INDUSTRY.co.id - “Despite national conversations about gender diversity in tech,” says a recent article in CIO, “women are still underrepresented, underpaid and often discriminated against in the tech industry.”
Though big tech companies are in the best position to lead widespread cultural change, women hold less than a quarter of tech jobs at Facebook, Apple, Google, and Microsoft (Amazon did not provide a number), per Statista, and represent less than a third of the total workforce at Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
Lest we assume the problem is the education pipeline, note that a GAO report from 2015 found that the percentage of tech jobs held by women is 39% higher outside the tech sector (e.g., in retail or finance organisations) than in it. Whatever it is that’s keeping women out of the tech workforce, it seems to be worse in the tech industry itself.
We asked some experts, What recommendations do you have for software development organisations wanting to recruit more women?
Attract unique candidates with unique benefits, Being a startup is tough. Sometimes you don’t have enough cash, or time, but you need the best people possible to build up your product and make sure you are competitive. We’re always trying to think of ways to reward our employees without breaking the bank, while also showing how much they matter to us and how much we value them.
We have spent a lot of time exploring standard and fringe benefits, assessing how they can affect employee happiness. We also believe that people of differing backgrounds add different perspectives, leading to a stronger company and a stronger set of products.
These benefits help us recruit a diverse company, with many of our current employees being LGBTQ+, international, or women. Other security companies struggle to find diverse candidates (e.g., cybersecurity is comprised of only 14% women). We feel like we’ve started down a good path.
Ainsley Braun, co-founder and CEO, Tinfoil Security now Synopsys. Listen to the women already on your team
My advice for any company hoping to attract and maintain more women employees is to speak to the ones you already have and ensure they are happy.
Verify they are paid fairly, given the same opportunities as other employees, and not expected to do other tasks unrelated to their jobs (such as minute taking for all meetings, serving coffee, organising office parties, or cleaning the shared office fridge).
Ask your employees from all underrepresented groups what could be improved, if they are having any issues, and if they would recommend a friend come work there. Keep improving until “Would you recommend us to a friend?” is always answered with “YES!” Your current employees are your best, or worst, advertisement for your workplace.
Tanya Janca, security trainer, coach, and head nerd at SheHacksPurple.dev, Engage universities. Have a well developed internship program. Engage the women’s groups at the universities. Have women on the interview panel.
For every open position, insist that your managers interview at least two candidates that are from under-represented groups.
Deirdre Hanford, CSO, Synopsys, Change your hiring process One recommendation I have for software development organisations wanting to recruit more women is to make certain adjustments to their hiring process.
A few examples analyse job descriptions to minimise unnecessary gendered or gender-biased adjectives, be clear about what the actual requirements are versus nice-to-haves so that more women apply instead of choosing to self-select out, have more women in technical roles on your job interview panels, and encourage current female employees to actively refer and recommend qualified women from their own networks.
Maria Magda Gaggl, project manager, Synopsys.
According to one study of 598 finalists for university teaching decisions.
Some people may look at this graph and think,
“Hm those odds make sense, when you have 50% women you have a 50% chance of picking a woman” but we aren’t working in a luck-based environment here! We are talking about merit and experience-based hiring decisions! If there are 4 finalists in a final candidate pool, and there are 3 men and 1 woman, the woman had a 0% chance of being selected due to unconscious bias called in-group favouritism. If there are 2 women, their chances went up to 50%, and 3 women brought it to a 67% chance!
Rachel Tobac, hacker and CEO, SocialProof Security
Close the pay gap. If you want to recruit more women, you need to pay them more. Women in the tech sector are paid 3% less than men for the same positions. Part of the reason is that women ask for less (probably since they’ve been conditioned to expect less).
But women of colour, who ask for even less, aren’t even paid what they ask for. Three percent doesn’t seem like much, but because tech is one of the largest, fastest-growing sectors, with some of the highest wages, a “small” pay gap in tech has an oversized effect on the economy.
Marisa Fagan, product security lead, Synopsys. Providing free certification programs and on-the-job training/apprenticeships for women is a good way to encourage nontechnical aspiring young women who are interested in trying to break into technical fields but are afraid to take that first step or don’t have the means to do so. At one of my previous companies (HPE Software).
Kimm Yeo, senior manager, Synopsys. Provide equal opportunities for growth I recommend that organisations recruit based on talent and need, not just to increase women-force and meet the diversity headcount.
