Here’s what you need to know
PwC has joined forces with 18 major organisations to take action to increase the number of females taking up technology roles in the UK. The launch of the ‘Tech She Can Charter’ sees the industry commit to work together to reach more young females across the UK to inspire them to pursue technology careers.
The Tech She Can Charter has been founded to tackle the factors behind the shortfall of women in technology roles. Currently only 23 per cent of people working in STEM jobs are female. PwC’s research Women in Tech: Time to Close the Gender Gap reveals that only just over a quarter (27%) of females say they would consider a career in technology, compared to 62 per cent of males. And only 3 per cent of females say it is their first choice of career. The reasons why female students aren’t considering technology roles include: because no one is putting it forward as an option to them, they aren’t given enough information at school about what working in technology involves, and a lack of female role models.
Without coordinated action at school age onwards to create a sustainable pipeline of diverse tech talent, the Tech She Can signatories believe the UK could lose its competitive edge on the world stage. This could mean not being able to meet businesses’ technology skills needs, losing out on inward investment and creating inherently biased algorithms.
The founding signatories include PwC, British Science Association, Business 3.0, Digital Jam, everywoman, FDisruptors, Girlguiding, InnovateHer, JP Morgan, Modern Muse, money.co.uk, NatWest Markets, Sophos, Smoothwall, TechGirls, Tech Talent Charter, Tesco, T Systems, and Zoopla Property Group. More organisations are expected to join.
Sheridan Ash, Women in Tech leader at PwC and The Tech She Can Charter founder, said:
“Waiting until women are entering work is simply too late – to boost the number of females in technology we need to take coordinated action to start inspiring girls to consider technology careers while they are still at school.”
“By working together we can reach more females at an earlier stage of their lives. We need to work harder to raise awareness about the exciting range of technology roles out there, in a sector that has the power to change the world. Promoting visible and relatable role models is a huge part of this, as it’s hard for girls to aspire to be something they can’t see. There are many brilliant women working in technology roles right across the UK, from creatives and designers, to coders and data scientists. Technology is open to all and we need to get that message across.”
“We welcome other organisations to sign up to our Charter and take action to solve this important problem.”
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