The California Diversity Council in the US (Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology) and the UK’s Women in IT Awards (the largest technology diversity event ever staged) are just two of the dozens of groups that honored tech’s most innovative and influential female achievers in 2017.
Women are beginning to make their mark on the tech world in a big way. But it’s going to take continuous effort to keep things moving forward.
The Gender Challenge
Technology remains a male-dominated industry. While women represent roughly half the workforce in the US, they still only account for about one-quarter of STEM-related jobs. According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), girls do science – they just don’t do computer science, where they currently earn only 18% of related undergraduate degrees.
Women are hugely underrepresented in the global technology workforce. Recent revelations of venture funding sexism in places like Silicon Valley are part of the reason why. But a recent ISACA survey revealed some of the other key factors that tend to hold women back:
- Lack of mentors
- Lack of female role models
- Gender bias
- Unequal growth opportunities compared to men
- Unequal pay for the same skills
Still, the tide does seem to be turning thanks to a lot of persistence and hard work, and women have a lot to celebrate when it comes to our progress to date.