June 21, 2019 at 07:09PM
The technology industry has a well-documented diversity problem. Women make up just 14% of employees in the UK's Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) fields, and only 15.8% of Stem undergraduates are women.
We talked to Robyn Howard, senior programme manager of PwC's women in tech programme, to find out the cause of – and how to tackle – gender imbalance in tech.
What issues discourage women in tech?
Beginning at school and continuing through every stage of life, girls are discouraged from pursuing careers in technology. At PwC, we are committed to attracting, developing and advancing careers for women in tech. While there are challenges faced in turning that commitment into reality, we have made significant progress, but there's still so much to do. One area of focus for us right now is doing our bit to build the pipeline of girls and young women choosing to pursue tech subjects and careers. This is a priority for us because we have seen first-hand a lack of young women applying to schemes such as our fully-funded technology degree apprenticeships.
That's why, in 2017, we commissioned a piece of research to find out exactly what puts women off working in the technology sector. We surveyed 2,000 A-level and university students, deliberately including both male and female students because we wanted to see if there was a difference in attitudes between the genders. The results were worrying.
Only 27% of female students said they would consider a career in technology compared with 61% of males, and only 3% of women said a tech career was their first choice.
What influences attitudes to Stem careers?
When considering career paths and fields of study, our research showed that students are influenced by careers advisers, parents and teachers: 33% of male students felt that those people encouraged them to take Stem subjects, compared with 16% of the female students.
What about role models?
We have all heard the term: "You can't be what you can't see", and the lack of female role models in the tech sector reinforces the perception that tech isn't for girls. In our research, two thirds of male and female students were able to name a famous man working in technology, whereas 78% couldn't name a famous woman working in the sector.
What is making a difference to gender parity in tech?
We formed the Tech She Can Charter group to tackle these issues of gender disparity in tech. We are a diverse range of organisations working collaboratively to address the root causes of the sector's gender diversity problem.
The charter joined forces with government bodies and other businesses that are interested in tackling gender inequality in the technology sector. We came up with the idea of forming an action-oriented movement to help us work together to change the ratio. We started with 18 organisations in February last year, and now have 116 organisations involved – from charities to fintechs.
Women make up just 14% of employees in the UK's Stem fields.Photograph: SolisImages/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Our vision is for women and girls to be equal members in creating and developing the new tech businesses, products and services that will help to shape and improve our world, instead of only one half of the population being involved.
What is the effect of sharing best practice to attract more women to the tech industry?
A core part of the charter is the commitment to share best practice. At our quarterly meetings, there's an opportunity for the organisations involved to share their own work and learnings in an open forum.
It's so vital that we come together to talk about what's working – and are honest about what's not working – in our efforts to increase the number of women working in tech. Organisations can achieve much more by working collaboratively. We could never have accomplished what we have in the past year if we hadn't joined forces. It would take so much longer to achieve results working as a single organisation.
We also work closely with the Tech Talent Charter, and their CEO Debbie Forster, who is part of our steering group. It's very focused on sharing best practice in improving gender diversity in the tech sector.
Related: Gen Z women will change the tech industry – here's how
Is it working?
As a group of organisations, we've created Tech We Can lesson plans that were piloted with five schools in Coventry, West Midlands, earlier this year. At the beginning and end of the six weeks, we asked the students to draw a picture of someone working in technology. At the start of the trial, one girl drew a man in a brown suit coding in a dark room, and at the end she drew herself dressed as a superhero working at Facebook.
In addition, 65% of the students said they would consider a career in technology compared with 45% at the start, 81% of students could name a famous female working in tech after the lessons compared with only 15% before, and 87% said the lessons increased their knowledge of what a technology career is.
How are female-led professions adapting?
I encounter many female leaders who recognise that they are in a position of privilege, and that they can use that to encourage more girls to be curious about technology. Women being each other's cheerleaders is key to improving tech careers for women.
If you are interested in joining the charter, or your school may be interested in taking part in the Tech We Can lesson plans, visit pwc.co.uk/techshecan and complete the interest form.
