The persistent gender gap in the technology sector remains a critical concern, despite ongoing efforts to foster greater inclusivity. This was a central theme at the recent Tech Show London, where a distinguished panel of women working in technology shared their experiences, highlighted significant challenges, and proposed actionable steps to achieve true gender parity within the industry. The discussions underscored the multifaceted nature of the issue, encompassing the gender pay gap, underrepresentation in technical roles, societal biases, and the critical need for more visible role models and systemic change.

The Persistent Pay Gap: A Call for Equal Compensation

Callie Cromer, Director at Women In Tech, opened the discussion by emphasizing the enduring disparity in earnings between men and women in the tech field. "We’re about 17.5% still that women are underpaid in comparison to men," Cromer stated emphatically. "I’m going to keep banging that drum until we get that equal." This stark figure is not an isolated observation but is supported by recent research that sheds light on the financial motivations for women returning to technology careers after a break.

A comprehensive study by Akamai, which surveyed 500 women who had re-entered the tech industry post-career hiatus, revealed that the primary driver for their return was a higher salary. A significant 52% of respondents cited increased compensation as their main reason, outpacing work-life balance (43%) and improved career progression opportunities (43%) by a notable margin. This data strongly suggests that financial equity is a crucial, and perhaps underestimated, factor in attracting and retaining female talent in the tech sector. The implications are clear: addressing the pay gap is not merely an issue of fairness but a strategic imperative for companies seeking to bolster their female workforce, particularly at senior levels.

Cromer further elaborated on the perception of diversity initiatives within organizations. She stressed that programs aimed at supporting women in tech should not be viewed as mere token gestures or "tick box exercises." "It matters and it means so much," she asserted. "You’ll be surprised at the amount of organizations who are still seeing that as just a tick box. But we will change it." This sentiment reflects a growing impatience with superficial efforts and a demand for genuine, embedded change that recognizes the intrinsic value women bring to tech teams and the broader organizational landscape.

Navigating Technical Roles: From Passion to Progression

The journey of women into and within technical roles in the tech industry is often marked by societal expectations and unconscious biases. Ellie Rahimi, a Senior Software Engineer at Trainline, shared her early fascination with technology, stemming from a childhood spent playing video games. Her curiosity about the underlying mechanics of these digital worlds led her to explore programming languages, a passion ignited during a high school football simulation competition. "I was always wondering how these games are built," Rahimi recalled. "I was in high school and I joined some competition for football simulation, where I learned my first programming language. And that was a time for me that I could picture myself that I wanted to be a person to build things with programming language."

Rahimi’s academic path, encompassing physics and artificial intelligence (AI), provided a strong foundation for her career, which began in game development before transitioning to back-end engineering. However, even with a robust technical background, she encountered situations where she was subtly steered towards management or management-adjacent roles, or her skills were primarily acknowledged in the context of product management rather than core engineering. "In those instances, if I wasn’t confident enough in the job that I want to have in my future, I might not be sitting here as a senior software engineer," she admitted. "I might not be the perfect software engineer, but that’s normal, no-one is perfect." This highlights the pervasive challenge of assumptions about women’s career aspirations and aptitudes within traditionally male-dominated technical fields.

The lack of visible role models was another significant point raised by Rahimi. While acknowledging the presence of many accomplished women in tech, she observed that their visibility often falls short of what is needed. "The enabler is on us to step up to be more visible, not only for ourselves as individuals, but also to help other women in tech to have some role model to see what is your path so they can learn from that," she urged. This call for proactive self-promotion and peer support underscores the power of representation in inspiring future generations of women in STEM.

The Impact of Isolation and Unconscious Bias

Kasia Dutch, a Software Engineer at Starling Bank, echoed the sentiment of isolation and the ongoing impact of unconscious bias. Her own entry into tech was facilitated by a boot camp designed to diversify the industry. However, even within this inclusive initiative, she found herself as the sole woman in a cohort of thirteen, a statistic that mirrors broader industry demographics. "I was still the only woman there in a cohort of 13 people, which pretty much exactly mirrors the statistics around the gender balance in the industry," Dutch stated. "So that was really disheartening. I’ve gotten this opportunity and I still don’t really see people that I can admire and aim to be like. I had to create that community for myself, essentially, and find those people. But even once I’m in the industry now, the alienation doesn’t end because there’s still so much unconscious bias."

This feeling of being an outlier, even within supportive environments, can have a profound effect on confidence and career trajectory. The persistent presence of unconscious bias in the workplace further exacerbates these challenges, creating an environment where women may feel less valued or understood.

