Tech roles need women, but companies still prefer men

Technology is too important to be left in the hands of men alone. Unhappily, despite its importance in our daily lives, enough women are not participating in the creation of future technologies. 

The recent Global Gender Gap Report 2021 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has planted many red flags in the technology landscape. As technologies of the fourth industrial revolution destroy many job categories, several new ones are being created, too. However, the role and presence of women in future jobs is negligible and hasn’t risen since 2018. 

Gender gaps are more prevalent in roles requiring disruptive technical skills, according to data from LinkedIn, which is part of the WEF report. To gauge the scale of the gap, fast-growing jobs were clustered into eight categories for the report: Marketing, sales, people and culture, content production, product development, cloud computing, engineering, data and artificial intelligence (AI). 

The data gathered by LinkedIn found that gender gaps were more likely in roles in the cloud computing, engineering, data and AI fields, which require disruptive technical skills, such as full stack developers, data engineers and cloud engineers. The share of women in cloud computing for instance rose only 0.2 per cent since February 2018, to 14.2 per cent in 2021. Women in data and AI roles is 32.4 per cent, down 0.1 per cent. 

What is clear from the WEF report is that despite what they claim, most companies are still not offering equal opportunities to women. All qualifications being equal, men are still preferred over women in hiring by most companies across the world. Even as technology is disrupting business models, management philosophies, organisational structures and growth strategies, the mindset towards hiring women remains Neanderthal. 

Women’s representation in roles that involve content creation, human resources and media are above 50 per cent. However, in roles like artificial intelligence specialists, data scientists and analytics consultants, the presence of women is 25-35 per cent, or less. The signals that labour markets send to women professionals and students is of severe and continuing gender segregation in technology-oriented jobs. 

The WEF analysis has “demonstrated that the challenge of the number of women who study in STEM fields — what has often been termed a “supply problem” — can in fact be seen as a symptom of wider biases which inform the job-switching behaviour of female workers.” Without even going into the issues of gaps in pay parity, most companies are avoiding the hiring of women in technology roles and emerging job profiles. 

“Women aren’t well represented in the majority of fast-growing roles, which means we are storing up even bigger gender representation problems as we emerge from the pandemic. These roles play a significant part in shaping all aspects of technology and how it is deployed in the world,” says Sue Duke, head of global public policy at LinkedIn. “Assessing candidates on their skills and potential, and not just their direct work experience and formal qualifications, is central to that. Skills-based hiring is key if we’re going to make our economies and societies more inclusive.” 

This means companies will have to change their mindset and metrics for hiring women in tech. Inherent biases in hiring women can’t be justified in this era. Dated academic qualifications don’t amount to much in the era of continuous learning. A degree earned even a decade ago is barely relevant today. In many ways this creates a level field for men and women who must upskill for jobs of the future. Women students and professionals can switch roles and upskill with as much alacrity as men. The onus is on employers to hire them without bias.