Women in tech ‘shouted at, spoken over in meetings and paid less’

Women in tech have spoken of being shouted at during meetings being subject to sexist abuse at work.

Women earn 12% less per hour than men and are four times more likely to have part-time roles, according to BCS, The Chartered Institute of IT.

Meanwhile, black women make up only 0.6% of the workforce.

Sue Black OBE, 63, a professor of computer science and technology evangelist at Durham University, told Metro that when she set up London BCSWomen, a networking and support group for women in IT in 1998, the percentage of women working in tech was ‘about the same as it is now’ – just 22 %.

She said: ‘It’s depressing that the percentage hasn’t improved, I really thought by now that it would have done.

‘The attitude towards the issue has changed however. In 1998 it was seen as quite a niche area to be interested in, a common phrase I heard back then was “if women wanted to be in tech they would be”.

‘I don’t hear that these days. The issue is talked about often and accepted by the industry as something that needs to be sorted out.

‘We still live in a society that in general, unfortunately, doesn’t encourage girls into technology careers.

‘Stereotypes still abound, and these are picked up from a really young age by girls and boys alike.

‘I don’t think it is just technology, there are also issues in physics for example and other careers which have been male-dominated for some time. Change usually, unfortunately, can take a long time.’

Women in IT, like in many other industries, also face sexism and bullying in an industry which is predominantly made up of men.

When Sue was a student, one of her lecturers, who was married, asked her out. She politely declined.

But years later when she was doing a PhD he ‘actively tried to screw me over’.

And this isn’t the only example of sexism Sue has faced.

‘In a board meeting many years ago I asked if we could have some data disaggregated by gender,’ she said.

‘The chair screamed abuse at me which I can’t repeat as it’s too offensive.

‘I was just trying to help solve the issue we were discussing at the board in that meeting.

‘A couple of years later they started disaggregating the data by gender. 

‘I’ve counselled, coached and supported hundreds, maybe thousands of women over the years who have been subject to misogyny and bullying in the workplace.’

Jo Stansfield, 47, founder of Inclusioneering, an diversity-focused engineering consultancy, said she experienced a ‘light bulb moment’ after returning from maternity leave as an industrial software engineer.

When she went on maternity leave, Jo said her boss told her she could work part-time – but when she returned, she was told this wasn’t allowed.

Jo was also informed that she wouldn’t be given a permanent desk because she wasn’t in the office every day, which made it hard to ‘reintegrate’ into the team.

She told Metro that the tech industry has a ‘systemic problem’ in which ‘women’s work isn’t valued’ and they are ‘spoken over during meetings’.

Jo recalled how she later found out that colleagues would deliberately schedule team meetings on her days off to ‘avoid my input’.

She said this felt like she had to take ‘extra steps to be treated the same’, adding: ‘My eyes were opened to a systemic problem in the sector and that this wasn’t personal [which is why] I’m now focused on inclusion.’

Sharron Gunn, chief executive of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said it will take women almost 300 hundred years to reach equal gender representation.

‘Accelerating the numbers of women in tech roles is both a challenge and an opportunity for every organisation building Britain’s digital future.

‘We cannot create high-trust, high-integrity AI systems if the profession behind them is missing out on the talents and perspective of half the population.

‘Diversity is not a cosy add-on but a prerequisite for safe, fair and innovative technology, especially in AI.’

Allison Gardner MP, chair of the AI APPG, said in the foreword to the report that ‘we have a long way to go before women are equally represented in tech’.

She said: ‘Just one in five IT specialists are women, a figure that has barely shifted in a decade.

‘We cannot talk about the future of AI without also talking about who builds it.

‘Diversity is not a “nice to have”; it’s a competitive advantage.’

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