U.S. finds women persistently underrepresented in tech
Women make up less than a quarter of high-skill tech workers, according to a new U.S. report. The reasons for this low number, which hasn't changed much since 2005, are unclear.
Despite efforts to improve diversity in high-tech industries, the percentage of women in tech has remained nearly the same for a generation, according to a new study by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Women currently occupy 22.6% of the technical roles -- science, tech, engineering and math (STEM) jobs such as engineers and programmers -- within the tech industry. They represented 22.4% of this workforce in 2014, the beginning of the study's time frame. But the EEOC said the numbers have not changed in two decades.
The big picture is that "women are still less than a quarter of high-tech workers," said Charlotte Burrows, chair of the EEOC, at a briefing Wednesday, "despite being almost half of the U.S. workforce -- a percentage that has barely budged since 2005."
The underrepresentation in high tech, which also affects Black and Hispanic workers, has ramifications well beyond the data. The high-tech sector is making AI systems that can automate employment, credit, housing and healthcare decisions.
The EEOC has warned employers to be careful that AI systems don't discriminate in hiring. Burrows said the lack of diversity in the tech workforce could affect how these systems treat various demographics. She said the developers "may not see the whole picture," which could result in biased outcomes.
The report, "High Tech, Low Inclusion: Diversity in the High Tech Workforce and Sector 2014-2022," doesn't answer the question of why the needle isn't moving for women, Black and Hispanic workers in tech.
Women are still less than a quarter of high-tech workers, despite being almost half of the U.S. workforce.
Charlotte BurrowsChair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
"We started with the question about 'why,' and that is always the most important question," Burrows said, but she added that the EEOC needs more research to answer it.
There are multiple women-in-tech organizations that advocate for increased diversity, and big tech companies have acknowledged, over the years, the need to improve representation not only of women, but of Black and Hispanic workers.
Nonetheless, some theories on the persistently low diversity data were offered at the Wednesday briefing, including sexual harassment of women in STEM fields. Burrows cited a 2018 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report that found sexual harassment in academia was resulting in "a costly loss of talent in these academic fields."
In a reaction to the report, Jeanne Achille, CEO of PR and marketing firm The Devon Group and chair of the Women in HR Technology summit, said, "What seems to be consistently missing is the lack of change to the tech category's culture -- it's not one of inclusion and belonging, which is why even if women do enter tech jobs, many of them decide to exit for a more welcoming environment elsewhere."
H-1B connection is seen
The EEOC report also saw the impact of foreign workers, namely those working on temporary H-1B visas, as potentially affecting diversity in tech, but failed to clarify to what extent. The report cited the limited job mobility of visa holders, which creates problems with career advancement.
H-1B visa workers also might be reluctant to file a discrimination claim. "Are you going to file a charge when your employment is tied to that visa and that employer?" said Mark Leach, director of the EEOC data analytics division.
Burrows said Black workers continue to make little ground as a percentage of the overall high-tech workforce, at 7.4%, even though they represent about 12% of the U.S. workforce. Hispanic workers are similarly underrepresented, at nearly 10% of the high-tech workforce, although they make up nearly 19% of the U.S. workforce.
Citing legal reasons, the report doesn't identify specific tech companies, according to the EEOC. Nonetheless, there's more analysis it can do, one expert said.
"What I would have liked to see the EEOC do is make even better use of their data," said Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, a sociology professor who heads the Center for Employment Equity at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "By looking at firms over time, the EEOC could identify employers that made real progress as well as those that are becoming less diverse."
Patrick Thibodeau is an editor at large for TechTarget Editorial who covers HCM and ERP technologies. He's worked for more than two decades as an enterprise IT reporter.
