Report: Increasing number of women and girls interested in tech careers

Technology is one of the leading sectors in job creation, with parents increasingly encouraging daughters to enter careers in the sector, according to a new study.

Recruitment firm Reed produced a survey of more than 500 UK parents of girls aged between five and 18 years old and more than half felt that it was likely that their daughter would have a career in technology. It also found daughters had expressed a keen interest both at home and in education.

Three-quarters of parents believe that technology is a good career for their daughters, but only 4% think that the field is too male-dominated.

According to ONS, the number of women working in tech has risen by 44% each year, with 150,000 women being recruited over the last three years. Currently, there are half a million women working in the UK tech space.

IT courses have also seen a record number of women applicants according to UCAS, increasing by 82% over the last 10 years.

UCAS reported that computer science courses attracted 25,020 women applicants in 2021, compared to 117,295 male applicants. This equals to just 17% being female applicants, so there is still work to be done.

Reed has recently renovated its ‘Women in Technology Mentoring Programme’ on the mentoring and coaching platform Guider. The programme pairs mentors and mentees based on desired skills and experience with the aim of helping women in tech.

It says that three-quarters of those who have already taken part in the programme were over 18 years of age before considering a career in the sector, and 80% never thought that they would be working in tech.

This could be because 72% said that they had no technology role models growing up, which parallels the 65% of parents in the survey saying that role models representative of their children would encourage their daughters to focus on a career in tech.