time, 186,000 more jobs have been created in the IT sector of the UK when compared to the 2019 July-September levels when the number of people employed was 1.4 million.

The number of women working in the technology sector has increased over the past year, with 31% of the tech jobs in the UK being held by women. However, the latest statistics present the fact that women in the UK are still underrepresented in IT professionals and leadership roles.

Reasons behind underrepresentation of women

The reasons behind the underrepresentation of women in IT and tech roles can be traced back to the findings of the Harvey Nash Group, which is in line with the University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS). The results show that women are underrepresented in university science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses. It has also been noted that computer science-related degrees have also seen a meagre percentage of female graduates from 2015-2019, i.e., between 15% and 16%. Therefore, when there is a low percentage of females in technical courses, it is reflected in the tech roles.

The two fields, i.e. computer science and technology, have the most significant gender imbalance from current students to graduates and in the workforce. In 2019, 21% of the IT Technician roles were held by women in the UK. The priority of the companies and the government should be to tackle this inequality, and it has also been showcased by a few initiatives having an impact on the UK workforce.

Way forward

The views put forward in the Harvey Nash survey are:

• Providing additional apprenticeship programs for women in the tech sector.
• Employing cross-training opportunities for women.
• Flexible working opportunities to balance other life commitments.
• Better engagements in schools, colleges and universities.
• Diversification of teams.

Apart from the points forward in the research, it also stresses sustained culture and mindset shift, allowing women to increase the participation rate in the UK workforce.