Addressing Conscious Bias: The "Baby Bias" and Career Progression

Beyond unconscious biases, conscious biases, particularly those surrounding family and childbearing, remain a significant hurdle for women in tech. Dutch shared an experience where a recruiter, in discussing benefits, pointedly mentioned maternity pay as something she would "love." "I’ve had recruiters say, by the way, we have comprehensive benefits. One of them is, ‘Really great maternity pay, I’m sure you’ll love that, I’m sure you’re really interested in that’," she recounted. More recently, male colleagues have made assumptions about her impending absence from work due to her age and gender, a phenomenon Dutch described as "so, so presumptuous." These judgments, she warned, can directly impact career progression as assumptions are made about her intentions and commitment.

Emily Hall-Strutt, Director at Next Tech Girls, a non-profit organization focused on encouraging girls into technology, shared a similar anecdote from a tech awards ceremony. While discussing children with a male colleague who also had a young child, she was asked, "Who’s looking after your baby while you’re here?" Hall-Strutt reflected on the implicit bias in the question, noting that it would likely not have been posed to a man in the same situation. "I just thought, why did you ask me that? If I were a man, would you have asked me that? There’s too many assumptions, and there’s not enough understanding of different decisions and different lifestyles and how they impact people differently." This experience underscores the need for a more nuanced understanding of work-life integration and the diverse paths individuals take in their careers.

Early Exposure: Cultivating Interest from a Young Age

The issue of representation extends to the very genesis of interest in technology. Dutch, whose academic background was in humanities (Russian and Chinese), only discovered her aptitude for tech after a series of redundancies during the pandemic led her to a graduate scheme boot camp. She lamented the lack of early exposure to technology as a viable career path during her schooling. "It wasn’t something that was really advertised to me at school. It wasn’t something that I’d considered as someone who was more humanities focused," she explained. "It was seeing the opportunity, being able to try my hand at coding, and realise that there are lots of things that appeal to me about it. But if I hadn’t seen that, I wouldn’t have any idea. So really, it’s about exposure. In order to be influenced, you need to be exposed to something."

This critical point about exposure resonates with the founding story of Women in Tech itself. Callie Cromer recounted an incident where a female student, while giving a school tour, bypassed the IT and computer department. When questioned by Cromer’s director and his daughter about why they weren’t visiting that section, the student’s dismissive reply was, "That’s just for boys." This ingrained perception, even among young students, served as a powerful catalyst for Cromer and her co-director, Emily Irwin, to establish Women in Tech. "It was at that moment that myself and Emily [Irwin], the other Women in Tech director, thought we have to do better, this has to change. And that was really what started Women in Tech for us," Cromer stated. The narrative powerfully illustrates how deeply ingrained gender stereotypes can deter girls from even considering technology-related fields from an early age.

Redefining Leadership and Fostering Inclusivity

Beyond early education and mid-career challenges, the path to leadership in tech also presents significant obstacles for women. Kasia Dutch argued for a redefinition of leadership within the technology sector, moving away from a singular focus on tenure and extensive technical experience. She advocated for greater recognition of individuals transitioning into tech from non-traditional backgrounds who bring valuable human skills honed in previous careers. "Just with the mind that people are moving into the industry as it expands from non-technical backgrounds, non-traditional backgrounds and therefore they bring with them experiences from other careers and they may have built those human skills along the way," Dutch explained. "Actually focusing on the people that do the work rather than the primary focus being on the business outcomes. If you focus on the people that do the work, those business outcomes will come as a result in any case." This perspective suggests that a more holistic approach to leadership, valuing diverse skill sets and experiences, could unlock greater potential for women to ascend to senior positions.

The Vision for the Future: Normalizing Women in Tech

Looking ahead, Emily Hall-Strutt expressed a clear aspiration for the future: to see a time when discussions about women in tech are no longer necessary because their presence and contributions are fully normalized. Her ideal scenario involves seeing more female-dominated or all-female panels discussing their technical expertise, rather than focusing on their gender. "In the same way as we constantly see all male or mostly male panels doing that, it would be really nice if we weren’t talking about being women anymore, because being a woman in tech is just a normal thing," she articulated.

This sentiment encapsulates the ultimate goal of gender equity in technology: a state where individual talent and contribution are paramount, unhindered by gender-based assumptions or biases. The article concludes with a call to action, suggesting that consumers and attendees can actively drive this change by "voting with their feet" and choosing to support events and companies that prioritize diverse representation, thereby sending a clear message to organizers and businesses about the demand for inclusive practices. The implication is that empty seats at all-male panels will serve as a powerful, undeniable indicator of the need for change.