When I learnt that women only make up 26% of the tech workforce, and that over half of women in tech leave the industry before the age of 35 citing ‘non-inclusive’ company culture as the reason behind this decision, it is clear why events like the Women in Tech Festival are so important. It is also understandable why so many of the speakers throughout the day focussed on how best to tackle this female deficit in the tech workforce.
So, what can we do to address this issue?
Well, for one, we must acknowledge that the reasons leading to this gender imbalance are complex and cannot be addressed by the tech industry alone. This means focussing on early socialisation and challenging gendered stereotypes which present Tech and Computing as subjects best suited for boys.
Furthermore, we must also work to ensure that the education system and national curriculum keep up with the times, disputing the view that jobs in tech only consist of IT support, coding, and software development. This point was argued by numerous speakers at the Women in Tech Festival, who believed signposting roles in User Experience and Product Management could increase the number of women wanting to enter the industry.
However, it is important to note that the impact of early socialisation and the education system on this gender gap, does not excuse inaction from businesses. In fact, there is a huge amount that companies could and should be doing to address this imbalance.
All the recommendations made below were discussed at length by the presenters at the Women in Tech Festival and go to show how small changes can make a great difference in the proportion of women applying to tech-based roles.
1. Rewording Job Adverts
It is really important for companies to monitor the language used in job adverts, because a disproportionate use of masculine words (such as ‘strong’, ‘competitive’, and ‘ninja’) has been shown to put women off from applying to roles.
In order to address this, there are numerous free online tools which can scan text for gendered language. In replacing these masculine or feminine words with gender neutral alternatives, a company can work to diversify the applicant pool.
Companies that have acted to eliminate this gendered language have yielded impressive results. For instance, when Atlassian (an Australian software company) produced gender neutral job adverts, it saw an 80% increase in the number of women hired in technical roles across a 2-year period. Similarly, when Google eradicated language bias from job adverts, the organisation saw an 11% increase in the number of female applicants.
Therefore, when considering the evidence above alongside the abundance of free online tools, it becomes difficult for a business to justify why they would not ensure all job adverts contained gender neutral language.
2. Restructuring Job Adverts
Another point discussed at the Women in Tech Festival focussed on the presentation of job adverts. One such speaker to highlight this was Neha Batra (Head of Business Solutions at Domino’s Pizza), who suggested that women were less likely to apply for a role if a job description contained a long list of required technical skills. This is because women have been shown to undervalue their abilities and will not apply for a role unless they believe that they are 100% qualified.
Luckily, for any company wanting to diversify its workforce, the solution here is simple and can be achieved through the restructuring of future job adverts. This means splitting up long lists of technical requirements and distinguishing between skills that are either ‘required’ or ‘desired’. Subsequently, reducing the pressure on applicants to meet every item listed.
3. Increasing Visibility of Women
The last point discussed in this blog, focusses on increasing the visibility of women within a company and highlighting this within website and social media imagery. The importance of this point is highlighted in a recent survey conducted by Glassdoor, where 76% of respondents cited a diverse workforce as an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.
Therefore, if a company disproportionately shows men in its website and online imagery, it is not radical to suggest that this could deter women from applying. For this reason, it is incredibly important to consider the overt and subliminal messaging of these images and to challenge the status quo. As in showing diversity through its online material, a company can hope to replicate this in the demographic of those applying for jobs.
Looking ahead
All in all, my day at the Women in Tech Festival was both empowering and enlightening, and I am pleased to say that I left with the refreshing view that not only was it possible to increase the number of women in tech-based roles, but companies could achieve this goal by making simple and inexpensive changes to its everyday practices. With this in mind, it becomes very difficult for companies to ignore this push for change.
A commitment to diversity is incredibly important at Smartdesc, which is reflected in the fact that over 50% of our staff are non-white and we are working hard to implement these recommendations into our recent hiring campaigns, with the aim of increasing the number of women in tech-based roles beyond the national average. We believe this to be especially important considering that the majority of the voluntary workforce are women, making up two-thirds of the industry.
Amber Newlands, Customer Success Officer, Smartdesc
