How the Gender Gap Has Narrowed in the Tech Industry

Gender inequality has been an issue around the world for thousands of years. Fortunately, women are now speaking up and getting equal positions with men in work, family life and social status. Within the tech industry, we’ve made huge strides in the name of equality, especially during the 21st century. So, what progress has been made, and what do we still need to do to ensure that women are truly equal in the tech world?

Past gender inequality in the tech industry

Technology is often seen as a man’s world, but we now know that is not the case. Millions of women around the world are interested in technology, but it took a while for the rest of the world to catch up.

Women have been working within tech since the industry began. Even hundreds of years ago, when technology was in its infancy, women played a role in its development.

In the 1700s, French astronomer and mathematician Nicolas-Reine Lepotre used the timing of solar eclipses to predict the near-perfect return of Halley’s Comet to Earth. And, when electronic technology was commercialized, so were women.

In the 1950s, many women worked in software development, although it was seen as a menial job, so hardware manufacturing was a man’s job.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that men realized how a change in software development could revolutionize technology, so software became the name of the game. But the idea that women were treated with more basic jobs spoke volumes about the gender inequality within the industry at the time.

The idea of ​​technology for men didn’t fade away even in the coming decades. In the 1990s, Jane Margolis, a researcher on segregation and inequality, conducted a study in which she interviewed hundreds of computer science students at Carnegie Mellon University.

The study showed that families were more likely to buy computers for boys rather than girls, indicating that people still thought that women were not suitable for the field of technology.

But did the turn of the century bring a wave of equality for women in tech?

How things have changed in the 21st century for women in tech

Over the past few decades, the conversation around sexism and misogyny has resulted in major changes in the Western world. Women raising concerns about safety or discrimination are taken more seriously now, and views about women in the tech industry are changing.

Statistics now show that the gender gap within the tech industry is actually closing. Between 2018 and 2020, a 2.9% increase was reported in the female workforce in tech, with predictions that there will be nearly three million young women working in tech by the year 2030. But for most, this change just isn’t happening fast enough.

While we can be upbeat about the slowly closing gender gap, we can’t ignore the problems that still exist. PwC has reported that a shocking 78% of students cannot name a woman who has gained notoriety in the tech industry. On top of this, PWC reported that women only hold 5% of leadership positions in the tech industry. These figures are alarming to say the least.

On top of this, women were offered an average of 2.5% less annual salary than men when applying for tech jobs in 2020, indicating that the gender pay gap is still very much an issue in our current times. And, with 50% of women reporting to have left their tech jobs by the age of 35, there are certainly reasons why the gender disparity in tech still persists.

Problems faced by women in the tech industry

So, what factors are preventing the gender gap in tech from closing? First, it is important to address the discrimination that women still face on a regular basis.

In a report by CWJobs, it was said that a third of women in the tech industry were asked if their mood was related to their time of the month. On top of this, CWJobs reported that more than half of women in tech say that someone implied their gender could restrict their careers. This type of behavior not only discourages women from working in tech but also makes it difficult for them to advance in their careers.

Consider the fact that 44% of women say gender discrimination is a big problem in tech, compared to just 29% of men. This means that more than 70% of men do not think that women deal with any bias when working in technical jobs. Additionally, the fact that a third of women say there is more gender discrimination against women in tech than in other industries, compared to 19% of men, shows that there is a larger issue that needs to be tackled. So what can be done?