It was the beginning of 2020, a few weeks pre-pandemic, and Workfront leadership was experiencing an exodus of sorts. Some of it was voluntary, some of it not. I had gone back-and-forth for months, years even, about where the direction of my career should go. I absolutely love being an individual contributor, I love the process of ideating, researching, designing and watching something I’ve designed come to life for users. I also see myself as an introvert, one that doesn’t seek out opportunities to shine in front of groups. I like to have my head down and focus on the next big problem facing our users. So why would I trade making and creating to leading and mentoring?

This exodus left Workfront at an impasse. We had one UX manager and one (newly appointed) UX director, but 20+ designers to manage. I saw the stress and pressure of it all reflected in my team’s face, in conjunction with a global pandemic, the future of our team seemed impossibly fraught with hurdles.

Months earlier a designer that I work with wrote an article about how she may never become a manager because of the restraints society and our culture has placed on her gender and her race. At the time, I reflected on my own experiences as a woman in the tech industry. Being hit on by men in power (and even at my own level) at every workplace I’ve worked at, being paid less (knowingly) for doing the same job with the same experience as my male co-workers, being the only female on teams, and not having women in leadership to look-up-to. Maybe my lack of desire to be in leadership was shaped by not seeing representation in leadership most my career. Not having female mentors and not knowing the value it creates. A lot of it I blamed on the state I live in, which is the considered the worst state for women’s equality.

But it’s not just a Utah problem, it’s a tech problem. Women make up 61% of the design workforce, yet only 5% of tech leadership roles are held by women, and 11% of design leaders are women. Even more discouraging is that in the state of Utah, only 24% of the tech industry is female, which is 1% lower than the national average. This perspective, mixed with my own knowledge of the inequalities of women in the general work population, gives me pause. If I have even the slightest inkling that I could be in a leadership role, I would be doing myself and my female colleagues a disservice by not jumping at the chance to put my hat in the ring. If I didn’t at least try, what sort of message would I be sending to my peers?

Why aren’t more women in tech?

I realize my view of the tech industry is colored by my own experiences, and so to create a more holistic view of what may be keeping women from tech careers, I scoured the internet for stats and data to create a clearer picture.

Possible (and statistically sound) reasons:

1. Representation
   With women being outnumbered nearly 1:4 in technical fields, it’s not a question as to why women often don’t have mentorship or sponsorship to lean on when pursuing a position in tech. Women are also less likely to hold leadership roles, especially the higher up the position. Of the Fortune 500 companies, women hold only 22% of tech leadership roles, 10% of CEOs are women, and only two of those are black women. Women also feel less enthusiastic about their prospects for senior leadership roles, compared to their male counterparts. 54% of men studied felt their chances for a senior-leadership title were likely, where only 25% of women said the same — noting a lack of support, self-confidence, mentorship and feeling the need to “prove themselves more than men to get promoted.”
2. Sexism
   According to a report released by TrustRadius in 2021, 72% of women in tech have worked at a company where “bro culture” is pervasive, which is 1% higher than the year before. Defining “bro culture” may not be easy, but it can range from an uncomfortable work environment to sexual harassment and assault. Building on this, in 2014, 73% of people surveyed believed the tech industry to be sexist. High profile incidents, such as at Uber and at Tesla, over the past few years have only increased public perception of these claims. In addition to sexism, gender discrimination is often cited by women. In a 2017 poll, 50% of women said they had experienced gender discrimination at work, contrasted by only 19% of men. It is even higher in computer jobs, in the same study, 74% of women said they had experienced gender discrimination.
3. STEM
   Despite an upwards trend in females earning STEM degrees, if you isolate the data, in 2018 the PEW Research Center reported only 19% of computer related degrees are earned by women, a drop from 21% in 2006, 27% in 1997, and about 40% in the mid-80s. Research done in the early 80s to try and explain the lack of interest by girls, reports “girls and women are treated differently than men in both subtle and overt ways. For example, everyday ways of conducting classroom discussion can exacerbate inequities when boys are given more attention and praise by the teacher.” Despite this information being dated, it was from a time when women were earning more computer science degrees than they are today, so its probability of still holding weight, is likely.
4. Pay Equality
   Today, 75% of tech companies report that they have implemented pay equities policies, but despite these programs, women are still reporting that they are underpaid, or are unsatisfied by the pay that they earn. According to a report by Dice, average salary for women who report being satisfied with their salary is $93,591, compared to an average $108,711 by men. We also know that women make .93 cents to every dollar a man makes in tech at a national level, but here in Utah, women make 68% of what men make in tech. It’s also worthwhile to note that 42% of women believe their employers offer an equal wage, compared to 75% of men — a datapoint that may signal lack of trust and transparency.
5. COVID-19
   During my findings COVID-19 and the pandemic kept on surfacing in studies that were done over the course of the past two years, so I felt it important to touch on. While I explored this information, an interesting trend emerged. Women are more effected and responsive to changes in job markets, this first emerged with The Atari Shock, or the Video Game crash of 1983, when market saturation and the emergence of personal computers marks the first she-cession of women fleeing tech degrees and career paths. The next came at the turn of the century with the internet bubble, again woman fled tech career paths for more stable jobs. Most recently, as you have likely guessed, the COVID-19 pandemic. Women began resigning at record numbers to keep up with household responsibilities, childcare, and to unburden their partner. Women report being more burned out at work since the pandemic began, and 41% report remote work has negatively impacted them, versus 54% of men who said it has been positive for them, and only 21% said it had negatively affected them. Finally, of 1.2 million parents who left the workforce in 2020 due to the pandemic, 75% of those were women.

