Tech in India has only 26% women in engineering: report
For every female engineer, there are three male engineers in tech companies in India
When you Google ‘women in tech’, you are sure to stumble upon a plethora of forums and collectives clamouring for better representation of women in the technology sector. And it’s not just an empty slogan. There’s enough evidence and research that suggests that having more females in teams fosters innovation, creativity, productivity, and results in more revenue. Bengaluru-based talent acquisition firm, Belong, released statistics that offer an overview of the state of diversity in the tech ecosystem in India.
Indian technology industry has 26% women in engineering roles
The report looked at all the tech companies in India and found that for every female engineer, there were three male engineers. Benchmarking this against the average number of women (irrespective of the function) in tech companies, it was found that the overall representation of women was 34%. This reinforces the assumption that STEM jobs attract less women.
Men move into managerial roles faster
The study analysed the career trajectories of tech professionals who moved into managerial positions and the data showed that men on an average transition to managerial positions after 6+ years of experience while women on an average transition to these roles after 8+ years of experience. Once again, confirming that the glass ceiling is after all not an illusion.
Nearly 50% women engineers quit tech
The repot looked at a sample set of women graduating from Tier 1 universities from 2005-2009 and found that as many as 45% of women move out of core engineering roles after close to eight years. After quitting engineering, these women mostly move to marketing, product management or consulting
Testing has 33% more women compared to core engineering
Among the tech talent in India, there are more women in software testing roles (a less soughtafter skill) compared to core programming roles. This is the case even though the absolute number of jobs in software testing are significantly less than programming. It was found that for every 100 testing jobs, there were 34 women compared to 66 men. When it came to hardcore programming roles, the ratio changed to 25:75.
Only 7% women reach the CSuite
The company also analysed the career trajectories of women to see how they progress in their careers over the years and found that if 29% women start working in a given year, the percentage drops to a dismal 7% after 12 years.
ITES companies that have the best gender diversity in their engineering teams
According to the report, Persistent Systems, Infosys, Accenture, Thoughtworks and IBM have the best gender diversity numbers. Most companies have a diversity mandate and run a slew of initiatives to attract female tech talent. From female hiring drives to leadership development programmes to ‘bringing the women back’ initiatives to special incentives to refer female candidates, Indian IT companies are using innovative techniques to hire and retain female tech talent. Roopa Wilson, who leads the Diversity and Inclusion function for IBM India, talked about how after analysing their attrition data they found that women typically quit between the age groups of 25-32. “This is typically the time when women are either getting married or starting a family. We found that if women stay on after the age of 32, there is no stopping them,” she said.
IBM worked with the professors of IIM-B and found that if women could build a ‘career identity’ before this period, they were much more equipped to handle the demands of their personal and professional lives.
“We have started a programme to help build a strong career identity for young talent. We identify women with high potential and enrol them in a nine-month program where they get to interact with senior women in leadership roles and exchange ideas,” she said.
Adobe,whichranksamongthe top five companies with the best diversity numbers among the product companies in India, has worked on building an inclusive interview panel to foster a fair assessment process.
Prasad Rao, head of talent acquisition at Adobe, said their first major milestone of the year was to create an inclusive pipeline across all roles, besides hiring the company’s first female engineering manager.