Women in tech: addressing the gender imbalance in our industry

With International Women’s Day (8th March) around the corner, we’re revisiting the Zen podcast recorded last year, where Stu Birchall spoke with Zen’s People and Culture Director Ayshea Robertson.

The wide-ranging discussion focused on the alarming statistic that only 19% of technology jobs are occupied by women – that’s despite 49% of the UK workforce being female. Of those women in tech, only 22% occupy senior roles as technical directors.

So what are the reasons for those statistics and what are Zen doing to address the imbalance?

The current state of play

It may not come as a surprise to hear that technology is a male dominated sector – and though Zen’s stats are better than the industry average (at 27% female representation), Ayshea identified a few reasons for this contrast.

According to Ayshea, this is a longstanding issue that must be addressed not only by quick fixes but more fundamentally by changing education and mindsets.

When asked why not enough girls are studying tech subjects, for example, Ayshea pointed out issues around awareness, stereotyping and even the influence of family and society.

The amount of grassroots work needed to properly address the issue is certainly challenging and, unfortunately, this is a challenge that too many businesses only pay lip service to.

While acknowledging the issue, it is easy to be overawed by the size of the task. According to Ayshea, not enough organisations are doing enough proactively to try to make a difference.

For example, many companies will boast of their ‘women in tech’ groups, but Ayshea says these are often little more than ‘talking shops’, which result in very little action being taken.

Similar happens, says Ayshea, in schools and other educational establishments, and though recent years have seen many more STEM initiatives, the amount of catch up required means that more needs to be done.

The consequences of inaction

The consequences of not addressing the gender imbalance in technology go beyond simply ‘not doing the right thing’.

In fact, as Ayshea pointed out, a lack of diversity in organisations tends to lead to a lack of creativity, along with risking inherent biases seeping into the way business is done.

A male-dominated organisation is also failing to be representative of its customers and society as a whole. And that can mean less than adequate customer service.

And the problem is a self-perpetuating one.

Often, women will see a male dominated organisation or industry and be put off from applying for available jobs. On the other hand, when real change is achieved – and more women find employment within the tech industry – the faster the change will happen.

But for recruiters, the pool of talent isn’t always there. And despite there being a real shortage of skills within the industry, a good portion of half the population is currently out of reach.

What is Zen doing?

As a business we are raising awareness, says Ayshea. Through education and initiatives like our all-female Step into Tech programme we are developing people and attracting women who might be interested in roles in tech but may be less confident or need some additional training and encouragement.

Our most recent Step into Tech programme, run in 2021, resulted in the recruitment of six additional women onto our tech support team.

Externally, we have also linked up with local schools, colleges and universities to help with their initiatives around getting more women into technology.

That help ranges from work experience to careers advice and even showing female role models. We are also committed to bringing in more technology graduates, making a career at Zen a clear and attractive path.

Our schools outreach focuses on making ours an accessible and attractive industry to build a career in, and through being exposed to successful female role models and seeing Zen as a good example, we believe that young girls will want to pursue careers in tech, and we’ll be here to help them.

To listen to the podcast in full, where Ayshea also provides advice for women and girls wanting to take the step into a technology career, follow this link.

And to find out more about what Zen is doing to encourage Women in Tech, you can visit our page here.