The progress in closing the tech gender and diversity gap is “not quick enough” according to the British Computer Society.
Speaking in an interview with UKTN, Julia Adamson, managing director for public benefit at BCS said the industry is still having the same conversations it has been having for years concerning equal opportunities for tech workers from gender and ethnic minority backgrounds.
At the current pace, BCS projected the tech industry will reach equal representation for genders in around 300 years.
“If we carry on at the rate, we’ll all be dead and buried by then,” Adamson said.
In its latest report on the diversity of the tech sector, BCS found that while women represented 51% of the working-age population in the UK last year, they made up less than a quarter of the IT workforce.
The report found that the unemployment rate for female tech workers, 2.5%, was notably higher than for men in tech, with an unemployment rate of 1.8%.
Both figures, however, are considerably lower than the unemployment rate across all sectors for women in the UK, 3.8%.
“Women have got more roots in [tech] and we are seeing more women in the profession, and that’s great but it’s not quick enough,” Adamson said.
Adamson noted that the volume of unemployed women in the tech sector, as well as the millions of women discouraged from entering the industry in the first place, presents the perfect solution to the ongoing shortage of digital skills.
Charlene Hunter, CEO of Coding Black Females, told UKTN that for women of colour, the “tech bro culture” of inequality has been even more harmful.
“Women of colour, especially black women, can often be overlooked in the conversation. Their inclusion needs more consistent focus,” Hunter said.
“Tech bro culture persists because it’s deeply rooted in industry norms. While diversity is acknowledged, hiring often focuses on “cultural fit,” perpetuating this environment.”
Hunter said flexible working policies and blind recruitment have been significant measures to address this imbalance.
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