Women in tech face bias and career curbs — study

A study of 200 women working in the tech sector has found they face issues including “microaggression” and difficulty gaining promotions — even if technology firms have got more balanced in recruiting grads.

The research, conducted by Meena Satishkumar, founder of new non-profit Tech Beyond Gender, found:

• 48 per cent said they faced situations where gender influenced their opportunities for career advancement;

• 7 per cent said their gender had significantly limited their opportunities;

• 48 per cent had encountered “gender-related microaggression”.

“Microaggression” was defined as “a subtle, often unintentional, and indirect form of discrimination or bias that communicates derogatory or negative messages to individuals based on their gender or personal characteristics”.

From her experience working in senior tech roles in banking, and interviews with the 200 women surveyed, Satishkumar told the Herald tech had balanced recruitment out of universities.

But once women and gender minorities got into their 30s, training, networking and mentoring opportunities could be harder to access than for male colleagues. “And if you do get to a conference, there are few opportunities for women to present.”

The result was that there were few female candidates for senior tech roles like principal engineer or solution architect.

“We have to stop the leaky pipe,” she said.

There needed to be sensitivity training, and organisations had to stop being shy of discussing the issue, she said. More mentoring and training opportunities for women and gender minorities were also needed.

A major survey of New Zealand’s tech workforce, carried out by MBIE and NZTech in the midst of the pandemic, found major diversity challenges. Only 27 per cent of the IT workforce is female, only 4 per cent Māori and only 2.8 per cent Pacific people. A limited pool of candidates was exacerbating a skills squeeze.

Some areas of tech are particularly challenged. A 2023 NZ Game Developers Association member survey found video game makers had just 22 per cent female staff.

This week, NZTech CEO Graeme Muller — whose organisation counts most tech firms in New Zealand among its members — said “the tech sector is very aware of its diversity challenge”.

Things were heading in the right direction. “Back at the turn of the century it was estimated that only 20 per cent of the tech workforce were female. By 2017 this had improved to 27 per cent of the workforce, and the 2022 survey saw a further improvement to 29 per cent.”

Muller said efforts to monitor and improve diversity had been ramped up. NZTech has created an equity, diversity and inclusion board, which is helping tech firms assess their current environment so they can work on improvements.

“The sector also struggles with diversity from a Māori and Pacific peoples perspective and fortunately a number of great initiatives have emerged which are making a positive change, including Te Matarau, Te Hapori Matihiko, Sisters in Tech and Fibre Fale,” Muller said.

NZTech is also undertaking research with Unlock Innovation on the opportunities and challenges for the neurodiverse in tech.

“Ultimately, this is a large, complex problem that needs to change, but it is exciting to see so many people doing so many positive things to help create a better tech sector for all New Zealanders,” Muller said.

TechWomen executive director Yvonne Gill said Satishkumar’s research was very useful in understanding the challenge.

Her group, whose executive team drawn from AWS, Datacom, is

Microsoft and others, holds an annual ShadowTech day for young girls to spend a day with Tech Women to see what a tech role is like. To support women already in tech, it runs a large mentoring programme, Gill says.

“The TechWomen community now consists of almost 1000 women and men who are doing their part to help make the tech sector better for everyone.

“We have more than 900 young women each year take part in ShadowTech to be inspired to study for a tech career, so it is vitally important that we continue to work on improvements at a company level so when they arrive they have a great experience.”

TechWomen also runs a programme called Mentoring Circles for experienced tech women to help each other, and help their companies improve diversity.

“Internationally it is estimated that firms with gender balance in their senior teams are 42 per cent more profitable,” Gill said.