A new global survey of women working in technology by IT software specialist Ivanti has found that 63 percent of women feel gender bias continues to damage their professional opportunities and undermine their work environments.
Having suggestions dismissed, being constantly interrupted in meetings and being overlooked for promotion in favour of male counterparts were among the daily challenges faced by the 500 respondents to the survey, published Monday.
The survey came as gender pay gap figures revealed earlier this year showed, as reported by Computer Business Review, that Facebook’s bonuses for female staff were 41.5 percent lower than men’s, while Apple were 57 percent lower.
Mind the Pay Gap
Some 75 percent of respondents to the Ivanti survey agreed that the best change that organisations and the wider technology industry could make to encourage more women into technology would be to pay women the same as their male counterparts.
As Sheila Flavel, COO at FDM Group, told Computer Business Review earlier this year: “Tackling the gender pay gap in the traditionally male-dominated technology industry requires a concerted effort at every level of the organization, to recruit and retain female talent in the workforce.”
“To remedy this problem, companies need to introduce improved flexible working policies and provide dedicated programmes to recruit returners and work with employees across the company to change for the better, reducing the gap and creating a more vibrant workforce. Closing the gender pay gap shouldn’t be a tick box exercise, it should be about creating a more diverse and productive workforce that ensures everyone is treated fairly – we want to create a country that works for everyone.”
Encouragingly, over half of those surveyed have noticed that there are more women working in technology now than there were five years ago.
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Sarah Lewis, Director of Field Marketing & UK Women in Tech Ambassador at Ivanti, said in a release shared Monday, “While it is incredible to see that there are so many more women working in the technology industry than ever before, the report highlights what we have been told anecdotally for years: more needs to be done in order to encourage gender diversity in technology. Women need to be taken seriously and be paid the same as their male counterparts in order to ensure the continued growth and diversity of the tech sector.”
