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BCS warns it will take nearly 300 years to reach gender parity in tech

Diversity marketing is hiding lack of progress

Given the cultural emphasis on the progress of women and girls and on the importance of diversity more broadly, you'd be forgiven for failing to notice that women in tech are in fact not progressing.

The BCS, The Chartered Institute of IT has launched its 2023 Diversity Report, and the findings serve as a coda to a year where, culturally at least, it can seem as if girls and women have main character energy. You could see it in ‘Barbie' which owned the zeitgeist this summer, as crowds of women and girls whooped and clapped in cinemas during a monologue about the conflicting expectations and ideals women are expected to adhere to.

In tech, not-for-profit organisations such as Next Tech Girls and Tech She Can are attracting greater publicity and sponsorship, and more women working in tech are eager to act as role models to help bring the possibilities of tech careers to a wider audience. Computing's inaugural Tech Women Celebration 50 showcased a role model for every year of Computing, and the Women in Tech Excellence Awards received a record number of entries.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that women have finally called time on the male domination of the technology workforce, and even for wondering whether this whole diversity thing (whisper it) might have gone a bit too far.

You would however be wrong, on the first point at least. According to the BCS report (which is based on ONS data) the modest gains made between 2018 and 2020 where the proportion of women tech workers rose from 16% to 20% stalled in 2022. If you are from a Black or minority ethnic background you are actually better represented in technology than in the workforce at large - unless you're a Black woman. Black women make up 0.7% of technology specialists despite representing 1.8% of the overall workforce.

Tech is becoming less flexible

The push from government and employers to return to the offices which have been under occupied since 2020 could be contributing to the lack of progress, according to Jo Stansfield, co-chair of BCS Women and an inclusivity expert who commented:

"I believe more women joined the tech workforce during the pandemic because of increased flexibility, such as working from home.

"This meant they could balance careers with other responsibilities, such as caring for children or elderly relatives - tasks which still fall disproportionately on women. What's needed is the development of inclusive workplace policies and practices to retain our workforce and to keep building on it."

Stansfield adds that it is not only women who are reluctant about returning full-time to the office, but also people with caring responsibilities, disabled people and those who need flexibility to manage health-related needs.

The BCS report also highlights the extremely low incidence of part-time working in the sector - with just 5% of tech specialists working part-time compared with 23% of workers more generally. Women are of course more likely to seek part-time work for all the reasons mentioned above.

Plenty of talk, limited action

According to the BCS, on current trends it will take 283 years for parity in the tech workforce to be reached. Technology will remodel so many aspects of all of our lives as AI and quantum progress, and so few women being active in that process will lead to poorer outcomes for women.

It isn't a surprise though. Not to anyone who has noticed the difference in what women are being told is happening and what is actually happening to them. You can't switch on the TV or radio without hearing ‘Girl on Fire' or indeed a mainstream news broadcaster or columnist complaining about "the diversity agenda."

Tech companies are promoting their diversity and inclusion programmes enthusiastically and publicly. But all the noise is drowning out the reality, and the reality is that next to nothing has changed. In fact, judging by reports released by other organisations, in terms of representation at entry level in areas such as the data industry, women are going backwards.

What the tech sector has got much better at is cloaking the reality in endless talk of diversity and inclusion initiatives, of how "we must do better", and on the importance of role models to encourage women to apply for vacancies. Indeed, many tech employers encourage female employees out at every opportunity (a job which women are usually only too happy to do because they'd really like some female colleagues) to promote their credentials as a diverse and inclusive employers. What they aren't doing is employing or promoting any more women. It sort of looks as if they are though. Or at least as if they're trying to, and that will probably do for now. It's diversity as marketing. We could call it woketing.

Whatever we call it, the fact remains that there is a gulf between what tech employers are saying, and what they are doing to make their workforces more diverse. If it carries on, we'll all pay a price, but for women it will be higher.

BCS warns it will take nearly 300 years to reach gender parity in tech

Diversity marketing is hiding lack of progress

Given the cultural emphasis on the progress of women and girls and on the importance of diversity more broadly, you'd be forgiven for failing to notice that women in tech are in fact not progressing.

Tech is becoming less flexible

Plenty of talk, limited action

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