Ahead of the Women in IT UK Summit, I spoke to Information Age in my capacity as Vice Chair of the UK Cyber Security Council about promoting diversity in tech. You can read the article here.
In the interview I touched on the issue of what’s called ‘occupational feminisation’ – that is, how professions become less well-rewarded and prestigious over time as they attract more women. The reverse has happened in tech – an industry which used to be dominated by women, but now suffers from a significant deficit in female representation and a gender pay gap to match. If you weren’t familiar with this phenomenon, this New York Times article is a good explainer.
TL;DR: if we want to fix the gender pay gap in UK tech, we need to tackle the unconscious bias which leads employers to devalue work carried out by women.
Jessica Figueras 