Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

8 charts that show the impact of race and gender on technology careers

image of a woman working at a computer

More steps need to be taken to achieve workplace diversity in the tech industry. Image: Unsplash/Christina @ wocintechchat.com

Natalie Marchant
Writer, Forum Agenda
  • 57% of women working in tech have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace, compared to just 10% of men, according to career website Dice.
  • Black respondents were more likely to have experienced racial discrimination in the tech sector compared to any other group.
  • Gender and race were also shown to affect respondents’ experience of burnout in the workplace.
  • Workplace diversity has been shown to improve everything from innovation to profitability.

Much work has been done to close gaps in gender and race equality in the tech industry, but a new report indicates there’s still more needed.

Careers website Dice’s Equality In Tech report asked more than 9,000 technologists about their overall career satisfaction and concluded more must be done to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

Have you read?

Here’s how gender and race impacted those working in the tech industry.

Gender discrimination in the workplace

a chart showing the percentage of women and men experiencing gender discrimination in the workplace
These statistics show that women experience gender discrimination significantly more than men in the workplace. Image: The Equality in Tech Report/Dice

When asked if they had experienced gender discrimination in the tech industry, 57% of women respondents said they had, compared to only 10% of men.

Nearly half (48%) of women also reported seeing discrimination in terms of their technical abilities – double that of men.

Racial discrimination in the workplace

a graph showing the number of people experiencing racial or gender discrimination in the workplace
Racial and gender discrimination is an ongoing issue in workplaces. Image: The Equality in Tech Report/Dice

Dice also asked about experiencing racial discrimination in the tech sector and found Black respondents were most likely to have seen it than all other groups, at 48%.

This was followed by Hispanic/Latino(a) respondents at 30%, Asian/Pacific Islanders at 25%, Asian Indian respondents at 23% and White respondents at 9%.

Gender pay gap

Statistics showing which percentage of women and men negotiated their salary
Women are less likely to negotiate their salary at a new job than men. Image: The Equality in Tech Report/Dice

The Equality in Tech report also found that more women (35%) were dissatisfied with their current compensation compared to their male colleagues (29%).

However, women were also less likely to have actively negotiated their salary at their most recent new job – with 44% of women saying they had compared to 49% of men.

Racial pay gap

a graph showing how satisfied people of different races are with their current compensation at work
These statistics show that compensation satisfaction varies across different races. Image: The Equality in Tech Report/Dice

Pay inequality has been a long-running issue in the tech industry and it is still impacting how employees from various backgrounds feel about their salary.

While six in 10 White respondents said they were satisfied with their salary, just half of Black technologists felt similarly, along with 49% of both Hispanic/Latino(a) and Asian/Pacific Islander respondents and 45% of Asian Indian participants.

Satisfaction with career by gender

a chart showing the level of career satisfaction according to gender
These statistics show that women are less satisfied with their career in the tech industry than men. Image: The Equality in Tech Report/Dice

Women in the tech industry were also found to be less satisfied with their overall career than their male peers – with a total of 63% saying they were very or somewhat satisfied, compared to 68% of men.

Satisfaction with career by ethnicity

a graph showing the level of career satisfaction according to race
This graph shows that race affects career satisfaction in the tech industry. Image: The Equality in Tech Report/Dice

White employees working in the tech industry were found to be significantly more satisfied with their careers (at 69%) compared to their Hispanic/Latino(a) (66%), Black (61%), Asian/Pacific Islander (61%) and Asian Indian (58%) colleagues.

Burnout experience by gender

a chart showing how burned out people feel in the tech industry according to gender
Women and men experience a similar level of burn-out in the tech industry. Image: The Equality in Tech Report/Dice

Women technologists (32%) were more likely to report higher levels of burnout than men (30%), with workload and hours worked the biggest contributory factor for both. However, women were more likely to suffer due to overall COVID-19 stress – with 20% reporting pandemic stress opposed to 15% of men.

Burnout experience by ethnicity

a chart showing how burned out people feel in the tech industry according to race
This is the relationship between burn-out and race in the tech industry. Image: The Equality in Tech Report/Dice

About a third of all those in the tech industry feel burned out, regardless of ethnicity. Those with a Hispanic/Latino(a) or Asian Indian background reported the highest levels of burnout at 33%, followed by White (31%), Asian/Pacific Islander (30%) and then Black (25%). Hispanic/Latino(a) technologists reported significantly higher pandemic stress, at 23%, than peers.

Making the tech industry more inclusive

While acknowledging efforts by the tech industry to improve gender and racial diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace, Dice concludes more needs to be done.

In terms of gender, the report emphasizes the importance of allyship to the success of organizational schemes focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, adding that allies with privilege and power – regardless of level – can help women advocate for their needs.

When it comes to racial equality, the report says managers need to do all they can to build an inclusive and supportive culture – including advocating for new hiring and retention policies – to build and support a diverse workplace culture.

Discover

What's the World Economic Forum doing about diversity, equity and inclusion?

Equality in jobs of tomorrow

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 warns that there are significant challenges for the future of gender parity in emerging jobs in this new world of work. For example, female representation remains under 25% in roles such as artificial intelligence specialist, cloud engineer and DevOps manager.

Measures such as making a longer shortlist when recruiting, using skills-based assessments and making work-life balance a priority can help address this imbalance and improve diversity in the workplace.

The World Economic Forum has also published a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 4.0 toolkit for employers, with research suggesting that well-managed diverse teams significantly outperform homogenous ones – on everything from innovation to profitability and employee engagement.

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