Tech’s worst-kept secret: it’s bad news for women

Tech companies have failed to welcome women, inspire them to join in the first place, or done enough to convince them to stick around.

David Swan. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Throughout my career reporting on the tech industry, women have been drastically under-represented. From the board room to the ground floor, men greatly outnumber women and, despite years of increasing platitudes and action plans, nothing has changed. Australian tech is still a boys’ club, the meetups are still filled with pizza and beer, and it’s a space in which women by and large don’t feel welcome.

The latest numbers from the Australian Computer Society show that women account for roughly 12 per cent of engineering roles in Australia, a number that has remained flat for a decade. This is an issue that hasn’t got any better, despite it having the attention and best intentions of many in the sector.

Important groups have popped up championing the cause of women in tech — Girl Geek Academy is aiming to teach one million women coding skills by 2025. The government has announced in this year’s budget $35.9m over five years for a Boosting Female Founders initiative, including a STEM entrepreneurship program.

It’s tech’s worst-kept secret — that the industry simply hasn’t done enough to welcome women, and has neither inspired them to join in the first place, or done enough to convince them to stick around.

COVID-19 has been many things, and it might be the opportunity to finally shift the needle on an issue that should’ve become a non-issue a long time ago.

The shift to remote work prompted by widespread lockdowns will allow tech companies to hit reset on their company and culture, and be more deliberate about what they expect from their workers.

As the economy moves to a hybrid model of home and office work, executives will be forced to consider more thoughtfully what they want their offices to be. In a world in which knowledge work can be done from home, the office will, out of necessity, need to be a welcoming and attractive proposition for its workers. This should include an emphasis on collaborative spaces, on comfort and hi-tech amenities, and small but welcome perks. Office culture will also change, to be more inclusionary and to allow for more collaboration across teams and disciplines.

In the new era of remote work, technology workers will have more say over which company they want to work for, given the work can be done from anywhere.

That will empower women and men alike to be more fussy about working for companies that match their way of working and their values, and force companies to raise the bar and become destinations of choice. That includes making themselves places that women will want to work.

Remote and flexible work will also encourage more mothers to take on careers in tech, given they’ll be able to better balance their demanding careers with parenting from home, which of course can be equally if not more demanding. Businesses across the board have struggled previously to cater for working mums but that becomes a much easier proposition with remote work, which will also allow for more flexibility over when the work itself is done.

I might want to look after my child for much of the day, for example, and get my work done at night. If there’s no need for me to come into the physical office anymore, working in that way becomes much more achievable, and culturally acceptable.

This should be treated as one of the most pressing issues facing our business community, because it is. It’s about building the future. Australia’s future billion-dollar companies aren’t going to be mining companies, they’re going to be tech companies. And if they’re to build tech that is going to successfully meet the needs of Australians, and users worldwide, women need to be at the coalface. Women need to be the builders, and we have to create the conditions that allow that to be possible.

Women are not just capable of building Australia’s tech industry — just look at Canva — they’re essential to it. If we can encourage our girls to be the architects of our future, by detoxifying our workplaces and giving women a reason to want to work in tech, we will help fortify not only their future, but our own.