On the occasion of International Women’s Day, a caring acquaintance noted how odd it is that we need a special day to show our appreciation for women. Agreed – we should value women’s contributions every day. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case universally, and the tech industry is arguably one of the sectors most in need of re-education.
The tech industry does love data, though, so here are some data points that may help answer the question, why do we (still!) need a special day to promote women’s equality. (Note: Most statistics presented here are based on US studies. However, an article that details Canadian education/labour data from 2016 establishes disturbingly similar patterns: see The Curious Case of Women in ICT. ).
- As of 2022, women make up 28% of the tech industry workforce. (In 1984, 35% of tech roles were held by women. In 2018, 32% were.)
- While women accounted for approximately half of the US labour force, they make up 34.4% of the workforce of the U.S.’s largest tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
- 44% of STEM-related bachelor’s degrees are held by women.
- Women are most underrepresented in physical science (40%), computer (25%), and engineering (15%) jobs.
- The percentage of bachelor’s in computer science degrees held by women has changed from 13.6% in 1970, to 37% in 1984, to 18% in 2021.
- 39% of women in tech say that they see gender bias as an obstacle to getting a promotion.
- 72% of women and over 50% of men in tech say women are outnumbered by men in meetings by at least a 2:1 ratio.
- 50% of women who take a role in tech drop out of the industry by the age of 35. (In other fields, this number is only 20%.) All this results in women leaving tech roles at a 45% higher rate than men do.
- 37% of women who leave the industry cite poor company culture.
- 15% of tech CEOs are women. (37% of entry-level roles are help by women, and 19% of senior VPs are women.
- In 2019, startups founded solely by females received 6% of global venture capital dollars, and startups co-founded by men and women received 10%.
This information is pulled, with thanks, from an article by Zippia. 40 Telling Women in Technology Statistics [2023]; Computer Science Gender Ratios [2022] https://www.zippia.com/advice/women-in-technology-statistics/
