Women in tech debug stereotypes but get paid less

From being the only girl in the room to getting paid less – the struggles of women in tech are real. “The entire ecosystem has to be focused on breaking the stereotypes,” one equality advocate tells Cybernews.

Girls are as good as, if not better than, boys at math in school. However, the tech industry continues to be largely dominated by men, and gender parity is over a century away. Despite the growing number of women entering the field, they still hold just 14% of leadership positions worldwide.

“It's not about the gender. We have lots of studies that demonstrate that actually, the choice of future career path is more a response to societal norms,” responds Žydrūnė Vitaitė to anyone who argues that women are simply not "built" for tech roles.

Vitaitė is co-founder of the non-governmental organization Women Go Tech, which advocates for gender equality. For nearly a decade, she has been working to empower women to join the tech industry.

“My parents didn't know what tech is, so how can they guide me towards it? If you don’t see good role models in tech, why would you choose to work in this industry? We need more role models,” she stresses.

The organization recently surveyed more than 5,000 women across 13 countries to find the key challenges for women in tech.

What’s still holding women back from entering tech?

Vitaitė points to the numbers that prove societal conditioning regarding career choices. Although girls excel at math around age 11 through 14, they begin to veer away from technical careers, exploring different paths for their futures. Apparently, the hidden attitudes and self-doubt stemming from stereotypes continue to haunt women throughout their careers, even after choosing the tech industry.

Women Go Tech conducted research that investigated two groups of women – those not interested in tech and those working two years or more in tech-related fields. Both groups were asked to assess their digital skills. Surprisingly, those working in the field were not entirely comfortable with their tech skills.

“It’s related to the self-confidence in women, and that comes from upbringing. Women tend to question themselves, and this does not support them in their journey,” says Vitaitė.

Understanding the full scope of tech jobs and recognizing what women can contribute to the industry beyond just highly technical positions is essential.

“It's not only coding. Coding will probably not be needed much in the future. We need leaders as well, with companies promoting women into such positions.”

Vitaitė believes that the approach to equality should be multifaceted.

“Everyone has to work on that. It starts with families and should continue with the school and teachers. It's the entire ecosystem that has to be focused on breaking the stereotypes and questioning the norms of what is right and is wrong.”

Men still earn more, but the gap is narrowing

The gender-based pay gap is prevalent across all industries. While the tech sector is among the lowest compared to other industries, women still earn less for the same roles. For instance, in the US, women in tech roles earn just 84 cents for every dollar earned by men.

While the problem is complex, the self-doubt and willingness to negotiate salary could be among the underlying reasons.

“We noticed that there were some mentees who would come for mentorship, and men mentors would ask them, why aren't you working in the tech sector? They already have multiple certificates, but they think they have to learn more,“ says Vitaitė.

Unfortunately, using AI models to automate the performance assessment and compensation system might also be risky. While the model is trained on the tendency that men are being compensated more for the same job, if the model is revised, nothing is going to change.

The only girl in the room

The research also showed that while the tech sector is relatively safe, women still continue to feel the work environment is not entirely free from harassment nor that it is completely safe for them.

“I would put it very simply. You have to walk into a room where out of 100 people, 95 of them are men. Do you feel safe? They might not be doing anything, but the situation is already weird. Or imagine a company party, which most likely will be tailored for the male audience,” says Vitaite.

While she acknowledges that the situation has improved compared to a decade ago, not all companies have the HR departments or resources to address the issues and pay attention to equality policies.

“This is very sad because we can mentor women as much as we want, but where the system is not changing, we're failing. We're failing at the very beginning.”

Men looking down on female colleagues is not the rule, according to Vitaite. “Men play a great role in mentoring and supporting women, but it only takes one person to misbehave in the entire company to kill the feeling of safety.”

Work-life balance is a problem in tech

Studies show that IT workers, in general, massively suffer from burnout and poor work-life balance. Women in the sector have double the load, as they often have to juggle personal lives and family responsibilities with their highly demanding tech jobs.

The survey shows that women name work-life balance as a significant obstacle for women in tech. The industry's fast-paced expansion and the continuous need to adapt to new tools, systems, and solutions create significant pressure on women, especially considering maternity leave.

“What was relevant two years ago might be a completely different story now. And I know that what we're handling and working on right now might not be relevant in a year,” explains Vitaite.

There is also an opposite trend visible – some women after maternity leave are considering re-qualifying for the tech industry. Tech jobs often offer hybrid work models, which could be beneficial for better work-life balance.

Change is here, but is it moving too slowly?

The change is happening. However, it might feel like just scratching the surface, with numbers going up slowly. While tech companies highlight diversity on paper, the lack of actionable results following these policies might lead to "gender equality" being just a buzzword, especially in the current political discourse surrounding diversity.

Vitaite sees that there are “different levels of maturity” within the sector.

“I understand the companies right now, especially in the US, who have a lot of business with the government. Some are removing diversity statements from their original documents just to survive the phase. Others are standing strongly on their values.”