Time For Change
At Hyve, the growth of a diverse, gender-balanced tech community is fundamental to our ethos. With a significant skills gap in the IT industry, Hyve aims to address this with a recruitment drive to bring more women into tech.
Diverse teams are more productive, bringing different perspectives to the table and making fellow employees challenge their thinking. Age-old stereotypes about the industry do not reflect the fast-paced, progressive nature of technology today – so, we believe it is time for change.
Keeping the Balance
As the tech industry continues to grow, maintaining gender balance is fundamental. Whilst opportunities for women in tech are gradually improving, there is still a long way to go for businesses to achieve gender equality in the workplace.
Statistics show that only 7% of students taking computer science A-level courses are female, and only half of the girls that study IT & Tech subjects at school actually end up pursuing a job in the same field. This leads to a low percentage of women in such a booming industry – a trend Hyve wants to put an end to.
Lucie Sadler, Head of Content at Hyve commented, “The number of women working in technology is significantly lower than most other UK work sectors. Just 17% of those working in Technology in the UK are female. The industry can benefit massively from investing in the development of female techs and women in leadership positions. We want to encourage women to get involved in the IT industry, and for this reason, we have launched a recruitment drive to bring more women into tech roles.”
With a workforce made up of 25% female workers, Hyve is already ahead of the industry average. We hope to be a leading player in dissolving stereotypes and creating a more equal gender balance in the industry.
Women in War
Women haven’t always been underrepresented in the field of technology, though. As the largest trained technical workforce, women played a crucial role in the computing industry from the second world war up until the 1960s – where they began to be sidelined.
Although female workers were highly skilled computer programmers, this is not how those in positions of power viewed them – instead, they were seen as a low-skilled, cheap labour force. By the 1970s, the sheer power and potential of computers had been discovered, and they began to be used at management level, meaning women were no longer trusted with the technology.
The tech industry of today could look very different if women had continued to be a major force in computing, but now the future of women in IT relies on a proactive change in recruitment and inclusive treatment from employers.
Women at Hyve
We asked some of the women working at Hyve to share their experiences, advice and opinions on how to break into the tech industry and what it is like working in IT.
Hyve’s Social Media Manager, Katie Robertson, says “Having a career in tech is so rewarding and I think more women should pursue it. There are so many workshops and classes in Brighton and the rest of the UK to learn more about specific fields in the industry – whether that be cloud hosting, coding or anything tech-related.”
Research by PWC shows that only 27% of female students say that they would consider a career in technology, compared to 61% of males, and only 3% say it would be their first choice.
Lucie Sadler, Content Manager at Hyve Managed Hosting feels that “more women and underrepresented people should work in the technology industry to make it more diverse.” She adds, “At Hyve we are lucky to have a great team of women but we want to have a more diverse tech team to see what skills they can bring to the table. It would be interesting to see how people approach work challenges and problems in different ways.”
Hyve is proud to provide job opportunities and further training to encourage diversity in the tech industry. It is important to remember the invisible female workforce that upheld the computing industry for more than 40 years, and with Hyve’s recent recruitment drive, we aim to restore the balance for women in tech.
If you are interested in learning to code, check out codebar, Code First: Girls, and Women Who Code.
Do you want to work in the tech industry? We want to hear from you! Take a look at our current vacancies here.
