Despite almost half of employers (48 per cent) admitting they find it difficult to recruit for technology roles, there is reluctance to adapt current policies to encourage gender equality, with three quarters (75 per cent) of employers admitting they have no plans to do so, according to Monster.co.uk.
Some 59 per cent of UK employees report there are more men than women in technical and digital jobs within their organisation and just 35 per cent believe men and women are equally represented in these roles.
The research highlights that many still feel the UK is a long way from achieving gender parity in the office, 39 per cent believe women still have to work harder for a promotion or recognition and over two fifths (47 per cent) of females say they have either experienced themselves or witnessed gender inequality in the workplace.
Transparency on equal pay for women
In order to address these inequalities, the top five things UK employees think need to be implemented are transparency on equal pay for women and men (55 per cent), offering paternity and family leave to both men and women (43 per cent), greater flexibility on working hours and working from home (40 per cent), more encouragement for women to study STEM subjects (32 per cent), and more training for managers and staff on best equality practice (31 per cent).
More than half of UK employees (54 per cent) agreed having stronger technology skills would help them find a better job and one in four (24 per cent) rate learning basic coding skills as important, yet only 15 per cent take an IT or tech course at school or university.
The majority of UK employees (84 per cent) express an interest in having comprehensive training across coding, computer language and digital skills.
Sinead Bunting, European director of consumer marketing says, ‘With a looming digital skills gap that is critical for our economy’s growth, we need to do all we can to encourage and support organisations in bringing on board more female talent, and todays research highlights there is still a way to go until females have equal representation within the technology sector.’
Further reading on women and technology
