Role of Women in IT Industries

In the world of equality & empowerment, women got many privilege & facilities to work outside with full independence & dedication. Today there are many women industrialists who are partnered to acknowledge the exceptional women who have achieved success through their valuable leadership , innovation & commitment to their sectors.

If we talk sector specific, Tech has always been a predominantly male industry with iconic male entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Mark Zukerberg gaining the most recognition for their contributions to the sectors. In current scenario women make up less than 40% of the total workforce in some of the top tech companies and when considering only tech related roles they are even more under represented.

Women view the ICT (International Communications Technology) sector as male dominated & this is putting them off enterting the field , according to the International Communications Unions , the main partner for the international Girls in ICT ( Information & Communication Technology ) Day.

Gender of ICT Specialists in European Countries in 2014. (Image clicked from Eurostat)

Women are heavily involved in Pioneering & Developing computer industry but this changed when the technology sector began to be perceived as a ‘man’s world‘.

Stats of women in computer science ( Image clicked from PNR)

Apple has the highest proportion of female employees in tech roles, however this figure is still only 20%. At Twitter only 10% of tech positions are filled by women.

Presently women are playing a huge part too and more & more women are entering both regular and high level positions in tech with the big global firms such as Apple, Google, Facebook etc are hiring women 238% more than men.

How many Women are Working in Tech? ( Current Scenario )

1. 20% of all Tech Start-ups across the world were founded by women.

2. Chicago, Boston & Silicon Valley have the most tech start ups founded by women.

3. The number of women working for Facebook grew by 84% in 2015 compared to 16% increase of men & 83% more women joined Microsoft in 2015 , compared to 17% of men.

World’s most Powerful Women in Tech ( Top 4 )

According to Forbes 2017

1. Sheryl Sandberg

Amid the ongoing furor over ” fake news ” on facebook, Sandberg is pushing hard to head off increased regulations on social media companies.

2. Susan Wojcicki

Wojcicki’s commitment to diversity bears out in the numbers. The percentage of female employees at the company has increased from 24% to 30% during her tenure as CEO. YouTube has passes 1 billion hours of daily watch time worldwide.

3. Ginni Rometty

Rometty has been pushing ibm’s cloud and analytics products to counteract a decline in demand for legacy software products. In october the company had it’s best earning report in almost nine years.

4. Meg Whitman

The billionaire CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise was a rumored contender for the UBER CEO Job. Whitman stepped down from Hewlett – Packard’s board this year & joined Dropbox’s board.

Why do Women leave Tech?

1. 30% blame working conditions such as long hours, a long salary and no opportunity for career progression.

2. 27% put it down to work life balance stating they do not have enough time with their family and there is too much travel involved.

3. Some of the top reasons were a loss of interest in their job and problems with the company environment.

4. 24% of women who leave a tech role go on to a non technical role in a different company and 22% become self employed in a tech field.

How to Retain Women in Tech ?

1. Offer mentoring programs & networking opportunities can help staff to seek encouragement and assistance from others in industry.

2. Flexible working hours will ensure staff feel like they meet a good work life balance and have time for commitments outside of their jobs.

3. Providing opportunities for personal development is a large factor that people look for in a jobs and scope for promotions will improve retention rates.

References :

forbes.com

womenintechindustry.org

webforum.org