Women in tech ‘unequally impacted’ by the cost of living crisis and Covid

Despite efforts of businesses to improve gender equality in the workplace, women are still unequally impacted by Covid and the cost of living crisis, new research suggests.

An International Women’s Day survey has found that the pandemic and current economic conditions have acted as major barriers towards women succeeding in technology-related careers.

According to fresh data obtained by London Tech Week, this year over half (52 per cent) of respondents believed women missed out on work opportunities, were forced to scale down work and take time off to care for children as well as undertaking more household chores during the pandemic and economically challenging times.

The findings, which highlighted a lack of funding for women in tech, have shown that 42 per cent of respondents believed it was more difficult for women to secure a pay rise in tech, with 38 per cent saying it was more difficult for women to achieve senior leadership or board positions.

The cost of living crisis and the long-term impact of the pandemic on women in the workplace have also had a significant impact.

Almost half of participants believed that women were more likely than men to have been denied access to financial support from governments and a further 43 per cent perceived women as shouldering most of the burden of childcare or care of other dependants in their households whilst juggling work responsibilities.

However, the survey has found that having a greater amount of women-focused business events and awards is perceived as one of the most powerful initiatives which has helped women-led start-ups get better access funding over the last 24 months, followed by more women in tech being championed in the press.

According to respondents, a skills shortage is believed to be the biggest obstacle to women entering the tech sector, along with limited access to STEM and the cost of living crisis.

Laura Stebbing, CEO at EQL:HER at London Tech Week’s conference said: “Despite the efforts of many businesses and organisations towards gender parity in the tech sector, there is still lots more to be done.

“Women for example are far behind men when it comes to investment in women led start-ups. Gender disparity needs to be addressed from a systemic level.

“Supporting women at just one level is not going to solve the problems. We need to be looking at early-stage solutions including better investment in STEM, high profile women in tech being visible to young people and better access to skills programmes.

“Society shapes stereotypes and creates biases that we need to address well before women even enter the workforce.”

Tessa Clarke, London Tech Week ambassador and founder of the sharing app Olio, said “If there’s one industry that should be leading in terms of gender parity, it’s the tech industry.

“That’s because the tech industry has the tools to enable flexible and autonomous working, it has the dynamism and relative youth to make change more easily, and it naturally attracts the visionaries and disruptors who don’t tend to be happy with the status quo.

“It’s therefore incredibly disappointing to see this data which shows that the industry has not yet seized the gender parity opportunity.”

She added: “I very much hope that this International Women’s Day the tech industry will resolve to make proper strides in gender parity, so we won’t be lamenting the same lack of progress next year.”