The annual Impact Report found that the female tech workforce stands at 26% – an improvement from 19% in the previous impact report.
Despite this step in the right direction, there is more work to be done. The report found that 45% more women than men leave jobs in the tech sector, and 50% of females who take a tech role leave it before the age of 35. There is also a lack of diversity, with only 0.7% of the industry made up of black women.
According to the report, the issues around getting women and girls into tech starts at school. It’s been a challenging year for STEM education following the Covid-19 pandemic, and according to McKinsey, students are around four months behind on learning. InnovateHer’s report also found that there is yet to be a significant rise of female students taking tech subjects in education – only 20% of students taking Computer Science at GCSE are female.
To try and tackle the lack of female representation in the industry, InnovateHer launched a new programme of activities in January of this year, including Inspiring Assemblies, introducing pupils to the world of tech. Role models also joined classrooms to talk about their careers and how they got there, with the aim of making careers in tech more tangible.
Despite the tough landscape in school and in the workplace, the report revealed that 692,000 people interacted with InnovateHer over the course of the year. After taking courses with InnovateHer, 50% of students said they felt more confident about going to work in tech. 85% of students are aged between 13-15, highlighting the importance of young people being engaged in STEM from school age.
Speaking about the findings, Chelsea Slater, Co-Founder and Director of InnovateHer said, “Our annual impact report is an important piece of research that not only highlights the work we do, but also why we do it.”
“It’s great to see that the female tech workforce is on the rise by 7%, but this isn’t enough.”
“We’re passionate about getting out into schools and giving girls the confidence to consider a career in tech.”
“We’ve relaunched our Tech4Good downloadable workbook, and our Understanding UX course online, and soon we’ll be launching further short courses to allow students to learn about the areas of tech they’re most interested in.”
InnovateHer has been working for half a decade to get more women and girls working in tech, through educational programmes, working with partners and campaigning to raise awareness.
