Gender equality in the male-dominated tech industry

Kombo Magara at SafetyCulture outlines steps that businesses can adopt to ensure that female staff stick around for the long-term, building a more equal workplace

With only 27% of female students saying they would consider a career in technology, compared to 61% of males – the tech sector remains male-dominated. Tech businesses need to prioritise changing this in both private businesses and the sector more widely.   

Promisingly, many people are passionate about changing these shocking statistics, and contributing to an equal future – for an industry that was built on strong foundations for championing women in the workplace – yet there is still a long way to go.

All too often, the focus is on recruitment and not enough on championing, supporting and celebrating the women in your business. There are a few key steps that businesses can adopt to ensure the male/female split equalises – and that your female staff stick around for the long-term, building a more equal workplace for good.

Implement meaningful policies

With greater roadblocks in the way of success, businesses should start thinking about implementing policies that matter to female employees, and which enact real change. A menopause policy or a family leave policy, which can empower senior females to continue working in the industry, are just some examples.

At SafetyCulture, we have also implemented a miscarriage leave policy in the UK, to recognise the struggles women can face while working and starting a family – this leave policy has introduced ten days of fully paid miscarriage leave per year for all female employees.

We launched the global miscarriage leave policy in line with Kin Fertility’s #WeNeedMoreLeave campaign. Kin Fertility, Australian telehealth start-up, is leading the movement to encourage businesses to raise the bar when it comes to creating supportive and safe environments for women in the workplace. Since starting the #WeNeedMoreLeave campaign, Kin has welcomed companies including the likes of Canva, Blackbird, Gritty Pretty, LinkTree, Milkdrop and Simply Wall St to the initiative, providing more than 10 days of miscarriage leave.

When developing policies such as these for your business, it’s worth researching key campaigns or movements that could align with the policy and have driven positive attention and change. Your business can then be represented as part of the wider change that’s needed to influence the industry.

Host female-led events and take part in initiatives

By hosting events that are female-led, businesses will attract female talent and give their female employees a platform to share experiences. Relatable role models are invaluable, and businesses should ensure they’re showcasing the talent they have, while attracting new talent and even new clients at the same time.

Outside your own four walls, there are numerous female-led initiatives to empower and champion women in your workplace such as the Northern Power Women Awards for several years now, which aims to accelerate gender equality and social mobility from the North of England – and it has become a cornerstone of our approach.

We have also committed to building a more equitable ecosystem in our local tech community by hosting Women in Tech events. Women in Tech is a nationwide group supporting women to break into the tech industry. We work specifically with their Northwest chapter to host events, with most recent attracting over 70 attendees.

We’re aiming to change the under-representation of women in tech, where only one in ten IT workers in the IT industry are women and that women are paid 16% less than their male counterparts doing the same job. By partnering with these communities and initiatives – whose sole purpose is to better represent women in tech in the North West – we can enact real change.

One such example is Women In Tech North. WIT North is a volunteer-led community, which over the past 7 years has grown to 2,500 members – and is committed to building an inclusive community to better drive diversity in tech.

Co-Lead Kate Wood described the impact that partnering with like-minded organisations, such as Safety Culture, has had on the community: “It’s fitting that I am hosting a panel celebrating allyship on IWD, as the team at Safety Culture have demonstrated the true meaning of the allyship over the past 18 months. Many of our members come to events alone which can be daunting if the location is different each month. As a volunteer run community, knowing we have a regular venue with refreshments where our members feel comfortable and confident, is invaluable to us. This allows to us to focus on the imbalance of diversity in the sector, and supporting, mentoring and promoting careers.”

Address under-representation head on

In the last year we’ve also worked with Prince’s Trust to support young women from underrepresented backgrounds to see a route into a tech career – we facilitated an advisory course in our Manchester SafetyCulture office with a representative of Prince’s Trust to showcase how to start a careers in technology – including public speaking coaching and the opportunity to shadow SafetyCulture staff.

We’ve also worked with Smart Works, who support unemployed women in Greater Manchester to access interview skills and garments. We’re proud to partner with both these charities, especially after achieving a 50:50 gender split in 2022 as well as a strong representation of LGBTQ and women of colour in Manchester office.

As a result of implementing welcoming policies, improving workplace culture and championing women in your business, staff will likely feel motivated and empowered to bring their best ideas to work or raise issues that are hindering them.

Some of the best workplace policies come from employees who push for change and voice their concerns – technology can make lines of communication streamlined, quick and accessible, in turn providing employees with a voice to speak about what matters the most: workplace culture. 

Kombo Magara is Senior People Partner EMEA at SafetyCulture

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com