Initiatives to increase tech diversity will increase, but results won't be seen in 2023
Despite a great deal of discussion in tech and in society more generally, technology remains pretty homogenous in many respects including gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background in particular. There have been some notable exceptions, many of which Computing has celebrated, but on the whole, technology leadership remains unrepresentative of wider society - which carries a number of unwelcome implications.
A common approach by tech companies when challenged about their homogenous leadership teams is to lament the lack of girls taking STEM subjects at school. Whilst this is undoubtedly something that needs to change, it's also a very convenient way of avoiding taking responsibility for continually promoting the same type of person.
Much of the problem starts at the founding level. Atomico recently released its State of European Tech report, and the findings on diversity make for wearily familiar reading.
87% of all VC funding in Europe is still raised by men-only founding teams, and the proportion of funding raised by women-only teams has, almost unbelievably, dropped from 3% to 1% since 2018. None of Europe's existing unicorns have an all-female founding team.
Ethnic minority founders are also being discriminated against. Just 1.4% of European unicorns are set up by a founding team entirely made up of minority ethnic entrepreneurs, and those founders have raised 0.7% of total unicorn funding.
According to the Atomico report, just 35% of European tech companies have a recruitment programme in place to reach people from diverse backgrounds. 2023 should see this number rise, if for no other reason than the huge skills shortfalls that companies are experiencing.
Russ Shaw CBE, Founder of Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates commented:
"Once again, Atomico's report highlights the tech industry's shameful record on diversity and inclusion. It's not acceptable that women continue to be denied a seat at the table."
"The tech sector must double-down on tackling this critical issue. Over 65% of tech companies do not have a recruitment programme in place to reach people from diverse backgrounds. Enough is enough - the private sector has a responsibility to change this failure of inclusion, and tech investors must step up and demonstrate they can do better."