For more information about working at PwC, visit pwc.co.uk/techjobs
The technology industry has a well-documented diversity problem. Women make up just 14% of employees in the UK's Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) fields, and only 15.8% of Stem undergraduates are women.
We talked to Robyn Howard, senior programme manager of PwC's women in tech programme, to find out the cause of – and how to tackle – gender imbalance in tech.
What issues discourage women in tech?
Beginning at school and continuing through every stage of life, girls are discouraged from pursuing careers in technology. At PwC, we are committed to attracting, developing and advancing careers for women in tech. While there are challenges faced in turning that commitment into reality, we have made significant progress, but there's still so much to do. One area of focus for us right now is doing our bit to build the pipeline of girls and young women choosing to pursue tech subjects and careers. This is a priority for us because we have seen first-hand a lack of young women applying to schemes such as our fully-funded technology degree apprenticeships.
That's why, in 2017, we commissioned a piece of research to find out exactly what puts women off working in the technology sector. We surveyed 2,000 A-level and university students, deliberately including both male and female students because we wanted to see if there was a difference in attitudes between the genders. The results were worrying.
Only 27% of female students said they would consider a career in technology compared with 61% of males, and only 3% of women said a tech career was their first choice.
What influences attitudes to Stem careers?
When considering career paths and fields of study, our research showed that students are influenced by careers advisers, parents and teachers: 33% of male students felt that those people encouraged them to take Stem subjects, compared with 16% of the female students.
What about role models?
We have all heard the term: "You can't be what you can't see", and the lack of female role models in the tech sector reinforces the perception that tech isn't for girls. In our research, two thirds of male and female students were able to name a famous man working in technology, whereas 78% couldn't name a famous woman working in the sector.
What is making a difference to gender parity in tech?
We formed the Tech She Can Charter group to tackle these issues of gender disparity in tech. We are a diverse range of organisations working collaboratively to address the root causes of the sector's gender diversity problem.
The charter joined forces with government bodies and other businesses that are interested in tackling gender inequality in the technology sector. We came up with the idea of forming an action-oriented movement to help us work together to change the ratio. We started with 18 organisations in February last year, and now have 116 organisations involved – from charities to fintechs.
Women make up just 14% of employees in the UK's Stem fields.Photograph: SolisImages/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Our vision is for women and girls to be equal members in creating and developing the new tech businesses, products and services that will help to shape and improve our world, instead of only one half of the population being involved.
What is the effect of sharing best practice to attract more women to the tech industry?
A core part of the charter is the commitment to share best practice. At our quarterly meetings, there's an opportunity for the organisations involved to share their own work and learnings in an open forum.
It's so vital that we come together to talk about what's working – and are honest about what's not working – in our efforts to increase the number of women working in tech. Organisations can achieve much more by working collaboratively. We could never have accomplished what we have in the past year if we hadn't joined forces. It would take so much longer to achieve results working as a single organisation.
We also work closely with the Tech Talent Charter, and their CEO Debbie Forster, who is part of our steering group. It's very focused on sharing best practice in improving gender diversity in the tech sector.
Related: Gen Z women will change the tech industry – here's how
Is it working?
As a group of organisations, we've created Tech We Can lesson plans that were piloted with five schools in Coventry, West Midlands, earlier this year. At the beginning and end of the six weeks, we asked the students to draw a picture of someone working in technology. At the start of the trial, one girl drew a man in a brown suit coding in a dark room, and at the end she drew herself dressed as a superhero working at Facebook.
In addition, 65% of the students said they would consider a career in technology compared with 45% at the start, 81% of students could name a famous female working in tech after the lessons compared with only 15% before, and 87% said the lessons increased their knowledge of what a technology career is.
How are female-led professions adapting?
I encounter many female leaders who recognise that they are in a position of privilege, and that they can use that to encourage more girls to be curious about technology. Women being each other's cheerleaders is key to improving tech careers for women.
If you are interested in joining the charter, or your school may be interested in taking part in the Tech We Can lesson plans, visit pwc.co.uk/techshecan and complete the interest form.
For more information about working at PwC, visit pwc.co.uk/techjobs