women tech percent number among pay statistics

Women in Tech 2018: What the Statistics Tell Us### Women have played a role in computer technology since its inceptionMany credit Ava Lovelace as the first computer programmer, in a time beforecomputers even existed, and women from Grace Hopper to the women who workedwith Alan Turing at Bletchley Park were key in the development and adoption ofmodern computing devices. However, the number of women working in tech droppedsignificantly after the 1980s, and the percentage of tech employees who arefemale lags far behind other fields, including business, law, and medicine.Still, there are signs of progress, and understanding the statisticspertaining to women in tech is essential for understanding the problems andaddressing them.PwC recently looked at the role of women in tech in the UK. In STEM fields,women accounted for only 15 percent of employees. More distressingly, thereare few signs that this number will rise without extra action, as only 15.8percent of undergraduates in STEM fields are women. Leadership examples can bekey toward encouraging more participation among women, yet only five percentof leadership positions in STEM fields are held by women. In PwC’s report “TheFemale Millennial — The New Era of Talent,” researchers found that young womenwant to work with employers with a strong history of inclusion, diversity, andequality. Many women see the low number of women in tech and choose to enterother fields.The PwC reports highlights the problems these disparities create for UKcompanies. Two-thirds of CEOs in the UK claim to have difficulty hiring peoplewith digital skills, a numbers that significantly exceeds the 43 percent ofCEOs who claimed the same in the US and the 24 percent of CEOs in China.Countless studies have shown a shortage of tech workers in the UK and aroundthe world, and this number will only rise. Increasing the number of womenentering tech is perhaps the most powerful tool for alleviating this burden.Of course, these problems aren’t confined to the UK. Statistica recentlylooked at the tech pay gap in various United States cities. Perhaps the mostsurprising result was how the small the tech pay gap is in cities not commonlyassociated with the country’s coastal liberalism. In New Orleans andIndianapolis, the tech pay gap stood at only one percent. In fact, in KansasCity, Missouri, women made 102 percent of the salary of their malecounterparts. Among the cities surveyed, Silicon Valley and its adjoiningareas fared worst, with pay gaps in San Jose standing at 17 percent, SanFrancisco at 18 percent, and Fremont at 22 percent. Significantly highersalaries in and around Silicon Valley, however, mean that women might makemore in the area in spite of higher housing costs.Around the globe, rates of female participation in tech vary significantly, asdoes the gender pay gap. These aren’t the only relevant statistics; howlikely, for example, are women to successfully climb the tech job ladder? Howdoes female participation in tech compare to the number of women in the jobmarket as a whole? Honeypot took a holistic approach to crunching thesenumbers to compare 41 countries in the OECD and the EU.Switzerland came out on top, and European countries generally considered tohave better gender equality scored well, with Denmark, the Netherlands,Sweden, Iceland, and Norway rounding out the top six. The eastern portion ofEurope scored some strong results as well, with Slovenia and Finland coming inseventh and eighth. Among larger countries, Germany scored best, coming in atninth overall, and South Korea rounded out the top 10, representing the firstnation outside of Europe in the list. The UK came in 27th place, following theCzech Republic, and the United States placed 34th, following Latvia.There are reasons for optimism among the sea of distressing statistics.CompTIA, for example, has statistics that show interest in tech among teenshas risen by 10 percent since 2012, with girls leading the way at 17 percent.Furthermore, companies, realizing that women will be needed to fill jobs indemand, are taking steps to encourage women to enter the field. CompTIA’sAdvanced Women in Tech community provides resources for women looking to entertech fields, and these resources help connect women with organizations thatcan help. It’s not always easy to know where to look when considering a techcareer, and CompTIA and other organizations are taking a proactive approach toproviding guidance.There’s no easy solution to the tech gender gap, and even determining thecauses of the gap is difficult. However, it’s a problem the industry needs tosolve, as even if women enter tech in large numbers, there are still projectedto be millions of unfilled jobs going forward. Still, there are reasons foroptimism, and there’s hope that women will achieve critical mass in the fieldand provide a more welcoming environment to future generations.* * *### About the authorLudmila Morozova-Buss is Vice President of Public Relations and MediaCommunications at Global Institute for IT Management (GIIM) & ExecutivePartner at Brooks Consulting International (BCI) – a boutique globalmarketing, branding, and government relations firm specializing inCybersecurity and Emerging Technologies.At the Global Institute for IT Management (GIIM) we help IT and non-IT leadersovercome uncertainties, be well prepared to meet the challenges of the digitaltransformation, and lead organizations to success in transition.