The Unfortunate Truth Why Women Are Less Likely To Get A Tech Job
There have long been professional disparities between men and women, unfortunately, new research finds that it's no different with tech jobs.
This article is more than 2 years old
The tech industry is one of the most robust and opportune sectors of commerce. Industry sub-sects are continuously emerging in addition to the various sectors that already exist. This makes the tech field an attractive one in which to start a career. With opportunity comes bounty, and if one plays their cards right that is exactly what working in technology will afford them. Unfortunately, not everyone, no matter how qualified, has an equal shot of landing that career-launching interview. Market research conducted by Hired suggests that women may be far less likely to land a tech job in comparison to their male counterparts.
The report by Hired found that out of all open tech jobs posted in 2021 approximately 40% of people recruiting for those roles didn’t interview a single female candidate. This means that while males were interviewed 100% of the time for an open role, females were only interviewed 60% of the time. That is not a small disparity. Furthermore, similar gaps can be identified when examining specific data from racial and ethnic groups. The study found that out of all the candidates hired in 2021 49% were either of White or Asian descent. This means that females who don’t identify as White or Asian are even less likely to secure a tech job even if they are offered an opportunity to interview.
The measurable disparity of a female presence in tech extends even further. Hired’s comprehensive study found huge differences in pay between male salaries and female salaries in the tech industry. When looking at wages for various tech jobs across major cities like New York and San Francisco, Women made $0.95 on the dollar compared to men in roles equal to theirs. To put it into perspective, if a man was being paid $100,000 annually for a tech job, a woman in that same role would make, on average, only $95,000 annually.
While the above statistics are disheartening for women, especially women of color, there were positives to come out of Hired’s research. When compared to past statistics related to women and tech jobs there have been noticeable improvements. For instance, more women are actually being given the opportunity to interview now compared to years past. The same is true in terms of diversity. In 2018, 67% of all those with tech jobs were either White or Asian. This means that from 2018 to 2021 the tech industry has gotten 18% more diverse.
Also, even though there is a noticeable wage disparity between men working tech jobs and women working tech jobs, the gap isn’t as wide as in some other industries. For example, CNBC highlighted that women working in finance only make approximately 58% of what a man doing the exact same job does. All in all, what Hired’s research really serves to highlight is that there is still a lot of work to be done in order to close the gender and diversity equality gap when it comes to tech jobs. However, the fact that there has been some identifiable progress made does serve as some hope that the country is at least headed in the right direction, albeit at a snail’s pace.
