Gender Diversity in the Tech Industry
The technology industry, like many others, faces an inherent problem of gender diversity which limits their ability to respond to other issues faced by the sector affecting its future and development.
One of the factors which hinders the growth of gender diversity within the tech industry is the presence of anti-diversity biases. These result in unintentional Discrimination which can lead to poor decision-making in an organisation (del Carmen Triana, 2019).
Women in the tech industry are equally unde
epresented in all organisations, they face similar challenges, i
espective of the companies they work for. Some of the major challenges faced by women in tech industry is discrimination due to gender in the process of recruitment as well as in terms of their salaries. Many countries have been trying to reduce this gender pay gap as well as the discrimination faced by women during the process of recruitment.
While 75% of the employees within this sector are male, and women only take up 23-25% of the total workforce which indicates the severe unde
epresentation of the gender (Chaudhry, 2019).
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The female employees who do get employed into the sector continue to face more challenges while working in the sector. Lack of respect and support from male colleagues, being ignored during work meetings are still significant concerns (del Carmen Triana, 2019).
Women employees also have trouble finding good mentors to guide them throughout their jobs without being biased towards them or doubting their abilities. This makes it harder for them to adapt to the job. Additionally, the lack of flexibility for work hours in most tech organisations is one of the main reasons for low retention rates of women employees. Flexible hours help nursing mothers to continue their jobs lack of which would force most of the female employees to take a
eak from their career or look for other organisations which would provide them with the benefits of flexible working hours (Khan, 2022).
Most of the times when companies aim at making the experiences of women better at their workplace within the IT sector, they mainly focus on enhancing the training and experience of women with the work. This is not always sufficient to help in reducing the problem. It is important that they also include men in these programs. This can be done with the help of conducting various orientation programs in order to understand the issues, address them and decide on collective solutions (Khan, XXXXXXXXXXOrganisations also need to develop as well as implement policies of equality and inclusion strictly within themselves in order to improve gender diversity within the sector.
It can be said that there is a lack of gender diversity in the tech industry where women face various challenges such as discrimination during recruitment, gender pay gap and biased behaviour from male colleagues.
References:
Chaudhry, H., Wall, A. E., & Wall, J. L. (2019, July). Exploring the Gender Gap in Tech Companies: Why Aren't There More Women? In Competition Forum (Vol. 17, No. 2, pp XXXXXXXXXXAmerican Society for Competitiveness.
del Carmen Triana, M., Richard, O. C., & Su, W XXXXXXXXXXGender diversity in senior management, strategic change, and firm performance: Examining the mediating nature of strategic change in high tech firms. Research Policy, 48(7), XXXXXXXXXX.
Khan, F., & Bhattacharya, S XXXXXXXXXXA phenomenological study to understand gender diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. Cardiometry, (22).