The Major Benefits of Having Women in Tech Jobs

By Mariah Wagner On April 3, 2023 · In Hiring Advice

Updated: June 27, 2023

With every passing year, the tech industry continues to grow, as does its workforce — but women are still often underrepresented in the tech workforce. It’s finally time to change that and get more women in tech jobs. 

Gender-neutral hiring practices can improve everything about a business, from the workplace culture and turnover rate to the company’s bottom line. Here’s why your business should consider hiring more women.

6 Major Benefits of Having Women in Tech Jobs

Here are six of the major benefits of closing the gender gap in workplace hiring practices and pay. There are many benefits to having more women in tech jobs but here are a handful of the top ones. 

1. Improved Diversity and Inclusion

The type of work environment you create dictates the type of output you can achieve. A homogeneous workforce made up of only one type of person, no matter what that type may be, stifles creativity. Expanding your workforce and creating a more diverse environment without gender discrimination allows for input from people with varied experiences. Having more women in tech jobs improves innovation and leads to better decision-making.

Diversity can also help improve customer engagement. Allowing women to have more influence in product design can ensure that the products are well-received by everyone, regardless of their gender.

2. Broader Skills and Perspectives

There is nothing to be gained in the workplace by excluding entire subsections of the population from the hiring process. Inviting different perspectives works to the benefit of everyone involved. 

Creativity flourishes in environments that embrace fresh sets of lived experiences and people from different backgrounds with their own unique skill sets. Allowing more women in tech jobs helps with brainstorming new concepts and leads to better problem-solving. 

3. Better Workplace Balance

When there is one gender as the majority in a workplace, gender bias can be allowed to grow unchecked. Women have a unique view on technology-related topics and are strong players in the tech industry workforce.

Aside from providing a perspective on tech-related subjects, having women in tech jobs also may improve the work-life balance of a company. A 2022 study found that women are more likely to lead their teams through work-life challenges and offer emotional support than their male counterparts. 

Knowing how to devote time to family and hobbies leaves employees able to put more effort and energy into the job. Satisfied employees are also more likely to stay with a company, reducing the amount of workplace turnover and improving morale. 

4. Increased Representation

Representation and diversity can have a domino effect. One woman hired into a job can inspire other women to apply and can encourage other minority groups to apply as well. 

The best way to ensure this happens is to not only hire women in tech but promote them to leadership positions. It has been proven that women-owned companies and those with female executives hire two and a half times more women than companies with only men in the top-paying positions. 

The same study showed that when companies hire based on blind applications, women are much more likely to be given the position. This is strong evidence that if women were encouraged to apply for technology positions at the same rate as men and employers truly hired fairly, there would be equal representation for men and women in tech jobs. 

5. Closing the Gender Pay Gap

According to Hired’s State of Wage Inequality, women in the tech industry are offered an average of 2.5% less than men for positions requiring the same level of experience and knowledge. 

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is currently working on legal avenues to narrow the pay gap. The Commission upholds the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by reviewing litigation in which it was determined employers were inflicting unfair wage practices on female employees. While legal action can correct past transgressions, the most effective way to handle it is for companies to hire and pay women fairly.

Taking this kind of action is also a sound financial move for any company because diversity pays, and it helps the economy. Gender bias in hiring keeps women economically disengaged, refusing them the opportunity to contribute directly to the economy. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, closing the gender pay gap could add up to $12 trillion to the global GDP over the next few years. Having more women in tech jobs being paid equally would contribute to closing the gender pay gap. 

6. Better Talent Retention

Talent retention can be a big problem for companies. Women are 1.6x more likely to be laid off than men. An interesting women in tech statistic from the WomenTech Network shows that 69.2% of tech employees laid off in 2022 were women. The same group reports that 22% of women in tech jobs have considered leaving their jobs, while other industries report only 12% in the same category.  

Women are sometimes being let go too easily and may also find it more difficult to advance into senior positions than their male peers, meaning that a lot of valuable skills and talent are lost to the workforce. 

A recent analysis of data collected by O*Net, OES, and Moody’s shows that women have everything it takes to excel in the tech field. Unfortunately, they may be dissuaded from pursuing their dream careers by the lack of representation and an assumption that tech offers only male-dominated environments. 

Next, let’s take a look at some fascinating women in tech statistics. 

Insightful Women in Tech Jobs Statistics

• According to the Women in Tech Network, five major companies dominate the tech sector: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. Between those five companies, women make up only 34.4% of the workforce. 
• Women feel discouraged from tech jobs before they’ve even entered the workforce. A PWC report stated only 27% of women that are high school/university age said they would consider a career in tech, compared to 62% of men. 
• Data as recent as 2022 shows that across all technology jobs, women hold 26.7% of jobs. While this trends upward from year to year, from 2020 to 2021 there was a notable 2.1% decrease. 
• Women in Tech also reports that women are less common in tech the more advanced the position is. Junior positions have the highest number of women. There is a decrease in mid-tier jobs and a further decrease in women at the senior level. 
• In terms of education in the technology field, women only hold 16% of all Bachelor’s degrees in computer and information sciences and only 21% of engineering and engineering technology degrees. 
• According to a Harvard Business Review study, promoting women in the tech industry promotes women everywhere. Companies run by women have a much smaller pay gap than companies run by men.
• Top Companies for Women Technologists shows that among the 52 companies they surveyed, 51% more women were hired in 2022 than the year previously. 
• The same survey from Top Companies for Women Technologists shows that 15.9% of women were promoted while only 13.6% of men were, meaning women were promoted at a higher rate than men in 2022. 
• Zippia reports that the tech fields women are least represented in are computer science and engineering. Women are only 25% of computer science employees and only 15% of engineering employees. 

Expand Your Workforce With Benchmark IT

Benchmark IT can help guide you through the process of updating your hiring tactics to be more inclusive of women at every level of employment. We offer technology consulting and recruiting services, including contract and direct hire staffing and executive search. 

Benchmark IT has been associated with Fortune-ranked businesses since 2007, and we are ready to help you promote having more women in tech jobs with competent and diverse candidates.

SIDEBAR:

Join the Benchmark IT Women in Tech Meetup Group!

Join our network of fellow women tech professionals. 

WITS: Women in Tech (Stamford) meets throughout the year to discuss hot or emerging technology topics. Meetings are either virtual or in-person, at a downtown Stamford, CT, location. Whether you’re currently working in tech or interested in pursuing a technology career, WITS provides topics and networking opportunities for all.