Gender Gap in Tech Industries Exposed by Study: MBA News

An inherent gender gap means tech industries around the world are “facing a crisis in talent management”, according to research group, Catalyst.

In a new international study of almost 6,000 MBA graduates, women were found to be less likely to enter a technology industry; those that do are more likely to start at a lower level, be paid less, feel like an outsider in their working environments and are more likely to leave these industries thereafter. 

Tech industries are defined as including high technology, telecoms, energy and manufacturing in Catalyst’s gender gap analysis, which compiles the results of four surveys of MBA graduates working in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia, and dating from 2007 to 2014.

The timeframe serves as a measure of just how much growth has been seen in these tech industries since the turn of the century, and how much is yet to come.

Growth in jobs may exacerbate tech industries’ shortcomings

A 2011 US Department of Commerce report which projects a much larger scale of job growth in tech industries than elsewhere before 2018 is cited to underline why a gender gap in this area will become increasingly more significant.

It also illustrates why employer demand for managers with technical expertise is likely to rise during this time – the study found that although three-quarters of those surveyed came to MBA programs from technical backgrounds, only 36% took their first MBA jobs in a technology industry and just 14% switched from non-technical backgrounds to management roles in tech industries post-MBA.

Below are some of the other main findings of Catalyst’s study.

MBA jobs in a technology industry – the female experience

• Female MBA graduates showed less desire to enter a technology industry in their first MBA jobs – 18% of women compared to 24% of men.

• Women are much more likely to join a technology industry firm at an entry-level business role in their first MBA jobs – 55% of women compared to 39% of men. This contributes to the gender gap in terms of pay.

• Female MBA graduates who do enter a technology industry are more likely to leave these industries thereafter – 53% compared to 31% of men. One in five women cited a personal reason (such as a need for a better work-life balance) as opposed to pursuing a better opportunity in explaining their decision to leave.  

• A continuing predominance of men in tech industries seems to be reinforcing a lack of belonging among women who do join tech industries. Only 27% of female MBA graduates said they felt similar to most of their work colleagues, whereas in other industries this number is almost twice as high, at 49%.

• Women taking MBA jobs in a technology industry are less ambitious than their male counterparts in their overtly stated goals – 84% of female graduates aspired to c-suite positions, as opposed to 97% of men.

‘Call to action’ for those hiring MBA graduates

The study is designed to strike fear into the hearts of any technology industry employers who believe they already pay due attention to matters of gender equality in their MBA recruiting – it calls the findings a ‘call to action’ and lays out employer recommendations.

However, it isn’t just about a lingering gender gap – another finding, that more than 50% of both men and women who join these industries only to leave further down the line are being lured away by better opportunities elsewhere, highlights the overriding problem of what is referred to as a “leaky pipeline”.

Fortune concentrated on tech industries’ failure to attract and retain female talent in light of their anticipated growth in the near future, quoting the study author’s belief that their poor reputation for gender diversity was well deserved. 

The Guardian, meanwhile, picked up on the gender gap in ambition in a week when one of the few female CEOs of a FTSE 100 firm, Royal Mail’s Moya Greene, had voiced this precise concern: “To be a CEO it’s really hard work and you really have to want to do it. For women, even in 2014, that can be a problem,” she said.