Women make up 51% of UK workers but only constitute 21% of tech roles.
Despite significant steps taken by companies to encourage better representation in the industry, the gap between men and women, both in terms of prevalence at tech companies and the salaries they receive, remains today.
But as alarming as this sounds, entering the industry is no longer as daunting a prospect as it once was. From the many conversations I have with people looking to start, or further their careers in tech, there is one underlying message: there’s a route into the industry irrespective of personal background.
It’s a common misnomer that you need a three-year computer science degree or have a strong coding background to get into the industry. The reality today is that every organisation, regardless of sector, needs tech professionals. Where those skills come from matters far less than having them. Other routes like apprenticeships and bootcamps demonstrate skills to employers just as well as degrees. Many technology firms go on to provide free learning and certification programs, which can be valued more than degrees for particular roles as they show familiarity with topics that aren’t covered in further education. For instance, SAP’s digital skills initiative for women provides an opportunity to get free certifications. These align with applications that are commonly used in the industry, and are ones that that experienced engineers and consultants often have to demonstrate that they have proficiency in.
If working at a specific tech company isn’t interesting to you, it is also important to recognise that the industry is far more diverse than that. It was in the early 2000’s that the now infamous phrase that “every company will become a technology company” was first coined – and we’ve seen that very much come to fruition.
Every company is looking for ways to be more productive, more efficient, more creative and will need someone with a technology background to make this happen. Marketers are increasingly using AI to devise customer experiences to reach new people, sustainability professionals are using environmental tech more and more to reduce emissions, and even tradespeople are using digital services to help them manage projects. Applying technology to what you’re interested in can give you the skills needed to transition to a wider career, but this isn’t the only opportunity for progression – in any field, there is enough demand to forge a career around technology.
Over the past twenty years of my career, the work to improve gender representation in tech has led to more women in senior roles across the industry. As increasingly more digitally proficient generations enter the workplace, having a technology background as a woman is no longer as rare as it once was.
Some industries like fintech and banking are still dominated by men, and for software engineers and data scientists there is still significant disparity, but this doesn’t exist for tech generally anymore. The SAP internship program has remained roughly even in gender since its inception, and now there’s not a clear segregation between the experiences of men and women working in tech. With a positive attitude and strong skills, anyone can thrive in tech regardless of gender.
