Women in IT Scorecard

A definitive up-to-date evidence base for data and commentary on women in IT employment and education

Published: March 2009
Type: Scorecard
Area: Private Sector

Summary 

Technology is central to the success of the UK economy and is becoming even more important the current economic situation. It is important to understand the trends in employment, education and any issues that could impact the future of the industry especially in such turbulent times.

British Computer Society (BCS), e-skills UK and Intellect., with support from Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), have worked in partnership to produce a ‘Women in IT scorecard’ to understand and demonstrate the trends in our industry by gender from secondary education through into the IT workforce. The purpose of this document is to provide a robust evidence base for the facts behind the trends, to demonstrate differences in the participation rates between the genders and to present an analysis of these trends and the current situation to inform policy debate and future action by the partners and their communities.

The concern
While females represent 45% of the UK working population, they only make up 21% of the IT Industry workforce.  For a profession that a few years ago was beginning to edge towards a  ‘critical mass’ of 30% women - reaching 23% - we now find an alarming situation. In 2008 the make-up of the profession has changed:

• Males outnumber females in the IT industry by nearly 4:1.
• In the IT workforce, the number of males has fallen by 23,000 while the number of females has fallen by 63,000 since 2001.
• In IT occupations the number of males has increased by 77,000 while the number of females has fallen by 28,000 since 2001.
• Females account for around one in every five IT professionals.
• In Higher Education females account for 25% of all lecturers and 12% of professors in Computer Science / IT related subjects.
• In 2008 there were 17,455 male and just 1,581 female chartered IT professionals – 8% female.

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Women in IT Scorecard (PDF 1MB).

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