Gender inequality in the economy will last another 152 years

Although the number of women in the IT industry is increasing, inequality in their representation persists. TITANS explains women’s challenges and what needs to change to prevent them from voluntarily leaving the IT sector.

Chelsey Glasson wanted to become a lawyer, but everything changed when she met her husband’s family friend Jennifer. She was a very successful manager at Microsoft who inspired her to pursue a career in the IT sector. Thanks to Jennifer, Chelsea could imagine she too could make it in a male-dominated field.

Statistics confirm that women have indeed made progress. Since 1970, only 8% of women have worked in the US science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) sector, but by 2023 they made up 35% of the local workforce in that field. Despite this, significant gender inequality persists in the IT sector, including among staff at Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, where women make up only 31% of the workforce on average.

Moreover, even if they manage to get a job in the IT sector today, it does not mean that they will be successful in it. The organisation TTC surveyed British women working in technology and found that one in three plan to leave their jobs. Of this number, 34.8% planned to find a career in a completely different sector.

Inequality in pay and career progression

At the current pace of change, it will take 152 years to eliminate gender inequalities in economic participation and opportunity. Men employed in STEM fields receive higher salaries than women for comparable work, by almost USD 15,000 per year. According to Bloomberg, a Silicon Valley man typically earns 61% more money than his female counterpart.

Unfair salaries are the second most important factor in women’s decision to give up IT jobs. For example, companies are accused of not taking ‘non-promotable roles’ into account in pay practices. Women reportedly do more of them, and although this leads to higher team productivity, they are not rewarded for it. Respondents also linked their dissatisfaction with pay to the psychological burden of childcare.

In addition, up to 80% of women in the UK reported that they had left the IT sector because they were dissatisfied with their career progression. This is not surprising given that in the US only a quarter of management is female, with 5% being from racial minorities. This suggests the need not only to create a fair career progression system but also to ensure that it takes account of race and ethnicity. Among the 3,000 largest American companies in the industry, only 5.5% of CEO positions are held by women.

In Slovakia, the association Aj Ty v IT, which is also supported by TITANS, is trying to raise awareness about inequality of opportunity. ‘I am not at all happy about the fact that even in the 21st century we do not live in an era of equality and there is still a lot of catching up to do in the IT sector,’ says Róbert Dusík, one of the CEOs and co-founder of TITANS. ‘I would like to express my support to Aj Ty v IT because their work is of great value in the gradual, but growing involvement of women in the IT world, where they certainly have a lot to offer us.’

The goal of Aj Ty v IT is to eliminate stereotypes in the IT sector and harness the potential of women in the industry. Since 2022, it has also been organising the Slovak Women in Tech conference. ‘We have a lot of inspiring IT events in Slovakia, but we lack women. As a result, we decided to create an event that will bring a space for female talent, motivation, mutual support, a space where women can excel,’ explains Petra Kotuliaková, founder and director of Aj Ty v IT.

They refill refreshments at meetings

‘More than a decade went by and it was getting harder and harder to ignore the problems,’ Chelsey continues in her story about her IT career. She points to gender pay inequality, sexual harassment, and discrimination against pregnant women and parents as examples. All these unpleasant experiences accumulated and seriously affected her career path. ‘I have always been accused of being too assertive but not assertive enough, of looking too casual or unrepresentative, of being too emotional, but also of not being sensitive enough to the emotions of my co-workers,’ Chelsey states.

The fact that women are sometimes perceived as outsiders in the IT industry is supported by survey data. According to them, 72% of American women are surrounded by a prevailing ‘bro culture’ at work. The WomenTech Network survey further revealed that they often face microaggressions in the workplace: some 64% of female respondents said that when they were the ones talking in meetings, someone used to start talking over them. Another 19% felt stereotyped and 11% of women were asked to refill refreshments during meetings. Other common instances of microaggressions included gender-based language and the frequent obligation to take minutes of meetings. Prejudice against women in the workplace was mentioned by 39% in the surveys.

‘For a time, I thought that surely no other woman could have experienced so much difficulty in the workplace,’ says Chelsey. She left her position at Google because of discrimination based on her pregnancy. She then filed a lawsuit against the company. ‘From the countless people who reached out to me after my story was published, I learned that many women from marginalized groups in the IT industry have scars similar to mine caused by inappropriate workplace behaviour. I was not the only one who had such experiences.’

In addition, women are 1.6 times more likely to be dismissed compared to men – often due to lower seniority. An unprecedented number of IT sector layoffs were given to women during the pandemic and a similar number in 2022 when they made up 69.2% of people who lost their jobs. This is highlighted by a WomenTech Network study involving 4,912 redundancies from 54 tech companies around the world.

Inequality does not belong to the future

If this continues, gender inequality will be taken over by our digital infrastructure. As technological progress accelerates, different segments of the population must participate in the creation of artificial intelligence tools and other technologies that run our society.

‘No industry is evolving as fast as IT, yet it lags behind others in equal gender representation, which is a huge shame,’ says Marek Greško, co-founder and CEO of TITANS. ‘Meanwhile, the absence of women in IT is impoverishing the entire industry. It is proven that gender-balanced work teams generate more creative and better quality ideas and solutions, and help companies to be more successful.’

One of the main reasons why women are underrepresented in the tech industry is the lack of female mentors. Inspired by her husband’s friend Jennifer, Chelsey mentions other personalities who are currently creating change for the better. Sarah Johal, whose mother worked in large technology companies, founded CareSprint. Her goal is to advocate for inclusive jobs for parents and caregivers. Vivianne Castillo, on the other hand, was motivated by her experiences with microaggressions and gaslighting, which were related to her African American background. Therefore, she founded HmntyCntrd, a company offering trauma- and care-informed training resources for teams and organisational structures.

‘The tech industry as a whole isn’t bad, and there are many people around the world working in IT who are leading important initiatives to promote greater inclusion,’ explains Chelsey, who returned to her original ambition of studying law. But she’s not turning her back on discrimination in the workplace – she’s determined to become a lawyer who will defend the rights of employees.