How we can better support minorities and women in tech

After reading why more women aren’t in tech, you’re probably feeling a bit hopeless or jaded. However, with knowledge comes power, and without these insights we may not know where to begin (or continue) efforts to create a more equitable and diverse tech-industry. Here are some of the ways we as an industry can promote and invest our time and resources to begin bridging gender gaps in tech.

1. Representation
   • Investing in mentorship opportunities of all ages, it’s important to start women young in STEM learning, especially with computers
   • Being more inclusive in the way computers are taught in school
   • Men or leaders becoming sponsors of women they work for, when it comes to raises, promotions, and opportunities
   • Creating recruiting and hiring practices that check internal biases, and purposely seek out diverse candidates
2. Sexism
   • Cultural shifts in response to “bro-culture,” such as more diverse employees, activities, points-of-view, and calling out or disciplining unwelcome behavior
3. STEM
   • Preparing girls at an early age by investing in math, science, and computer programs directed at young women
   • Grants, scholarships, and programs to help educate and clear paths for girls in STEM
   • More female role models in computer-related fields
   • More investment in female-founded tech companies
4. Pay Equality
   • Companies disclosing pay data
   • Federal laws around pay equality
   • Intersectional pay audits to actively combat pay-disparity
5. COVID-19
   • A shift in traditional gender roles
   • Companies offering more childcare support, better and longer parental leave policies, and better time-off policies
   • Invest in women more during uncertain economic periods, and gender equality in layoffs during uncertain economic periods

I realize this is not a comprehensive list, and may be easier said than done — especially at an individual level. By writing this article, I am more interested in educating those around me, learning more about gender equality for myself, and offering ideas of changes that could be made to our industry. I would also like to explicitly callout that this data does not include the disparity of equality for minorities and women of color, a problem even more pervasive than what I’ve surfaced in this article.

*If you have more ideas you’d like to add, or resources you know of actively addressing these issues, please comment below.

What now?

As I try to wrap up this article, I find myself reflecting on the amount of data out there pointing to persistent problems that women face in the tech industry. It’s disheartening to see a downward trend in women in tech, despite the increase in tech fields emerging almost daily. At a microscopic level, I feel I am doing what I can with the limited leadership power I have — recruiting and hiring diverse candidates, supporting and mentoring women, advocating for women, and educating those around me about gender equality.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have made it to a position where I can influence decisions around these important topics, but I know there is so much more work to be done, and so much more for me to learn. As I continue in my career, I have made it a mission of mine to help positively influence the industry I work in by contributing to a healthy, diverse, inclusive, and equitable future for tech.

Thanks for reading.